The tale of a boy from a Memphis slum who has rocked a sport

James Porteous on Tuesday: American football�s sophisticated savagery has not travelled well; the game that epitomises US culture makes another attempt this Sunday, when the New York Giants play the Miami Dolphins at Wembley.

"A sack is when you run up behind somebody who's not watching, he doesn't see you, and you really put your helmet into him. The ball goes fluttering everywhere and the coach comes out and asks the quarterback, Are you all right?' That's a sack."
Lawrence Taylor
NFL Hall of Fame linebacker

American football's sophisticated savagery has not travelled well; the game that epitomises US culture makes another attempt this Sunday, when Taylor's former team, the New York Giants, play the Miami Dolphins at Wembley.

Those still to be convinced would do well to read The Blind Side: The Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis, published in paperback this month.

Lewis has surfed America's Zeitgeist with books such as Liar's Poker, an expose of his life in greed-is-good investment banking; The New New Thing, about the internet economy; and Moneyball, about obscure statisticians who changed baseball.

His genius is in combining an economist's eye for data with a novelist's eye for character, a talent that elevates The Blind Side from mere sports book to a magnificent piece of journalism with deep socio-economic observations.

Lewis details the evolution of the game's strategy in the last 25 years, explaining how Taylor altered the way teams played because of his singular ability to evade blockers, sprint up on the blind side of a quarterback and drive him into the dirt in the most painful way possible. Innovative coaches such as Bill Walsh invented strategies to combat Taylor and when free market economics were brought in to NFL, the left tackle, the player who protects the quarterback's blind side, became the highest-paid position, to widespread surprise.

So far, so interesting-only-to-NFL-fans. It is the story of Michael Oher, one of 13 children to a crack-addicted mother in the worst slum of Memphis, a town that epitomises the wealth, race and cultural divides in the United States, that makes the book.

Oher, now 21, plays for the University of Mississippi. He is expected to be the most sought-after player in the NFL draft of 2008 or 2009. His story is amazing.

On the run from foster homes and social services, foraging in the streets and occasionally going to school for a free lunch, Oher ends up at one of Memphis' private Evangelical Christian schools (established after public schools were forced to integrate) by serendipity so incredible that it would make you laugh out loud in a work of fiction.

With an IQ of 80, practically illiterate and withdrawn almost to the point of autism, it doesn't look as if he will last long. But Oher is - even more remarkably - taken in by a wealthy white family, whose care and attention save him from the fate that awaits most boys from his hood', the aptly named Hurt Village. His awesome physical intelligence means he will soon become one of America's richest athletes.

Sixteen years old, 6ft 6in and 251/2 stone, Oher has the ultra-rare combination of incredible bulk and incredible athleticism that makes left tackles so hard to come by.

The country's top scout of young talent hears about this behemoth and declares him to be the greatest left tackle prospect ever before Oher has even played the position.

There is much humour in the book, mainly in stunned reactions to Oher's monstrous frame. The school coach, who has eked out occasional wins with tricksy strategies, realises all he has to do to win the league is get a player to crouch with the ball behind Oher as he pounds a path of destruction to the end zone, while coaches from top colleges make frantic phone calls to their bosses on the sidelines.

Lewis unveils Oher's background piece by piece, the most tragic details saved until the end. He does not preach, but shows us the social injustices in America, and the strange brew of race, sport, money and religion that defines the culture. He does not ignore allegations that the family who adopted Oher may have done so to ensure their alma mater, "Ole Miss", would be the beneficiary of this amazing talent.

He does not hammer home the irony of a rich white family adopting an impoverished black child and sending him to Bob Dylan's Oxford Town, site of race riots in the 1960s when James Meredith became the first black person to be admitted to the university.

The book is uplifting in Oher's salvation and depressing in the realisation that hundreds of thousands more will never have the same astounding luck, not just in the genetic lottery: "Pity the kid in Hurt Village who was born to play the piano, or manage people, or trade bonds," Lewis writes.

NFL fan or not, The Blind Side is a magnificent read. The Hollywood film has been optioned. The sequels will be written by Oher on the gridiron in coming seasons.