Good day to you all, SoBros Network Patreon subscribers. Welcome to the SoBros Book Club, on which I will share some book recommendations for those of you who enjoy taking in the written word. Today, we’re discussing Playing For Pizza by John Grisham.
Okay, I know I’m going back to back football books on the SoBros Book Club, and I promise you guys that I read a lot more than just football books, but it’s just this time of year that has me all up in my feels. I love this late summer stretch as a time of reflection…looking back at the year so far, and looking forward at what’s left to accomplish in order for me to consider the year a success, and also just simply looking forward to fall because it’s a beautiful season. Plus, I’m in Tennessee, y’all. If you know what this blistering heat and smothering steamy humidity are like, then you know we’re in need of some relief.
And, Playing For Pizza captures that spirit of “late Summer” better than just about any book I’ve read. It’s fun. It’s light. It’s an easy read…I think the first time I read it, I finished it on the plane in one round trip from Nashville to Newark, with a couple of evening reading sessions sprinkled throughout the trip. When you see ‘John Grisham’ attached to a story, I don’t know that your first thought is, “lighthearted football redemption story,’ and that’s what piqued my interest to begin with. But, once I was in, I was all the way in on this fun story that got me ready for the fall and football season.
Playing for Pizza is a short novel by John Grisham, released on September 25, 2007. The novel is about an itinerant American football player who can no longer get work in the National Football League and whose agent, as a last resort, signs a deal for him to play for the Parma Panthers, in Parma, Italy.
There’s a bit more detail on the novel’s Wikipedia page, but I left a lot of it out because it does get a little bit spoilery.
To any sports fan, it’s a familiar story, but we don’t often see what happens after the big win or the big loss. That’s usually the climax of our sports stories. Yet, in Playing For Pizza, it’s the catalyst for everything that follows. We’re following Rick Dockery through the lowest of lows for a quarterback in the NFL, and it’s fascinating to see how this character grows as a player and as a person.
If you’re not a sports fan, this story will appeal to that sense of wanderlust many of us have. That part caught me off guard, as I didn’t exactly expect it out of a “sports story.” Grisham’s description of the Italian scenery, cuisine, and culture was fascinating, and it felt like he was able to put me right in the middle of Parma, Italy. Then, there’s a little aspect of love in the story, too.
Grisham spent a lot of time in Italy, researching for another book he wrote, and this story was the sort of unexpected lovechild out of that trip. The world of American football in Italy is a very real one….as are the big meals, fine wines, and camaraderie that comes along with it. It sounds like a place I’d like to visit one day. But, as for the here and now, I can’t recommend this story enough.
For more on Grisham’s process writing this novel, check out this interview he had with NPR back in 2007, when the book was first published.
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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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