When I was an young adolescent, I was a cheerleader. (This is difficult to admit publicly, but there it is). At the football games, when I faced the audience and performed, I felt on top of the world. When I turned around and was forced to watch the game, I was bored out of my mind.

Once, as we girls were cheering "O-F-F-E-N-S-E: Offense, Offense, Go Team!" a dad of one of the players threw an empty soda can at us and shouted, "You idiots! We're on DEFENSE!"

I remember looking around at the other girls, knowing that just about every last one of them was a straight A student. . . and thinking: you're the idiot. We're just bored.

Despite being a cheerleader for 3 years, having a football obsessed father and then marrying a football obsessed man, I'm still totally and completely bored by the game. If I'm obligated to watch football, live or televised, I hold a book off to the side, so I may politely ignore everything else that's happening.

(Knowing this about me, you can now know just how much you can trust my recommendation here).

This is a book about football, and not just a little. But, it's about football in the way that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about cellular biology. It's a book about people, with a big, juicy human interest component that pulls you in and tackles you (Score!). It's a damn good story, which is obviously why someone else read it and said, "Hey, let's make a movie out of this!"

I almost gave this five stars. I know. It's so weird.

Michael Oher grew up in the third poorest zip code in the United States, a village that was a “portrait of social dysfunction” (302). He lived with thirteen brothers and sisters all born under the same unemployed, alcoholic, substance-abusing mother, until the children were forcibly separated into foster homes. On many occasions, Michael fled from foster homes to reunite with his mother, often rendering him homeless in his search. From the extreme poverty of Memphis’ slums, the novel’s protagonist is plucked off the streets by an affluent, white, family, Thuohy’s, and placed into a posh, foreign environment. It is here Michael’s unique, athletic abilities are revealed to college programs around the nation and allowed to flourish. He is six-five, 340 pounds, and lightning quick on his feet, filling all of the criteria for one of football’s most coveted positions: left tackle.
The book discusses two major story lines. The first is Michael Oher’s transformation from a poor, underprivileged, black child to one of the nation’s best high school football recruits. The second is the evolution of football that created a need for a better player to defend the quarterback’s greatest weakness, his blind side. Keep in mind I am not a football player, but the author of this book, Michael Lewis, writes with such a fervor when describing sports that it made football beautiful, and like that of a perfect science. In addition, Lewis uses direct quotes from interviews first-hand recounts to illustrating the events in Oher’s life in ways that placed me, figuratively, in these literal scenarios. As I read through this book, I had become so in tune with the characters that I could sense their emotions without blunt statements.
I was compelled to read this book after seeing the movie twice in theaters, once with my family and once with my friends. I recommend not only to football fans, but all sports fans for its love and emotion of athletics. It is a feel good story that, though not as Hollywood as the movie let on, it is still packed with surprising action and intense drama.

This book tried to combine two narratives, one of which I actually enjoyed- Michael Oher's journey from rags to riches was intriguing, and I was impatient to get to the next narrative chapter during the sections solely about the interpersonal history of college football, which Lewis sort of springs on the reader just when they get to a good bit about Michael. The characters and their interactions were captivating, especially the dynamic between Leigh Anne and Michael that blossomed over the course of the story. Overall, I really wish this book was more about the evolution of a man than of a game, because the two separate tales told side by side weren't necessarily complementary. In fact, one virtually sucked the life out of the other.

A little light on the human side of the story and heavy on the football- which I found a bit difficult to follow! It was still a powerful story, but I definitely preferred the movie.
In other news, this is my 85th book of the year which means I hit my goal for 2020. I had estimated a little lower than last year, thinking we'd be busy with travelling and I wouldn't read much with Noah to entertain... but then COVID came along and I had a surprising amount of time to tuck into a book. The new goal is 100 by the end of the year!

This book already has 765 ratings, what can I add? :>

Michael Lewis is probably my favorite living author.

About 1980, Tracey Kidder wrote "THE SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE".

A book about how a bunch of employees at a computer company
designed a new computer against restraints of time and money.

I think this was probably the first book that took an
inside look at organizations and how they work to produce
something "new".

Michael Lewis has glommed on to this genre and has written
a series of great books.

This one is about how pro football evolved after 1980
with the short passing game and the defensive pass rusher
who wants to literally break the bones of the other
sides quarterback.

I never liked football, and I have never watched a complete
game. 4 seconds of chaos and then a long period of nothing
IMHO makes for a boring show.

But Lewis educated himself in the changes taking place
and tells the story so well, it did become interesting for me.

Not enough to watch a game on TV though :>,
but I like the idea of smart people figuring out
new and better ways to do things.
The creative process.

Most of the book is about someone who will benefit
from these changes, Michael Oher, which is sometimes
an interesting story, but this book doesn't have
the sharp cutting wit and keen psychological insights
that Lewis' other books have.

The problem might be that he's a white southener
writing about the problems of a black kid growing
up in the south.

Or it might be his personal relationship with
Michael Oher's benefactor.

Who knows?
Anyway the result is that the book while very good,
isn't Lewis at his best.
Liar's poker, Moneyball, and the New new thing are better.

The Blindside took me by surprise. I was expecting a book documenting the life of Michael Oher, but instead I got a 300 page description of how football has changed-- with Oher's experience to enhance it.

Lewis uses the facts of Oher's life parallel with notable changes in the National Football League (NFL). Though these events did not occur simultaneously, Lewis connects them as if they were meant to go hand in hand. And in some ways, maybe they were.

For anybody who has seen the movie portrayal of the book and has an interest in football, I would deem this book a "must read". I got much more out of it than I did from the movie. You get a better sense of who these people really were. But, I would also say if you're not too interested in the dynamics of the game this book is likely going to prove boring and a disappointment.

Michael Oher is a black man who was raised in a poor neighbourhood. He was picked up on the side of the road by Leigh-Anne and Sean Tuohy who became his foster parents. They sent him to Briercrest school and helped him achieve the marks he needed to be able to play football. Michael was struggling with everyone not accepting him, but he cancels out everybody and works hard. With the help of the long lasting support from the Tuohy family, Michael got to play for the highschool football team. He had a great season and had lots of college coaches and scouts begging him to go play for them. He committed to Ole Miss because his foster dad is an alumna there and he wants to show his appreciation to him and continue on the tradition. Michael had another very successful season and ended up getting drafted in the first round of the NFL draft.


Have you ever wondered what it’s like to always be judged and not accepted into a society because of your race, size or your capabilities? In the story “The Blind Side” by Michael Lewis, Michael Oher experiences exactly that. Micahel Oher is a big, black man who is poor and not smart at all. On his first day at his new school, Briarcrest Christian school, nobody accepted him and the teachers thought there was no hope in him passing their classes and they wanted to just give up on him. Big Mike is a football player who was chasing his dreams, and to be eligible to play college football, he needed a gpa of 2.5 and right now he was sitting at a 0.6. Michael was a very skilled football player who played left tackle. Michael worked super hard every day in the classroom and on the field. He gets his grade up so he can play college, commits to Ole Miss, and ends up getting drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft by the Baltimore Ravens. This demonstrates why you should never give up on your goals and stay focused on them.It is important to recognize what Michael has done because it can inspire us to do whatever we want as long as we put our mind to it.

In the story “The Blind Side”, author Michael lewis made many valid points that actually pop up in our lives more than we notice. One thing would be when Michael didn’t feel welcome to his new school at first. Many of the kids didn't say anything to him, but it was how they looked at him or other actions they did to make fun of him. This relates to our lives because when we had the Truth and Reconciliation Day the younger girl told our school how she didn’t feel welcome because there were kids who were mocking her. Even though they didn’t say anything to her face, it still hurts. On the other hand, another example on how the author was right about some of the situations would be all the kindness and generosity he received from strangers later on in the story, and mainly from the Tuohy family throughout the whole book. There are lots of times in the real world where we see people take time out of their dad to make somebody else’s day better. Lastly, Michael’s hard work and dedication never went unnoticed and it really paid off in the end. In the real world, we see this often where people have to work their way up and don’t just get it handed to them; which is the reality of life. It is very accurate because anything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and have the determination to do so.

I picked this one up because I liked the movie so much and wanted to know more about Michael Oher’s story and also knew the book was highly acclaimed.

Lewis essentially takes two different, related topics, the life of Michael Oher and the evolution of football strategy, and combined them into one book. The football stuff was interesting for the most part, but as I’m not an NFL fan, those parts occasionally dragged for me. The telling of Oher’s story, however, really shone. There was also much food for thought in examination of life in inner city Memphis, where Michael grew up.

I didn't much care for the parts of this book which followed the evolution of NFL offensive linemen, but once it got to the story line involving Michael and his family I really enjoyed the book.

The football part of this book was tolerable, even good, and it made me appreciate the offensive line and football strategy from a different perspective. However, that’s wrapped up in an ambiguous story that seems to imply that rich white people adopting a kid from the inner city and guiding him into their alma mater is funny and charming.

Only someone who went to an exclusive boarding school in the South, as Lewis did, could tell Oher’s story this way, or at all. Worse, Lewis dwells on mundane tedium, like the mom, Leigh Anne, driving 90 mph for no good reason to get Michael a driver’s license, or Michael’s lack of understanding about what a foyer is.

This became boring after a while; no one’s teenage years are that interesting (trust me on this, teenagers). Many of these details are pointless, really, to the overall narrative, which confusingly does not follow a straightforward timeline and made it hard to follow. There are also long chapters on how the role of defensive linemen was changing pro football, but these could have been shorter and the guts more directly related to Oher himself.

Lewis goes to great lengths to detail Michael’s challenges in school, while playing up Oher’s physical attributes, in ways that took me back to the 1860s. Lewis tries to relate these things objectively, but as a result his real stance isn’t always clear. It’s difficult to tell if Lewis is seeing Oher through the eyes of his white subjects, or if Lewis himself is seeing Oher this way; quite possibly, it’s both. Indeed, Lewis relishes describing these details, and he dances with racist tropes to such a degree that I felt uncomfortable reading it, like I was watching a KKK cotillion.

Lewis concludes by saying that Oher would never have reached his full potential had not the Tuohys taken him in; Lewis is so unconscious of the tropes that he doesn’t realize how he reduces Oher to powerlessness in framing a person’s entire life this way. And, there’s the further assumption behind this, too, that Oher’s full potential depended on not only the Tuohys but football and access to private school, because his life in west Memphis was a certain dead end without sports, even (or maybe especially) at a public school.

Apparently, as is so often the case when it’s framed this way, it’s either pro sports or nothing for black inner-city kids; these were Michael’s options, according to Lewis. As Lewis observes of where Oher grew up: “Pity the kid inside Hurt Village who was born to play the piano, or manage people, or trade bonds.” In our social blind side, only the poor black kids with athletic talent get noticed. As examples of this, Lewis describes some of Oher’s peers, who just missed promising NFL careers or wound up dead because they didn’t have the guidance that the Tuohys provided Oher.

What does this leave us to conclude about black kids who were not so lucky as Oher? Lewis, while diving deep into football, doesn’t dive equally as deep into the social implications of this story. You know, maybe he could have gone into, I don’t know, how Southern states cherish the fact that they don’t require a state income tax, and so public schools like those in Memphis are chronically neglected and underfunded. The same is probably true for the state welfare and child service agencies that Lewis disparages. Maybe I am wrong on those facts, but Lewis doesn’t dig in here, and we are just to accept his uncritical view of reality as the common wisdom it is no doubt received as in the South, where Lewis himself grew up.

At the same time that rich Southerners like the Tuohys aren’t paying such taxes, their private schools can afford to have six assistant football coaches on the payroll and splurge on brand new helmets — in two colors, 120 green and 120 gold. The racial and economic inequities in Tennessee are palpable from reading this critically, but Lewis just accepts them as a natural part of life.

Instead, his prose consistently has the tone of, “Thank goodness these white people came along and gave Michael Oher a leg up!” We find later in an afterward that Lewis is old friends with Steve Tuohy, which breaks a journalistic rule and colors Lewis’s objectivity throughout. In other words, I got the sense that Lewis pulled his punches in order to spare his friend.

The class implications throughout the book are also evident, as the higher class Southerners go out of their way to distinguish themselves from the rednecks. Even Lewis himself can’t refrain from using eye dialect for the “coon-ass” coach from Louisiana. Unfortunately, Lewis is no Mark Twain, and he also lives in a different century and should therefore know better. Moreover, Lewis (unlike Twain) did go to private school, so you’d think he’d be more self-aware.

Lewis’s unconscious biases on class and race are made clear when he describes an investigator from the NCAA as “black, intelligent,” and (as if that wasn’t bad enough) twice — twice — mentions that she is private-school educated. How is this latter detail worth mentioning even once, let alone twice? Or the fact that she was childless?

An interesting parallel life, one that actually intersects with this story, involves Collins Tuohy, the daughter who is about Michael’s age and who married Cannon Smith. At the time of the story, they were dating at Ole Miss. Now, interestingly, Cannon apparently went to public school, Olive Branch High School, near Memphis on the Mississippi side. He also (according to his online bio), was one of 10 kids. Cannon also played college ball and tried to go pro.

The key difference, though, is that Cannon was born to the billionaire founder of FedEx. As a consequence, he had options that Michael Oher did not. He didn’t even need — gasp!— private schooling to get ahead in life. However, he did benefit from being white and born to a rich family, two things Michael Oher was not. The next best thing to being adopted by a rich white family like Oher is to actually be born into one like Smith.

In the end, Lewis identifies a little too much with his rich, white, subjects, and he delights in retelling Oher’s story a little too much from their perspective, not Oher’s own. Proof of this comes late in the book, where Lewis acknowledges that Oher called Lewis, not the other way around, regarding an interview. That’s an odd journalistic twist, but one that speaks volumes about Lewis’s mindset in writing and researching this, and it’s evident on every page. Oher is an object, subject to the narratives of others. He doesn’t even have power over his own story.

White people shaped, and in this book are again shaping, the story of Michael Oher’s body. Worse, in Lewis’s case he even made money off of that “freakish” body.

I loved this book! Love, love, loved it. Interest in football? Zero. Interest in the surge of importance of a single football position I maybe could point out on the field, but probably not? Nope. Interest in the motives and actions of a white Christian Republican uber-rich Memphis family? Not even. Interest in this book which contains all of the above? Incredible. I couldn't put it down. That is the mark of a very good non-fiction writer. Do you like football? Read this book. Do you not like football? Read this book.

While there were some touching and funny scenes in this book, as a whole I don't much care for "pat me on the back, I'm such a good person" books. Did the adoptive family like Michael for being Michael or because he was a freak of nature and a good football player? I couldn't make up my mind.

I knew this was a book about a football player, but there was way too much football for my liking.