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Joe Theismann’s Injury
The other obvious symbol in The Blind Side is, of course, the idea of the “blind side”: in other words, the field of vision that a quarterback can’t see when he’s throwing the ball, since he’s faced in the opposite direction. (For a right-handed quarterback, this would be the area to the quarterback’s left.) As Lewis interprets it, the blind side was a major weakness in the game of football as it was played before the mid-1980s: big, fast tacklers could tackle quarterbacks from their blind side, without being seen until it was too late to react. The blind side symbolizes, first, the major rethinking of football that took place in the eighties, and, second, the unlikely players, like Michael Oher, who seemingly emerged from thin air after the eighties.
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The Blind Side Symbol Timeline in The Blind Side
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Blind Side appears in The Blind Side. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Back Story
...the blockers and tackled Theismann. For most quarterbacks, Theismann included, their left side is the blind side , since turning to throw the football blocks their view. That night, Taylor tackled Theismann...
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Chapter 2: The Market for Football Players
...the 1980s changed football, leading to a spike in salaries for players on the quarterback’s blind side . Fifteen years ago, it would have been strange to think that certain linemen would...
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Chapter 9: Birth of a Star
...the 49ers’ best seasons ever, Walsh learned that his teams’ hidden weakness was the quarterback’s blind side . Chris Doleman, the pass rusher for the Minnesota Vikings, ran past Paris again and...
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