The Blind Side (pub. 2006; rel. 2009)

The Blind Side is a beautiful, non-fiction book about the evolution of the position of left tackle in football and the biography of a young talent, Michael Oher.

The left tackle is the guy in the offensive line who protects the quarterback on the side that most right-handed quarterbacks are not facing, i.e. the blind side. In the early 1980s, this guy was being paid peanuts, the same as the other offensive lineman and maybe half the salary of the guy he lined up against who was determined to knock the quarterback down. Today, he's often the second highest paid player on the team after the quarterback. More than the running backs, more than the receivers (and more than some quarterbacks). 

And he never touches the football.

The explanation of how this happened and what skills are necessary to play the position are intermingled with the story of Michael Oher. Oher is a huge black kid from the poor projects of West Memphis who through a combination of luck and other people's charity, guilt, and greed, ended up at Briarcrest Christian School in white, rich East Memphis. He attracted a lot of attention and especially the attention of Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy. The Tuohys bought Michael clothes, then let him crash on their couch, and eventually legally adopted the boy. 

This family story is told with incredible warmth and emotion and not a little humor. There are lines of dialogue in the book that made me laugh out loud. At one point, the NCAA is investigating to make sure the Tuohys didn't simply adopt Michael so that they could send him to their alma mater's football program. The NCAA investigator asks questions about Michael's education and Sean Tuohy tells her he doesn't know (his wife and a tutor they hired were in charge of that stuff). This leads to this frustrated exchange:

NCAA: ... you don't know if he's supposed to take English or math or science. That's the part that still baffles me.

Sean: Ma'am, I hate that it baffles you. But all you asked me to be is truthful. You didn't ask me to be smart.

One great thing about the story is that in real life I would never get to know a family like the Tuohys: millionaire, white, Country Club Republicans obsessed with sports, but I got a lot of pleasure in getting to know them through the book.

Michael Lewis of Liar's Poker and other books, is a great writer with excellent comic and dramatic timing. Aside from the fact that the left tackle protects the quarterback, you don't need to know anything about football to enjoy this book. To put it one way: if you enjoyed Friday Night Lights (book, movie or tv show), you will love this book. To put it another way: I'm recommending this book to my wife and her book group. I couldn't put this book down.

What you'll get in the book that wasn't in the movie:
The history of the left tackle. You can skip these parts if you're more interested in the Tuohys but Lewis sketches the personalities of these men with such skill that you'll wish he had written more about some of these characters.

More than you care to know about the NCAA recruiting process. Not that it isn't interesting, but if you thought that college recruiting sounds a bit shady in the abstract, you'll have more details about it here.  


Videos and Links



Here's the publisher's "teaser" video for the book (not the movie):





This is a Vanity Fair video of Lewis talking about the book and movie. 





Michael Lewis talks to New York Magazine about his books being made into movies, including Liar's Poker ("dead") and Moneyball, here.




Update (4/4/11): I have since seen the movie and I can tell you that there are some significant changes, primarily in the parts of the film dealing with Oher's "former" life. Leigh Ann sticking up to toughs in the ghetto? Metaphorically, yes; physically, not recounted in the book. Also, the book explores Michael's relationships with many people, rather than focusing on Leigh Ann, as the movie does.

Bottom line:
If you liked the movie, you'll like the book. The movie is surprisingly faithful, taking some liberties to make things more exciting, but everything good about the movie is in the book, plus lots more. More football, yes, but also more emotion because  there are more of Michael's relationships with others.