The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

First edition. Fine, fresh copy, lengthy gift inscription front free endpaper, in fine dust jacket. Hardcover. 299 pp. Basis for the 2009 John Lee Hancock film starring Sandra Bullock (who both the Oscar and the Golden Globe best Actress awards for her portrayal), Tim McGraw, and Quinton Aaron. The young man at the center of this extraordinary and moving story is thought likely one day to be among the most highly paid athletes in the National Football League. When we first meet him, he is one of thirteen children of mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or any of the things a child might learn in school--like, say, how to read or write. And he has no serious experience playing organizing football. What changes? He takes up football, and school, after a rich, Evangelical, Republican family plucks him from the mean stress. Their love is the first great force that alters the world's perception of the boy, whom they adopt. The second force is the evolution of professional football itself into a game in which the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist turns out to be the priceless combination of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability: his blind side.…