PLAYING FOR PIZZA by John Grisham

John Grisham, Playing for Pizza (New York: Doubleday, 2007).

John Grisham, Playing for Pizza, Read by Christopher Evan Welch. Unabridged (randomhouseaudio.com, 2007).

Also available on Nook and Kindle.

(NOVEL)

Reviewed by Wilda Morris

I saw the author’s name on the box of CD’s on the sale counter – John Grisham. “Ah,” I thought, “a legal thriller. That should keep me awake on a long drive up to Door County, Wisconsin.”

The book begins with a man named Rick Dockery coming out of a coma, not knowing why he is in the hospital. His visitor, Arnie, considers him a client, so at first I figured he was Rick’s lawyer. Soon, though, I discovered that I was not listening to a thriller. Playing for Pizza is a football story. I may watch a few plays if someone else has turned on a game. I check two or three times each season to see how the Chicago Bears are doing. On football Saturdays I sometimes check on the fate of the Illini, Hawkeyes, and Hoosiers. In other words, I’m not much of a football fan. I would not have purchased Playing for Pizza had I read what the box said about the book. I kept listening, though, because it was the only recorded book I had with me, and soon Grisham drew me into his story. I lost my sense of disappointment.

Rick Dockery bounced around the NFL, never quite living up to the promise he showed in at Davenport High School* and in college.  He is a third string quarter-back for Cleveland when the Browns make it to the AFC championship game. Unfortunately the starting quarterback and his back-up are both injured. The Browns are 17 points ahead with 11 minutes to go when Rick comes into the game. Three intercepted passes later, he is the biggest goat in NFL history. Needless to say, the Browns will not renew his contract. In fact, once out of the hospital, Rick isn’t be safe in Cleveland. He is a laughingstock even in Davenport.

Rick insists that his agent get him a contract for next year, but no team in the US will return Arnie’s calls about jobs for Rick. He does find a team eager to have Rick play, however—the Parma Panthers in Italy. This move would be a real come-down for Rick, since most of the Italian players are amateurs who play for the love of the game, but work at other jobs. Rick has never been to Italy and does not know a word of Italian. He doesn’t even know where Parma is. But since no NFL team will consider hiring him again and a Browns cheerleader is filing papers against him in a paternity suit, he finally decides he has no choice. The Panthers assume that an NFL quarterback will give them a big advantage over other Italian teams, and they might actually win the Italian Super Bowl for the first time.

Grisham follows the Panther season, giving us some interesting characters and an exciting plot. There are issues to think about: plays that are “perfectly legal, perfectly brutal” (p. 210); head injuries; when it’s time to hang up the helmet and quit; playing for money vs. playing from passion. Grisham works them into the plot; they don’t slow the story down.

I said this is a football story, but it is also a story about Italian culture: the food and wine, opera, ancient cathedral and castles, beaches and pretty women. Yes, there is romance thrown into the mix.

The story has a satisfying ending, but it is open enough that Grisham could decide to give us another installment in the life of Rick Dockery. Will he marry the girl he’s been hanging out with? Will he play another year for the Panthers? If not, how will he support himself? If Grisham does write a follow-up, I’ll be looking for the CDs so I can listen to them on another trip to Door County. Hopefully Christopher Evan Welch will be the reader again; he did a good job on this one.

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*In the interest of full disclosure, perhaps I should tell you that I went to Iowa City High School, and we considered Davenport to be our Number 1 opponent. Had we lost every other game and only defeated Davenport, we would have considered it a winning season.

Post Script: Since reading this book, I understand more of what I hear on the radio when a sports reporter is discussing football!