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The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game Hardcover – September 2, 2006

by Michael Lewis (Author)

1,162 ratings

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By the author of the bestselling Moneyball: in football, as in life, the value we place on people changes with the rules of the games they play.

The young man at the center of this extraordinary and moving story will one day be among the most highly paid athletes in the National Football League. When we first meet him, he is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or any of the things a child might learn in school such as, say, how to read or write. Nor has he ever touched a football.

What changes? He takes up football, and school, after a rich, Evangelical, Republican family plucks him from the mean streets. Their love is the first great force that alters the world's perception of the boy, whom they adopt. The second force is the evolution of professional football itself into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist turns out to be the priceless combination of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability: his blind side.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

September 2, 2006
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
ISBN-10

039306123X
ISBN-13

978-0393061239
Lexile measure

980L
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. As he did so memorably for baseball in Moneyball, Lewis takes a statistical X-ray of the hidden substructure of football, outlining the invisible doings of unsung players that determine the outcome more than the showy exploits of point scorers. In his sketch of the gridiron arms race, first came the modern, meticulously choreographed passing offense, then the ferocious defensive pass rusher whose bone-crunching quarterback sacks demolished the best-laid passing game, and finally the rise of the left tackle—the offensive lineman tasked with protecting the quarterback from the pass rusher—whose presence is felt only through the game-deciding absence of said sacks. A rare creature combining 300 pounds of bulk with "the body control of a ballerina," the anonymous left tackle, Lewis notes, is now often a team's highest-paid player. Lewis fleshes this out with the colorful saga of left tackle prodigy Michael Oher. An intermittently homeless Memphis ghetto kid taken in by a rich white family and a Christian high school, Oher's preternatural size and agility soon has every college coach in the country courting him obsequiously. Combining a tour de force of sports analysis with a piquant ethnography of the South's pigskin mania, Lewis probes the fascinating question of whether football is a matter of brute force or subtle intellect. Photos. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

As in Moneyball (**** July/Aug 2003), which chronicled the strategies behind the Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, Berkeley-based author Michael Lewis takes a personal look at a complicated game in his newest nonfiction extravaganza. Just as they embraced Moneyball, critics eagerly wrap their arms around The Blind Side. It's much more than a treatise on football; it's an exploration of the limits of conventional thinking and how strategic changes affect the value of quick-footed behemoths. However, while most reviewers are positive, something holds them back. Maybe Lewis makes it all look too easy. Or perhaps, as The New York Times charges, he takes the easy route through a complicated set of stories. That he makes it easy for his reader to comprehendand enjoyis enough for most critics to give Lewis's latest a rousing cheer.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The titular "blind side" is a right-handed NFL quarterback's left side. The defensive linemen rushing the quarterback from that side often arrive undetected and thus can inflict great damage on the opponent's key offensive player as he sets himself to pass. The key to minimizing quarterback damage is an effective offensive left tackle. Lewis, most recognizable as the author of the best-selling Moneyball (2003)--about the growing reliance on statistical analysis in baseball--describes the NFL's ever-growing obsession with left tackles as a means to counter defenders who seem to grow bigger, stronger, and more vicious each season. He juxtaposes that narrative with the unlikely story of Michael Oher, who was living on the streets of Memphis when he was 15 years old. He also happened to be six-feet-five-inches tall, weigh 350 pounds, and possess definite athletic talent. Almost through sheer serendipity, he is adopted by a wealthy family whose members make it their mission to see that he has an opportunity to benefit from his amazing physical gifts. The book works on three levels. First as a shrewd analysis of the NFL; second, as an expose of the insanity of big-time college football recruiting; and, third, as a moving portrait of the positive effect that love, family, and education can have in reversing the path of a life that was destined to be lived unhappily and, most likely, end badly. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Its dialogue is sharp and its anecdotes well chosen."
― Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"As close to perfect as a work of popular nonfiction can be."
― Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times Book Review

"I read Lewis for the same reasons I watch Tiger Woods. I’ll never play like that. But it’s good to be reminded every now and again what genius looks like."
― Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Michael Lewis is the best-selling author of Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short, The Undoing Project, and The Fifth Risk. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and three children.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (September 2, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 039306123X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393061239
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 980L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.28 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #529,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #982 in Football (Books)
- #2,451 in Black & African American Biographies
- #3,145 in Sports Biographies (Books)

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Top reviews from the United States

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This was a pretty good book for someone who hates football

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2017

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This was a pretty good book for someone who hates football. I was intrigued by the evolution of the game in the 70's and 80's as we were huge 49er fans then. I had to google Michael Oher as his story ends in 2006 when he gets into Ole Miss. I wanted to know what became of him. Sadly he is now exhibiting signs of CTE after only 7 years in the NFL. It's why I can no longer bear to watch football. I can't help but wonder what his relationship with his benefactors has become, but I could find nothing about that. Michael Lewis is an excellent writer. He has taken a complex history and woven into it a fascinating account of human kindness.

10 people found this helpful

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Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2016

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As a young adult and student-athlete, this book resonates with me in so many levels. The author’s purpose is to not to tell a simple story about how a kid went from nothing to something because there are many stories out there like that. He was trying to influence people that we all have something in us that can make change and we are capable of so much more than we think. The intended audience is everyone, but I mostly think it is to young adults, especially the marginalized. It is easy to relate to mainly everyone because no matter what age, we all face things that seem to be impossible in the moment, but once we come out of it, we realize we are something far greater than ourselves. It relates to my personal life because I overlook the fact that I am fortunate enough to have a gym at my house and I have the resources to get better, while others don’t. It motivates me on my school work because Michael was always in and out of school, and I am so blessed that I can go to a school everyday where the teachers want what is best for me. In the media, we, as a society, try to shy away from stuff like this because we don’t like seeing the bad side. I think it is important for us to see this because then that is the only way change will happen. I would really recommend this book to young adults of any age because there are lessons in the book that could inspire many at a young age. The author has achieved his goal of using two situations in the NFL and in Michael Oher’s case in order to show that it is possible to succeed, even when it sounds so unobtainable. He uses two stories and parallels them to show that success can come from both ends of the spectrum. I wish that he could have made the NFL part of the story easier to understand. I am a pretty big football fan, so I could understand most of the terms, but for young adult readers or people not interested in football, it could be harder for them to connect with the book. Though it can be hard, the author makes it a bit easier to understand by adding in the definition of plays. The book is very useful because it motivated me to change something about myself and society. Be prepared to grab some tissues during the middle of the book and ending because you’ll become very moved by many of the things that happen. It is easily accessible to parents, students, and teachers through Amazon or a local bookstore. The two most interesting quotes that will stick with me are: “Don’t worry where I am. I’ll tell you when I get there” and “Courage is a hard thing to figure. You can have courage based on a dumb idea or mistake, but you're not supposed to question adults, or your coach or your teacher, because they make the rules. Maybe they know best, but maybe they don't. It all depends on who you are, where you come from. Didn't at least one of the six hundred guys think about giving up, and joining with the other side? I mean, valley of death that's pretty salty stuff. That's why courage it's tricky. Should you always do what others tell you to do? Sometimes you might not even know why you're doing something. I mean any fool can have courage. But honor, that's the real reason for you either do something or you don't. It's who you are and maybe who you want to be. If you die trying for something important, then you have both honor and courage, and that's pretty good. I think that's what the writer was saying, that you should hope for courage and try for honor. And maybe even pray that the people telling you what to do have some, too.” They stick with me because as an athlete it is important to not only listen to other’s stories, but use them to motivate myself. Hard work and the courage to try new things are two key things that I have learned to use in my everyday life if I want to be successful. Overall, this book is a story that I recommend to any and all people because of the learning experiences the author will bring you along.

13 people found this helpful

Better than the movie

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2013

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Here's what I like about Michael Lewis - he is able to seamlessly interweave compelling personal stories within a larger context. Before reading this book I'd seen the movie, so I thought I knew what I was in store for: a feel good story about a down and out kid with an extraordinary talent who also happens to find a family in an unexpected place.

And of course this book has all of that - minus a lot of the emotional elements that the film focused on. But what made this book great was that it explained to me (a football idiot) what it was about this boy that made him so sought-after in the football world, and how the evolution of the game of football to it's current incarnation had created a niche into which he was perfectly designed to fit.

What I thought would be a moving story of one man's triumph in overcoming unbelievable adversity became even more than that. The writing was concise, clear, and at times humorous. The big-picture concepts and the technical details of the mechanics of the game were seamlessly interwoven with the personal story to create an incredibly detailed and rich overall mosaic.

9 people found this helpful

A remarkable story of sport and life

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2007

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This is the most unusual sports book. Michael Lewis, the author of books like Moneyball, has written two stories, intertwined with each other to illustrate his point about how football has radically changed since the rise of what is known as the "West Coast Offense" and its secondary reaction, the rise of fast, large defensive players, and the final reaction, the rise of particularly the Left Tackle position, now the second highest paid position in the NFL.

Lewis begins by telling the story of Bill Walsh and the rise of the West Coast offense in the NFL in the early 80's, and how it was almost rejected out of hand by the powers that be. The success of the San Francisco 49er's and it's role in changing the financial resources of the sport from a TV football viewing audience, led to the need for fast defensive lineman, like Lawrence Taylor, which led in turn to the development of the left tackle position, which is now the second highest paid position in the League, due to a demand for specific physical skills which are almost impossible to find for that role.

Then Lewis telescopes to a most remarkable story: the young, troubled life of Michael Oher, from Memphis, TN. Lewis does show how the colleges have developed NFL tendencies, and how the demand for information about specific talent has been met by people like Tom Lemming and his ground breaking recruiting services of the past 30 years. Oher is a most unlikely story. He was given up by his family, the state welfare agencies, schools, foster agencies, etc., until one day, an older friend took him to an evangelical school in a wealthy, mostly white, suburb of Memphis in hopes of giving him a Christian education.

Oher has no academic skills and has been beat down by life so much, he has no social skills, and does not fit in at all with the other students, until one day, out of kindness and mercy, he is given the opportunity to try out for the school's football team, where runs one drill and stuns the team. Soon at practice, the school field is lined with representatives of nearly major college football in the southeast, and the first drill is interrupted by Clemson assistant Brad Scott telling the staff, in Oher's presence on the field, that Oher has a full scholarship waiting for him at Clemson. Oher is eventually adopted by the Tuohy family, a millionaire family, well connected in sports and business, and the culture clash, between a wealthy, devout family and a social reclusive, poor, giant of a kid takes up the remainder of the book, until Oher eventually enrolls at the Tuohy's alma mater, Mississippi.

Lewis's story is satisfying from many perspectives. He goes deep into the modern cultural and financial behemoth of American football to show why it is working the way it is today. He illustrates well, the lingering tensions in America today between white and black, poor and wealthy, urban and suburb, family breakdown, and college admissions. This reviewer, a graduate of a southern Christian high school, sees where Lewis gets right many things about that movement: a deep sense of piety, a dedicated work ethic, and at many times an oblivious nature to how the rest of the world works, and an inability to deal with many problems endemic to modern children in a deep way: poverty, family breakdown, etc. Though Lewis does get right the sense of mercy that exists among many, motivated by their faith, to help someone in need, whether they understand the costs or not.

Lewis, unfortunately, does not reveal his longstanding personal relationship with the Tuohy family, going back to their undergraduate years until the end of the book. It would have been helpful for a journalist to reveal that early on. And, Lewis is a bit too sympathetic in explaining a fight Oher got into over a personal insult in his freshman year at Ole Miss, that led to a small child being hurt accidentally.

The Blind Side is a remarkable tale of sport, money, class, culture, family and how faith interacts with real individuals dealing with impossible situations.

4 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Very Amateur Golfer

Yet another example of the genius of Michael Lewis

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2018

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For the unfamiliar, Lewis is a genius in taking you through both the surface level story of what he is examining, and the subtle background message that you can tell was what attracted him to the subject in the first place.

Those who haven't read much of Lewis' previous work will assume this is a book about social justice and the power of kindness and on the surface that is what it is, however the underlying punch of this book is an economic study of supply and demand, how markets change and the sort of forces that make them change and most importantly, how this shift in market forces creates opportunities for those equipped to do so.

Its a great book because it doesn't matter if all you are looking for is a feel good story about a kid who when given the support he needed realised his potential. It doesn't matter if you are someone fascinated by American Football and its tactics and it doesn't matter if you are a student of economics, none of you will come away feeling short changed.

Bravo!

2 people found this helpful

A Welch

As thought provoking as Moneyball

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2019

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I really enjoyed this book. This author is largely responsible for 2018 being the year I fell in love with Baseball and American Football (still prefer rugby btw). Whilst I did find Michael Oher’s story inspiring the parts of the book which I most enjoyed were the sections on the history of the game and the evolution from a primarily rushing to passing offensive and the effect of this on how offensive linesman are valued. As a fan of economics and history I found this all fascinating and wish that the author would write similar books on other sports!

One person found this helpful

Mr. William Oxley

Michael Oher: Homeless to American Football Revelation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 27, 2010

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I have lived in America so I know the rules of American Football and it definitely helps to understand the context of the story. Essentially though, this is a fairy tale that could have been written by Walt Disney, where the main character is a big homeless black kid with no education to speak of, but this story is true.

This is a story about a kid who is found and taken under the wing of a middle class white family. He is a big kid with no real education, but they discover within him a big talent. His big talent is playing American Football. Michael Lewis is a great writer and he delivers a stunning book that brings the story of Michael Oher to life.

What is the blind side? In American Football the general on the field is a 6ft 15 stone man who throws the ball, the quarterback, and he usually earns $10-$20m a year. When the quarterback plays he has 10 other team mates on the field. Out of the 10, there are 5 who are there for the quarterback to use as options to give the ball to. The other 5 are there to protect the quarterback until he has passed the ball. If you pass the ball from your right arm, then your left side is essentially your backside, the blindside = it is from where somebody can tackle you before you see him. If you do not want your prize possession knocked out of the game then you better protect him with your biggest and best. Michael Oher is now that man, and as such you may have to pay him a lot of money $5-10m a year.

The book is a story about Michael Oher, and also why his position on the team commands the salary that it does. So you will not get 100% out of the book if you do not understand the basic explanation above about the blindside.

A truly remarkable story.

9 people found this helpful

Happy Feet

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2018

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This book is well-written. It made me want to watch more football. The wider picture about poverty and face in America is bleak- pointed out brilliantly in the book. I loved reading about Michael. Reminded me of an older version of some of the kids I used to teach.

One person found this helpful

Charlie Jackson

Slow start focusing on American football strategy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 6, 2021

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I couldn’t really get past the first part of the book which was solely explaining various elements of American football. Difficult to get going if you don’t understand the game.

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