The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

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.

ISBN-13: 9780393061239

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Norton - W. W. & Company - Inc.

Publication Date: 09-17-2006

Pages: 304

Product Dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

Age Range: 14 - 18 Years

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 family.

Table of Contents

Back Story     15
The Market for Football Players     29
Crossing the Line     45
The Blank Slate     75
Death of a Lineman     103
Inventing Michael     131
The Pasta Coach     167
Character Courses     197
Birth of a Star     231
The Egg Bowl     263
Freak of Nurture     293
And Moses Stuttered     313
Afterword to the Paperback Edition     331
Author's Note     335 Show More