On this NFL Draft weekend, I want to take a look at one of last year's greatest draft stories, Michael Oher of Ole Miss, now a star on the Baltimore Ravens. For those who do not recognize the name, you might remember him as the fat black kid from "The Blind Side" who got adopted by Sandra Bullock.
I think people actually know that "The Blind Side" is actually a book first. I think that, or maybe I would just like to think that. The book employs the subtitle "Evolution of a Game".
That subtitle is key, because that is the part people do not know. One of my mother's friends loved the movie. She thought it was adorable how the sweet white lady came in and saved poor Michael Oher from the ghetto. She was inspired that a 5'2", 115 pound woman with a strange southern accent stepped in front of 6'4", 313 pound man.
She did not enjoy the book. Why? My guess is because the movie is the story of the southern belle who saved the African-American youth from a life of crack and illegitimate children, or whatever Sandra Bullock's character is saving him from. The book, on the other hand, is about football. It's primary "plotline" is how the emergence of outside linebackers Lawrence Taylor changed the entire theories of how to play defense, and birthed a 3-4 defense reliant on passrushing linebackers rather than a dominating defensive line.
If you were confused about that last sentence, imagine how she felt being blind sided (pun intended) with pages upon pages of that stuff when all she wanted to do was feel good about being white.
I don't know what author Michael Lewis was thinking, taking this gripping story that draws in the demographics that do not care about football, and mixing it with some very complex football gameplanning theories, heavy with jargon and inside knowledge that would appeal to the most intense fan, surrounding one of the game's most polarizing players.
Well, maybe I do know what Lewis was thinking, since he has a book that will be paying his rent for a long, long time.
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