He takes up football and school after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets. Combining a tour de force of sports analysis with a piquant ethnography of the South's pigskin mania, Lewis probes the fascinating question of whether football is a matter of brute force or subtle intellect. The Blind Side Michael Lewis 4.17 93,340 ratings4,137 reviews When we first meet Michael Oher, he is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read or write. An intermittently homeless Memphis ghetto kid taken in by a rich white family and a Christian high school, Oher's preternatural size and agility soon has every college coach in the country courting him obsequiously. Lewis fleshes this out with the colorful saga of left tackle prodigy Michael Oher. He takes up football,and school, after a rich, white, evangelical family plucks himfrom the streets. He does not know his real name,his birthday, or how to read or write. A rare creature combining 300 pounds of bulk with 'the body control of a ballerina,' the anonymous left tackle, Lewis notes, is now often a team's highest-paid player. In the book behind the Academy Award-winning film, wefirst meet Michael Oher as one of thirteen children by amother addicted to crack. In his sketch of the gridiron arms race, first came the modern, meticulously choreographed passing offense, then the ferocious defensive pass rusher whose bone-crunching quarterback sacks demolished the best-laid passing game, and finally the rise of the left tackle-the offensive lineman tasked with protecting the quarterback from the pass rusher-whose presence is felt only through the game-deciding absence of said sacks.

, Lewis takes a statistical X-ray of the hidden substructure of football, outlining the invisible doings of unsung players that determine the outcome more than the showy exploits of point scorers. Blind Side explores love and friendship, guilt and betrayal, secrets and obsession.

As he did so memorably for baseball in Moneyball

Author of the blind side