Welcome to the first ever TOF book review. I know what you’re asking yourself, and the answer is: yes, we actually read books. So with football coming back into my life, I decided to pick up Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side. For those of you not familiar, Lewis is the author of Moneyball, which is a must-read for any sports fan. This time, Lewis turned his sights onto the evolution of football strategy and economics with the ongoing arms race of the quick and powerful blind side pass rusher and the behemoths placed at left tackle to stop them.
The book covers the history of that battle, specifically pointing out how much Lawrence Taylor changed the game forever, and how the rest of football changed to deal with pass rushers like him. This includes both the new prototype pass rusher in Taylor’s mold, and the placement of that threat on the QB’s blind side so he can take them by surprise. And conversely, the growth of the specialized left tackle from just another lineman to a valuable skill position that could only be played by someone with both immense size and incredible quickness. Lewis also details the invention of the West Coast Offense by Bill Walsh, which arose out of the new need to get rid of the football quickly. And he covers how this arms race led to the Bill Parcells and Bill Walsh coaching trees that have accounted for half the league since the 80s.
But a majority of the book is the biography of Michael Oher, a 6′6″, 350 lb. street kid who is rescued from the projects by a rich white family and brought to a private school. After struggling to adjust to his school after having almost zero education in his young life, Oher slowly adjusts to his new life and begins to excel at football, quickly becoming a top college recruit at left tackle after dazzling scouts with athletic feats so unheard of that it’s hard to believe that any human being is capable of the things he did. The kid’s story could easily be a cheesy tear-jerker (there is a movie version about to come out that apparently only keys in on the sappiest parts of this story), but instead it’s an interesting look on just how much impoverished people in our society get ignored even if they have millions of dollars worth of athletic talent in them. I’m not going to spoil the ending, though some of you might have already heard what happened to Michael Oher, and those of you who haven’t could easily if you google him to find out. But either way, I would highly recommend you pick up the book both for the compelling story of this young man’s strange journey and for the break-down of the evolution of NFL strategy and economics.
Final Grade: A-
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