In 1981 defensive lineman Lawrence Taylor arrives on the NFL scene, changing the face of football forever by terrorizing quarterbacks with his size, agility, and vicious determination. To counter his prowess, teams begin to look for added strength in their offensive lines. The shift in playing strategy trickles down to the college level, making player recruiting a national pastime. The compelling focus of this football story is Michael Oher, a 15 year-old boy rescued from the Memphis ghetto by a white family who adopts, educates and guides him to a spot on a well-respected Division I football team. The author tells this amazing story through observations and interviews. Unfortunately the book ends with some threads of the story left hanging, making you wonder if perhaps there could be a sequel. ( )

Review by Jeremy Taylor
It’s fair to say that vast majority of casual football fans enjoy watching games without having more than a very general idea of the strategy that lies behind each play. For most spectators, if the quarterback completes a pass, he’s doing a good job; if he throws an interception, he’s not. If the defense gets a sack, they’re awesome. If they give up a touchdown, they’re struggling. We’re happy when our team does well, annoyed when they play poorly, and clueless when it comes to knowing about actual football strategy. That’s what the commentators are for.

In The Blind Side, author Michael Lewis gives readers some excellent tools to use in elevating their level of knowledge about—and appreciation for—the finer points of the game. Specifically, Lewis takes readers through the history of the left tackle position. If this sounds like less-than-thrilling subject matter for a nearly 300-page book, you’re in for a surprise.

This is a nonfiction book, but in many places it reads like a novel, primarily because Lewis follows the story of a football player named Michael Oher from his impoverished childhood, through his improbable adoption by a wealthy Memphis family, his surprising high-school football career, and his enrollment on a football scholarship at the University of Mississippi. Oher is a real person, and in telling his as-yet-uncompleted story, Lewis tells the history of the position Oher plays.

The left tackle has become one of the highest-paid positions in professional football, and in a sport where the stars are paid millions per year, that’s saying something. Many readers, even those who consider themselves knowledgeable football fans, may be surprised to learn that the seemingly inauspicious offensive-line position is considered one of the most important on the field. The reason, according to Lewis, is that the left tackle protects the quarterback’s “blind side.”

The development of the left-tackle position is a fascinating history in itself for those who enjoy reading about football and perhaps remembering some of the notable events the book touches on, but the real story of The Blind Side is the inspirational and touching tale of Michael Oher, the kid from the slums who became a football sensation.

Lewis utilizes an interesting strategy in writing what is essentially a biography of a football player who is not even out of college yet, a tactic that is particularly effective in portraying the ever-evolving nature of football strategy. Readers will come away feeling like they know a little bit about the life of Michael Oher but quite a bit about the position he plays.

Lewis’s casual writing style is easy to read but can be confusing at times. His wry perspectives on Southern Christianity may annoy some readers, but for the most part he remains an unobtrusive and unbiased narrator. There is some foul language, as may be expected in a nonfiction book whose real-life characters utilize casual profanity in regular speech, but overall there is little truly objectionable content.

For football fans interested in a wider perspective on the game as well as readers interested in a real-life rags-to-(presumably)-riches story, The Blind Side will entertain and educate. ( )

A book club pick. A very interesting social culture book that examines poor v rich and looks at the south all in the name of winning high school/college football. It's amazing this is a true story.

The entire book club found this book engrossing. ( )

A good book to read if you're interested in stories behind football, and a very good book to read if you've been a teacher. There are two stories in this book -- one on the statistics of football, one on the life of a young man essentially raised by wolves but catapulted into another life by his rare physical gifts, gifts which played into the statistical storyline. The statistics side of this book is nowhere near as strong as Lewis's treatment of the same for baseball -- partly because the baseball story is just more developed, partly because the protagonist's story is so bizarre and touching and vivid it will simply hijack any subplot in its presence.

3 stars because not as strong as Moneyball, but 4 stars for the right reader. ( )

I'm not too interested in football but I read (with my ears) The Blind Side: Evolution of the Game (2006) by Michael Lewis because it sounded like an intriguing story and I'd liked Lewis' earlier sports book Moneyball. The Blind Side deals with a change that occurred in the NFL with the emergence of the New York Giants' linebacker Lawrence Taylor. Taylor was able to change the game because he was a huge man but also fast, agile, and athletic. As a result he was able to put fear in the hearts of NFL quarterbacks by being able to come at them fast and furious from the right, their blind side. Lewis details LT's effect in a second-by-second retelling of the four-second play that ended Washington QB Joe Thiesman's careeer (which you can see in all its gory on YouTube). As a result, NFL teams had to find big, agile men to play Left Tackle to defend against the rushing Lawrence Taylors of the game. The importance of a good protection for the QB has resulted in Left Tackles being among the most highly paid players in the game.

After this prologue, the narrative switches to the story of Michael Oher, a left tackle at Ole Miss expected to be one of the top choices in next year's NFL draft. Oher is a big, athletic young man and a talented football player, but his life story as told by Lewis is far more intriguing. Oher never even played organized football until he was 16 and that was at the unlikely location of a private Christian school in Memphis. Escaping poverty in this wealthy, mostly-white school, Oher wins the hearts of a coach Sean Tuohy and his wife Leigh Ann who take Oher into their home and eventually adopt him. Oher's struggles to improve academically after a lifetime of almost no formal education are the most inspiring parts of the book, especially a section where Sean and Michael work out the poem "Charge of the Light Brigade."

Despite the title, this book actually has little to do with football, but it is a story of hope and generosity and what can happen when an impoverished boy receives some loving nurturing. When amateur drafts are discussed in the sports media, they can be dehumanizing, treating the players as commodities. Thanks to Michael Lewis, we can know the story of one of those very real human beings who happen to play the sport of football.

A portion of the story may also be read in the New York Times article "The Ballad of Big Mike." There are also plans afoot to adapt the book into a movie. ( )