This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What is The Blind Side book about? What is the story of Michael Oher?
The Blind Side book details the life story of Michael Oher, and how he became uniquely poised for a career in the NFL. The Blind Side book talks about how football changed before Oher, and how Oher was able to get the opportunity to make his dreams come true.
Read more about The Blind Side book and Michael Oher’s story.
The Blind Side Book
Michael Lewis’s The Blind Side is about a black 15-year-old named Michael Oher from the Memphis inner-city projects who beat the odds to become a football star. This story follows Michael’s journey from his impoverished life with his drug-addicted mother to his adoption by a rich white couple in East Memphis. Through the kindness of strangers and some significant events in the NFL, Michael was able to find his path to success and became one of the greatest left tackles to play high school and college football in the country.
In the 1980s, a defensive lineman named Lawrence Taylor entered the NFL and changed the way coaches and players viewed the game. Taylor was a huge man, but he was fast like a sprinter and agile. He made it his mission to sack the quarterback, and he was so successful at it that in 1982, a year after his entry, the NFL created the sack statistic. Taylor had a knack for coming in on a right-handed quarterback’s left side, the blind side, and pummeling him to the ground. His strength and speed made him nearly unstoppable, and he created fear in the hearts of his opponents. Coaches knew they needed someone to be able to guard the blind side and stop Taylor, and the result was the birth of the left tackle specialist.
The left tackle had to be just as quick and dexterous as Taylor and just as big. A position that once belonged to 275-pound men built like brick walls now required a player of over 300 pounds who moved like a 165-pound running back. This combination of size, speed, and nimbleness was rare, and those who fit the prototype were suddenly a hot commodity.
From the Projects to High Society
The Blind Side book then goes into Michael Oher’s life. Micheal Oher lived in the worst housing projects in Memphis, known as Hurt Village. The community was riddled with drugs and gang violence. Michael had been in and out of foster care homes between the ages of 7 and 10. Although his mother, who struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, lived in the village, she was unable to care for him and his siblings. He was often left to his own devices, went hungry, and didn’t attend school.
As was the norm in many of the public schools in the inner city, Michael was passed up from grade to grade without learning anything. He had a dream of playing in the NBA, but his chances of making it were slim. With his lack of education or resources, the most likely future for Michael was as a member of the local gang.
But that all changed when he met Big Tony. Big Tony was a basketball and football coach who came back to Hurt Village often to recruit young players. He saw potential in this 15-year-old boy who weighed more than 300 pounds and stood at 6’5”. He could see the path Michael was going down and wanted to help. He took Michael in and let him sleep on his floor. Tony had a son named Steven, and he’d promised his dying mother he would take Steven across town to East Memphis where the wealthy Christian private schools were located to get a proper education. Since Michael was staying with him, he decided to take Michael, too.
Finding a Home
Steven and Michael enrolled in Briarcrest Christian School. Steven was an excellent student and had no trouble getting in, but Michael was different. He had an IQ of 80 and a GPA of 0.56. The only reason he was let in was that the football coach saw his size and the principal took pity on him. Michael was quiet and shy and struggled to communicate with others. He didn’t know how to learn in a normal way and had a hard time passing his classes. But the teachers could tell that he was not stupid and required allowances to help him learn. When he finally got his grades up from Fs to Ds and Cs, they allowed him to play sports.
Before then, Michael used to hang around the basketball courts watching practice. One day, a man named Sean Tuohy saw Michael in the stands and immediately felt a connection with him. Sean could tell Michael was poor and knew he wore the same clothes every day. Sean had grown up poor in Louisiana but now owned 85 chain restaurants and a private jet. He and his wife, Leigh Anne, were pillars in society, and he often donated money to Briarcrest to help students who couldn’t afford the tuition. He figured Michael probably hadn’t eaten, so he went over and offered him help. When Michael refused the offer, Sean put money in his school account to cover lunches for the rest of the year.
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Michael Lewis's "The Blind Side" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full The Blind Side summary :
- How Michael Oher went from the projects in Memphis to the NFL
- Why the combination of size and speed became essential for football stars
- How Oher was taken in by the wealthy Tuohy family
