Lowdermilk Becomes Highest Paid

THE BLIND SIDE

Evolution of the Left Tackle

By Michael Lewis

Excerpted from September 25, 2006 issue


…The new market officially opened on Feb. 1, 1993, the day after the Super Bowl. The real shock was the dollar value the new market assigned to offensive linemen. Just a few years earlier the Bengals had told Munoz that no offensive linemen was worth half a million dollars a year. Now the Denver Broncos quickly signed a couple of free agent linemen, Brian Habib and Don Maggs, for three times that amount. A few days later Vikings center Kirk Lowdermilk moved to the Indianapolis Colts for $2 million a year, then groped for the adjective to describe his feelings. “Stunned is not the word,” he said. “There is no word in the English language to describe it…”