The Parma Panthers have only two other Americans on the team – halfback Slidell “Sly” Turner, who ends up leaving early in the season, and safety Trey Colby. Rick accepts the job, glad to get away from the negative press and his legal troubles in the United States, but wary of living in Italy, where he doesn’t know the language and where American football draws little attention or respect. Arnie manages to find him a starting position for the Parma Panthers of the Italian Football League for meager compensation. His agent Arnie tries to find him work in the NFL, but no team will take him. Carried off the field in a stretcher, he is cut from the team, vilified in the press, and faces additional legal troubles due to a questionable paternity lawsuit. Rick Dockery is a third-string NFL quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, who throws three interceptions in 11 minutes in the AFC championship game, blowing a 17-point lead and resulting in the Browns missing their chance at their first-ever Super Bowl appearance.

To say that Italy-the land of fine wines, extremely small cars, and football americano-holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement. And now they’ve got Rick, who knows nothing about Parma (not even where it is) and doesn’t speak a word of Italian. The Parma Panthers desperately want a former NFL player-any former NFL player-at their helm. Cut by the Cleveland Browns, and shunned by every other team, Rick insists that his agent find a team that does need him.Īgainst enormous odds, Rick lands a job-as the starting quarterback for the Mighty Panthers … of Parma, Italy.

After providing what is arguably the worst single performance in the history of the NFL, third-string quarterback Rick Dockery becomes a national laughingstock.

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. Playing for Pizza is a short novel by John Grisham, released on September 25, 2007.

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Playing for pizza by john grisham