Book Review: The Blind Side

Photo courtesy of DailyRadar.com.

I finished Michael Lewis' book The Blind Side a few weeks ago. What a great story with a lot of heart. The book alternates between the history of the left tackle position, the player that protects the quarterback's blind side, in the NFL and the story of Michael Oher, a kid growing up in the impoverished slums of west Memphis, taken in by the wealthy Tuohy family and given a chance to succeed in football as a left tackle.

The left tackle position was undervalued in the early days of the NFL until Lawrence Taylor, linebacker of the New York Giants, wrecked havoc on quarterbacks by attacking their blind side. The book begins with Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann suffering a severe injury at the hands of Taylor. Later on, San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh, the genius behind the "West Coast Offense", devised a plan to stop Taylor by putting his biggest blocker on the left side. Now that the passing game is even more crucial to teams than ever, the left tackle is often times the second highest-paid player on the team.

But it was the story of Michael Oher that was the highlight of the book. Michael was an African-American kid who had hardly ever slept on a bed, or known what having his own room was like. His mom was a drug addict, they lived in housing projects (appropriately named Hurt Village), he had to repeat first and second grade, and was what some would consider "damaged goods". After a family friend sent his son and Michael to a private, mostly white Christian school on the other side of town, the Tuohy family effectively adopts him and sets him on a path to success in both academics (his GPA went from a 0.9 to a 2.65) and sports. He was the school's starting left tackle and went on to earn a scholarship from Ole Miss, the same school that Mr. and Mrs. Tuohy attended. Michael currently plays in the NFL for the Baltimore Ravens as the rookie starting right tackle, though he may move back to left tackle after gaining experience at the pro level. The Ravens' offensive line, the group of players that Oher is a part of, is receiving early rave reviews for protecting quarterback Joe Flacco.

The book's main flaw was there were times reading the book where I wanted to get back to Michael Oher's story, rather than hear the nuances of the evolution of the left tackle. Oher's story is so gripping, you want to see more of it and the left tackle history can get a bit technical at times, losing casual readers.

To hear author Michael Lewis in an NPR interview for the book, go here. And, as with most books, a movie adaptation is on the way this November (video courtesy of A3FilmTrailers/Warner Bros.):

Here Come the Western Teams!

Photo courtesy of Howtowatchsports.com

As I previously discussed in this post, there is a perceived sense of East Coast bias in the sports media, specifically at ESPN. College sports, particularly football, can be susceptible to this claim. So it comes as a nice surprise that when the new AP top 25 college football poll was released, 5 of the top 20 teams are from states west of the Rockies. They are (rankings in parentheses):

USC (3), BYU (9), Cal (10), Boise State (12), Utah (17)

While USC is a traditional powerhouse, others like Boise State and BYU aren't. These schools are at a fundamental disadvantage compared even to the likes of USC or Cal because they are in a non-BCS conference.

The BCS is the Bowl Championship Series. It's the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange and National Title bowl games that help determine a national championship. Certain conferences have guaranteed slots in these bowls, while others don't. For example, the Pac-10 champ is guaranteed to at least go to the Rose Bowl, if not the national title game. Boise State's conference, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) does not have that guarantee. The BCS has relaxed the rules a bit to allow for non-BCS teams to play in a BCS bowl, but in order for that to happen, the team pretty much has to go undefeated.

Arguably the most memorable BCS bowl has been the 2007 Fiesta Bowl between Boise State and Oklahoma. It symbolized everything about the modern college football scene. Boise State, the outsider finally allowed to join the dance was the utter underdog against a potent Oklahoma team that was used to playing in the big bowl games. But one famous play left a mark on the status quo of the football bowl system...



Now, almost two years later, Boise State is back in the top 15, but this time, fellow Western teams have joined the fray. BYU has been good the last couple of years, but after their upset win against Oklahoma, they're in the top 10. Cal is in the top 10, though they won't stay there if they don't beat USC later this season. Cal's Rose Bowl and/or title hopes rest on that game. Utah may make a run as well, but with BYU and Boise State ahead of them, it's going to take a lot of surprises to bump them up. Either way, the Mountain West conference will be a slugfest between BYU, Utah, and TCU and the stakes can be very high this year.

As for movers and shakers for this year, I think Oklahoma State, in addition to Boise and BYU will be the darkhorses for the national title. If we can't have a playoff system like March Madness, than this will have to do. The unfortunate reality in college football is that the powerhouses seem to always win, because of the vast financial resources available to them via boosters. Florida, Texas, USC, Ohio State, and LSU are consistently in the hunt for a title, sometimes just based on the history of the program (in the case of Michigan the last few years.)