Blog post #5, chapters 10,11, and 12, pages 263-313

For this week I finished my book and read chapters 10, 11, & 12. This was pages 263-331. These chapters were about Michaels outstanding college football experience and the time leading up to him being a first round NFL draft pick with the Baltimore Ravens. It also went into great detail of the parts of his life that were not talked about earlier in the book. It told about how he and his 13 other brothers and sisters had raised themselves on the streets of Memphis and avoided foster care. It also explained how even though he was a better football player, when he was a little kid he had wanted to be the next Michael Jordan when he grew up. To me, what I find amazing about the Michael Oher story is that many people in his situation would have never made it to the NFL. He grew up in the poorest part of Memphis and was around gangs and drugs for most of his life. In the book the author says: "As Michael entered his freshman year in high school, he had before him one obvious career path. Once he quit school he would have waiting for him a single, well paying, high status job: bodyguard to Devin Lane. Or rather, since Devin had moved on, to Devin's successor. The job was to watch the back of the guy who ran the only real business in the neighborhood. Left tackle of the ghetto."(310) It's amazing that Michael even graduated from high school, much less make it to the NFL with his background. As the author said he would have ended up being the left tackle of the ghetto. If I were to rate this book on a scale of 1-10, I would give this book a 9.5. 

Blog post #4,Chapters 8 and 9, pages 197-263

For this week I read chapters 8 and 9, pages 197-263. These chapters were about how the NCAA tried to intervine in Michael playing for Ole Miss, how they got Michael to graduate from high school, and how the NFL has started to pay the position of left tackle more money over time. When the NCAA investigated why Michael decided to play for Ole Miss, they sent a lady named Joyce Thompson to interview him. When she started interviewing Michael to find out if he was bribed by the Tuohy family, she found that it would be harder than she expected. Since Michael had less social skills compared to most 18 year olds, it was harder to get answers out of him. If Sean hadn't been there, Michael might not have played for Ole Miss. What finally convinced Ms. Thompson that he wasn't bribed was that the Tuohy's had so much money that bribing Michael wouldn't work. What the NCAA did have on Michael was his grades. An example of this is when Lewis says: "The NCAA had a sliding scale of ACT scores and grade point averages; the higher the ACT, the lower the required GPA. Given Michael's best ACT score (12), to play college football he would need a 2.56 overall GPA."(207) Even if Michael got all A's his senior year, he still wouldn't be able to play football in college. But Sean found a way around this. He found that if Michael took online courses offered by BYU, he would be able to change some of the F's he got in previous courses to A's. It took a mere ten days to change his F's to A's, but he had to do it by the end of the school year. In the end, he was able to do this and play football for Ole Miss. 

Post #3, pages 131-167

For this week I read chapters 6 and 7, pages 131-167. These chapters were about the time leading up to Michael realizing he was a football star and also told about some of the major events in his life leading up to playing college football. In chaper 6, it tells about how it took Michael awhile to get used to being a football star. This surprised me because Michael was getting calls and emails from college coaches across the country. After he started realizing how good he actually was, he started playing even better than he already was. Another turning point in Michaels life was getting a drivers license. This was a really big deal for him because no one in his family had ever had one. This is evident when Michael says: "No one in my whole family has ever had a drivers license."(143) But to do this, it would be harder than anyone thought. The first problem was he didn't even have a birth cirtificate. He also didn't have any other form of identification either, so they had to get a letter from his school. Once they got the proper forms of identification, Michael passed the test and got his license. Another turning point for him was when the Tuohy family adopted him and had him on their Christmas card. This was the first time Michael had a real family. Chapter seven was about how the college recruiters were nonstop in asking Michael to play football for them, bit in the end he decided to play at Ole Miss. It also told about the car accident that he got into, and how he threw out his arm to save SJ.     

Post #2, pages 75-130

For this week I read chapters 4 and 5, pages 75-130. These chapters tell us just how unique Michael Oher really is, and how he is a rare physical specimen. Many of the athletic coaches at the Briarcrest Christian School couldn’t believe he was for real. The football coach couldn’t believe that he weighed more than 300 pounds, so they weighed him. When the coach is describing this he says: “That’s when I had them weigh him. One of the coaches took him into the gym and put him on the scale, but he overloaded the scale.”(75) The team doctor then had to take Michael and weigh him on a cattle scale. They found he weighed 344 pounds, small for a cow, but large for a high school sophomore football player. The author then described the frenzy of college coaches who would attend practices just to watch Michael in action. When the coaches saw Michael, they knew that he would someday play in the NFL. Chapter 5 explained how football strategy has evolved since the early days of the NFL. It explained how in the 60s most teams would try to run the ball more than they would throw it because they liked their chances of the ball not being intercepted. But the revolutionary thinking of Bill Walsh changed the game to what it is today. Walsh had the idea of timing the throw to where the receivers were expected to be. Walsh also made it so the throws were shorter and the quarterback would have fewer decisions to make. He would have the quarterback decide which side of the field he would throw to before the play, so the only decision he would have to make is if he should throw to the alternate or outlet. It can be hard for many quarterbacks to focus on throwing when they are worried about getting hit from their blindside. This is why the position of left tackle is so important.

Post #1, Chapters 1-3

I read the first three chapters, pages 1-73, of The Blindside by Michael Lewis. So far, it is one of the most inspirtaitonal and unique sports books I have ever read. The book starts out by telling the story of the Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismanm, and how his NFL carrer was ended by Lawrence Taylor hitting him from his blindside and pining his leg under him. Then Lewis explained why this event made it so that the left tackle position is one of the most important in football. Lewis then introduced the main character of the story, Michael Oher. It starts out telling the story of how Michael Oher found Briarcrest Christian school, when Big Tony took Michael and a boy named Steven there. At first, Big Tony had no luck convincing the school that Steven and Michael should be enrolled in the school, until the football coach saw Big Mike. But the football coach had his work cut out for him. I find it amazing that Mike started out with a 0.6 GPA and an IQ of 80. This makes me think that the football coach is very good with words. It then tells about why the director of Briarcrest decided to allow Mike to enroll: "This wasn't a thing you did for he Briarcrest football team, this was a thing you did because it was right." (54) Beause of Simpsons decision, it meant that Michael had a chance to make something of himself and one day play in the NFL.