The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, by Michael Lewis (2008) (288 page)

Liar’s Poker broke down for us over 20 years ago how to play the game on Wall Street. Moneyball told us how to use statistics to help a baseball team with an unfair advantage win the game. In The Blind Side, Michael Lewis explains how the game of football has evolved, particularly since 1981 when Lawrence Taylor exploded into the backfield and terrorized quarterbacks.

The book also tells how a small group of people can make a world of difference in a very large person’s life. Michael Jerome Oher, a one-time homeless, possibly illiterate 6’6″ 355 pound black kid from West Memphis with a measured IQ of 80, and the white upper-class family that takes him in, are the threads that holds the fabric of the book together. Whether or not the real-life story is distorted for dramatic purposes (his IQ is later measured at 100 or 110 — average — and he was on the honor roll two out of four years at Ole Miss), or presented in a way that defends the motivation of the family (and friends of the author) that took him in against accusations that they were boosters giving gifts to a college athlete, it’s a great, inspiring story, and one that will make you love the South and (college) football again.