Blindsided: Why the Left Tackle is Overrated and Other Contrarian Football Thoughts

by K.C. Joyner

"This book will change the way you think about professional football—in much the same way that Bill James revolutionized the analysis of Major League Baseball. The research is impeccable. The approach is irreverent. You will be 'blindsided' by what you think you know about the NFL, but don't. Warning to fantasy football You won't be able to put this book down."  —Sal Paolantonio, ESPN reporter and author of  The Paolantonio The Most Overrated and Underrated Players, Teams, Coaches, and Moments in NFL History "KC Joyner's theories will completely revolutionize football, cure baldness, save the whales, and bring total peace and harmony to all nations. That's why you must read  Blindsided !"  —Gregg Easterbrook, ESPN's  Tuesday Morning Quarterback "Too much of football literature is just tedious hagiography, but Blindsided is a book for those of us who enjoy the complex game on the field and football conversation that goes past 'my team rules.'" —Aaron Schatz, lead author and editor of  Pro Football Prospectus Pro football’s statistical iconoclast, K.C. Joyner, challenges conventional wisdom with fact-based and film-based responses in  Why the Left Tackle is Overrated and Other Contrarian Football Thoughts . If you love sports statistics or find excitement in fantasy football, you will enjoy the detailed insights and carefully researched information in this book. Scrap the typical media hype and hoopla for the real, straight-from-the-fields-and-films scoop, including information on free agents, parity, NFL business practice, Hall of Fame standards, coaching practices, historical iconoclasm, and a thorough statistical review.

Genres: Sports, Football

272 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Ray Charbonneau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wants to be a Bill James for football, but lacks the necessary analytical rigor.

[Alexander Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going to be extremely biased when it comes to this book, so take my review with a heaping grain of salt.

I am currently stuck in my apartment in Queens, New York due to the coronavirus. I need physical books to not go insane because I can't stand to look at another screen.

Unfortunately, I have read through almost everything in my house, so I've begun searching through my closets for stuff that got mishandled and lost along the way. I'm incredibly terrible at keeping my books in order or finishing them. Now, I have to actually see what I've got going on.

I found this one in one of my stacks. I had started it before and not finished it.

I read it in a single afternoon and it was a great mental escape from what's going on outside.

I'm a huge analytics nerd. Numbers and statistics calm me in a way few things to do. To be able to find anything in my house related to numbers and football made me feel like God smiled upon me.

Yeah, K.C. Joyner lacks analytical rigor in a bunch of his sections, and also some of the arguments he makes are incredibly easy to agree with regardless of the numbers. You're not getting punched in the face with this book in regards to insane arguments that he can back up.

But he does make a few points, he's got some numbers that are fun to look at, and damn it, it was an escape.

I didn't agree with some of his analysis, but again...it's like watching SportsCenter. You don't agree with every commentator. You just hope he or she gives you something you can argue with, so you can forget everything else going on with your day. And K.C. Joyner, if nothing else, gives you a lot to argue with.

Recommended for extreme football nerds who have nothing else going on.

[Joel Mccracken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing. I read this book after summer ended because it was about football and it is relavent to the position I play in high school. The book is about how the left talkle is a crutial position that is needed to be superior to most other linemen to keep the most important player on the team safe; the quarterback. In the beginning of the book it gives you multiple statistics but later on the books shows how a African American man goes through high school, illiterate as it is but is successful in football. After the teachers look more in depth to his studies, they find he is more of a oral speaker for tests, showing that he pays attention in class. Later on in the story it shows his improvments in school and in football, after taking a test to which his studies are superior in; security and protection. Throughout his high school career when playing football, college recruitment officers came to the private school at which he attended to observe his skills in the game. One of the reasons he was able to get into this private school was because a white family took him in as their own son and eventually adopted him to their family. The conflict in the story results is when the family that had adopted him was pursuading him into attending the same college they did by making it seem as the best decision he could choose from, and after an investigator talks to him about the situation, he makes the right decision. Overall, Blindsided is a true story with I recommend this book strongly if you love to read true stories and sports, while strong intrests in stories with a conflict that the result is unpredictable.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Claims to have been inspired to take up "scientific football analysis" by reading Bill James Baseball Abstract in the 1980's. I definitely understand the reaction -- James makes you want to take your understanding of sports to a higher level and above all to address questions empirically rather than just yell louder than the next person "Peyton Manning is TOO better than Tom Brady".

But if this book is reflective of the science, football analysis has a LONG way to go to catch up to baseball. Chapters on issues such as who is the greatest wideout of all time (shockingly, it's Jerry Rice!), or the best defense of all time (1970's Steel Curtain) or which coaches belong in Hall of Fame rely in many cases on arbitrary quantifications of opinions (e.g., "ok, I'll give 1 point for each season in which he was selected to an All-Pro team, 2 points if the consensus All-Pro team...."). Perhaps acknowledging how limited these data are, he closes with a manifesto urging readers to rise up and demand access to the NFL's vault of game tapes. I hope that happens, so perhaps in 10 years or so I can read big picture stuff that is as good as what I get now about the Redskins on the Staying Medium blog for instance.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joyner has some interesting thoughts, but his stats usage is pretty poor, involving some leaps and some incomplete work. Many of these sections would be interesting if they were more fleshed out and involved multiple angles of approaches.

I get the title and subtitle (to play of Lewis's The Blind Side), but his work on the left tackle is a short, extremely weak section.

The largest section of the book involves rating Hall of Fame candidates, and even this could use more development. He's influenced by Bill James's HOF standards systems, but Joyner -- instead of using a dozen categories -- relies far too heavily on All-Pro and All-Decade selections.

A hardcore fan might enjoy the read, but most of us would be better served by waiting for the sort of book that Joyner hopes people start writing (ie, football's version of sabermetric stuff).

[Brett · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was supposed to be something of a sabermetric or statistically analytical approach to professional football, much like the baseball prospectus stuff that has become so prevalent. Unfortunately the guy that wrote this is a hack.

It was very shallow econometrically. He often made logical leaps and inferences that were completely unfounded based on the analysis he did. And he used the word "obviously" almost exclusively when he knew his point was a particularly weak as to camouflage the fact.

I do however recommend the website www.footballoutsiders.com. These guys are actually doing what this writer claims to do.

[Cormac Zoso · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty good, pretty good argument for this guy's view of pro football ... obviously, when you read a title like this, you need to be a former football player who reads a lot or a rabid football fan, one who probably has their own rotisserie team (or whatever they are called these days ... as you can tell, i am not one) and watches both days of the nfl draft, start to finish and screams with joy or agony when their team's choice is announced ... not the best sports 'analysis' book i've read but certainly not the worst

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

ESPN's Joyner wanted to take a Bill James approach to examining the accepted wisdom of football, all the things we think we know or are told are true. The research is good with some revealing insight, though the writing isn't on par with James. Not necessarily a knock since James is a very good writer, something he doesn't get enough creit for.

[Scott L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is OK, but I found too many statistical analysis problems with it to make it a viable book. Joyner does research well; however, he should have asked an analyst to assist him with the book. Perhaps then some of his more far-fetched claims would have credibility, or not be made at all. I cannot recommend this book unless you are a football fanatic.

[Nick]

Very interesting read about football. Enjoyed how he discussed conventional wisdom and explained his research methodology for testing it. The chapter on the different types of coaches was fascinating as well as his analysis on which players not in the Hall of Fame deserve to be there.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good but you have to be a real sports fanatic or stat phreak to like this one. ( I am )

[Mike Crawford · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly little more than dot matrix era analysis and annoying tables. I made puneet read it and he wasn't too happy about it (but at the time I had just started and had no idea it would be that bad)

[Raving Redcoat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful analysis of football statistics. Should be used in math classes!