If you love football and feel-good stories, you must read "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis, author of "Moneyball." The book chronicles the story of how left tackles became one of the most important parts of any offense in the NFL and college, and it tells this tale through Michael Oher, the left tackle at Ole Miss.
Reading that book, I pictured Oher - listed at 6-5, 318 in the Ole Miss media guide - as a behemoth not unlike you imagined giants while reading "Jack and the Beanstalk" as a child. All that was missing from his fantastic life story was a goose laying golden eggs. Instead, he seemed rather small. I mean, 6-5, 318 isn't small, but it isn't biblical either. I guess that's just what happens when you read books and hear stories about people. Your mind makes the tale that much taller.
Anyway, Oher, as accurately depicted in "The Blind Side", was soft-spoken but friendly. When asked if he read the book, he replied that he had not, but heard rave reviews from his adoptive parents, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, among others.
Still, it was kind of cool to see a person who, to this point in my life, was just a character in a book. It was as if Harry Potter came to life, if Harry Potter was a gigantic left tackle who is bound to be a top-10 pick in the upcoming NFL draft.
