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Playing for Pizza - atypical John Grisham

I have read a ton of John Grisham books over the years, and always loved his courtroom-thriller style of books like The Firm, A Time to Kill and The Pelican Brief. However in recent years, it seems that John has grown a bit fatigued of his own style and has ventured into a totally different type of fiction that is quite a bit gentler than some of his older works.

Playing for Pizza is a feel-good story about a football player, of all things. Rick Dockery was a third-line NFL quarterback who rarely saw any minutes and spent each post-season with his agent scrambling to find a team willing to take him on and hopefully pay him fifty or eighty thousand a year, which we all know is peanuts by NFL standards. Amazingly, during the AFC championship game which could have sent his team to the Superbowl, his team’s first and second line quarterbacks are injured and Rick is put in late in the game to wrap things up with his team leading 17 to nothing. After a series of horrible plays, he reverses the scoreboard and ends up leading his team to defeat while also suffering a concussion that mercifully lands him in the hospital and away from the crowds of fans screaming for his beheading.

When he comes to in his hospital room and watches the highlight reels of the game, all anyone is talking about is where in football history he ranks among the all time worst screw-ups. Clearly, his career in the NFL is on hold for a few years, if not over entirely. In fact, the only team that is willing to take Rick as quarterback is the Parma Panthers, of Parma, Italy. After some consideration, he swallows his pride and embraces the opportunity to hide from the American press even if it means playing for some makeshift football league in Italy. He is revered by his Italian teammates for his NFL status and intrigued by these people who all work regular day jobs and play football on their own time simply because they love it. While earning his meager $2000/month, he tries to lead his team to victory in the Italian league while exploring his new home with it’s pasta, wine and women.

I enjoyed this book. Like I said at the beginning, it is a definite departure from the style that made John Grisham famous, but nevertheless it was a good read and I enjoyed picking it up each night. This book has renewed my interest in Grisham’s books and I will be sure to watch for whatever he puts out next.

4 out of 5 piggy snorts.