The lead character in Playing for Pizza is Rick Dockery, a former college football star who ends up riding the bench in the NFL as the third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. The research was tough food, wine, opera, football, Italian culture but someone had to do it. I was pleasantly surprised to find real American football in Italy, and as I dug deeper a novel came together, Grisham says. In a statement released by his publisher, Grisham says he got the idea for his new comic novel while in Bologna, Italy, doing research for a previous book, The Broker. He knows nothing about Parma?not even where it is?has never been to Europe, and doesn?t speak or understand a word of Italian.John Grisham has already tried his hand at legal thrillers, autobiographical Southern fiction, Christmas angst and serious nonfiction, so why not add something funny to the mix? In his latest novel, Playing for Pizza, the master of courtroom tension aims for laughs with the story of an American football player transplanted to a country where fourth down is definitely a foreign expression. So Rick reluctantly agrees to play for the Panthers?at least until a better offer comes along?and heads off to Italy. Yes, Italians do play American football, to one degree or another, and the Parma Panthers desperately want a former NFL player?any former NFL player?at their helm.
Great, says Rick?for which team? The mighty Panthers of Parma, Italy. Against enormous odds Arnie finally locates just such a team and informs Rick that, miraculously, he can in fact now be a starting quarterback. But all Rick knows is football, and he insists that his agent, Arnie, find a team that needs him. Overnight, he became a national laughingstock and, of course, was immediately cut by the Browns and shunned by all other teams. With a 17-point lead and just minutes to go, Rick provided what was arguably the worst single performance in the history of the NFL.
In the AFC Championship game against Denver, to the surprise and dismay of virtually everyone, Rick actually got into the game. RRick Dockery was the third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.
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