Summary
The first chapter of the book details the initial rise of the left tackle position, as it formulated a response to the vicious offense of linebacker Lawrence Taylor. It begins with the description of a game between the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins, focusing on the fear inspired by Taylor. His reputation signals a coming shift in the game, as coaches are unable to protect their quarterbacks from being viciously "sacked" by Taylor. During the game, Taylor tackles quarterback Joe Theismann, leaving him with a career-ending compound fracture in his leg. In the final scene of the chapter, Taylor leaps up from the scene, seeming to feel the gravity of what has just occurred.
The second chapter is about the work of Tom Lemming, a talent scout for high school football players. Lewis writes about Lemmings' rise to prominence as a scout, focusing on his exhaustive approach to seeking out notable players. Lemmings would drive out to every state and watch hundreds of games, in an attempt to have the most comprehensive possible view of the talent pool. He used this information to compile a book of the top prospects in the high school division. After a few years, Lemmings work paid major dividends and began to receive attention from college coaches all over the country. This windfall allowed him to expand his operation, hiring additional employees and cutting down on his travel schedule.
In the present timeline of the chapter, Lemming is going to meet Michael for the first time after having seen a tape of him playing. He is baffled by the lack of background information about Michael, as well as the fact that he is a Black player on an almost entirely white team. In many other instances, he has a sense of who the players are before he meets them, but Michael appears to be an enigma. Lemming has a strange meeting with Michael in which Michael doesn't answer any of his questions and seems entirely uninterested in him. Befuddled, Lemming plans to follow up, despite the oddity of their encounter.
The third chapter goes into Michael's story, beginning with a description of Big Tony, the father of one of Michael's friends. They all reside in the Memphis housing project known as Hurt Village. At the behest of his dying mother, Tony enrolls his son in Briarcrest, a Christian private school. He also tries to get Michael enrolled as well, despite his poor academic track record. After a brief period of homeschooling, Michael is accepted. He still struggles in class, but teachers believe he has the potential to improve over time, as he shows some aptitude for working through course material but lacks a solid foundation. At the same time, various coaches take an interest in Michael's athletic ability and he begins to play on the basketball team.
Concurrently, Michael is noticed by the Tuohy family. Lewis gives background about Sean Tuohy, describing how he came from an impoverished background and, with the help of a college basketball scholarship, went on to have a successful restaurant franchising business. Sean sees Michael sitting in the bleachers at some of the Briarcrest basketball games, introduces himself, and asks him about his school meal plan. Realizing he doesn't have one, Sean pays for it. Then his wife, Leigh Anne, sees Michael walking toward the gym on a weekend and discovers that he is looking for a place to get warm.
Subsequently, Leigh Anne takes Michael shopping for clothes, as she is heartbroken by the fact no one seems to be taking care of him. She drives him home and they stop for food on the way. She drops him off and assumes they won't likely see much more of each other. A little later, she speaks with one of her interior design clients, a former NFL player, about additional clothes for Michael. When she tells him Michael's sizes, he is shocked, saying he only has one teammate with the same measurements.
Analysis
This first portion of the book addresses the innovation of the left tackle position, by focusing on the terror that Lawrence Taylor inspired on the football field. Taylor's skillful brutality forced coaches to find a new way to protect their quarterbacks from his "sacks." In depicting a game in which Taylor dealt a career-ending injury to another player, Lewis demonstrates the dramatic need for this change, as players like Taylor presented a danger to quarterbacks that transcended individual wins and losses. By framing the issue with these stakes, Lewis gives weight to this transition.
This also touches on another major aspect of the opening chapter: fear. Lewis states that fear is not an emotion assumed to be common among football players, as they are almost always large, strong, and accustomed to the violence of the game. Highlighting their fear both accentuates the reality of Taylor's frightening reputation as well as the very tangible dangers that players faced every time they encountered him. In an interesting way, Lewis really focuses on how rational their fear is, as it functions as a response to a threat of loss, severe injury, and a permanent premature end to their time on the field.
The second chapter delves into the culture surrounding the game, giving a kind of behind-the-scenes look into how players are discovered and recruited. Lemming is portrayed in a unique light, as Lewis shows that he essentially created a position for himself within the ecosystem and then made his service invaluable. As he does elsewhere in the book, Lewis uses Lemming to examine all of the hidden machinations that shape the game. Lewis also seems to question the efficacy of these methods, as Lemming's vast network of information does not provide him with any insight into who Michael is prior to meeting him. This chapter also seems to subtly critique the fact that Lemming profits significantly off his ability as a talent scout while the players will not see any kind of recompense for their skills, despite being the centerpiece of the entire industry. Within this culture, Lemming is yet another beneficiary of a game he does not play.
Poverty is another major theme in this section. The abrupt transition between the second chapter about Lemming and the third chapter about Michael and Big Tony emphasizes the divide between the wealthy world of football and the struggles of living in Hurt Village. Lewis deepens this impression by describing how Briarcrest was important for Tony's son, Steven, and was a kind of last chance for Michael, who had seemingly fallen through the cracks of every school he had attended. As he expands on later, Lewis also makes it clear that this difference in circumstance was firmly rooted in years of systemic racism, as Memphis effectively functioned as an unofficially segregated city. When Michael and Steven enter the school, there are almost no other Black students, a fact that makes them immediately, and understandably, uneasy.
One of the last themes in this section is care, an essential thread throughout the book. Leigh Anne and Sean both notice the lack of care Michael has received. Sean recognizes, from having himself grown up poor, that Michael doesn't have food security and pays for his school meal plan. Leigh Anne sees Michael looking for a place to get warm and realizes that he doesn't have any winter clothes. While these displays of generosity are kind, both Sean and Leigh Anne recognize Michael's neglect because of the way he doesn't ask for help. They both perceive that he has grown up in painful circumstances because he does not seem to have the expectation that he should have warm clothes or three square meals. These small gestures of care, as Lewis suggests, seem to act as a bridge between Michael and the Tuohys, marking the beginning of their entry into his life, and vice versa.
