4) Ideas about the Main Character

          The main character in John Grisham’s novel, Playing for Pizza, is Rick Dockery. Rick is a NFL reject who is recruitedto play for an Italian football team in Param, Italy as their starting quarterback. Dockery never started in the NFL, in fact, he was the third string quarterback for all of the teams he played on during his career and hardly got any playing time. Although, he was still payed thousands of dollars for each game. Rick’s major mistake of his career and his worst injuries all occured in the same game in only an eleven minute period. This game killed his reputation and pride. As always, Rick was always a proud man, from the time he was in High School all the way up to his final NFL game as a Cleveland Brown. When he arrived in Parma, this attitude didn’t change. He still thought he was better than the rest of the men and was rather embarrassed to be playing with them. For example, on his first day of practice he had to run sprints with the team and was outraged because he had never had to do it before. He thought that the quarterback shouldn’t be worked with the rest of the team, but should have his own personal workout. While his attitude towards his teammates and the sport may seem poor, he is young and still has learning to do throughout the novel. During his time spent playing ball in Italy, Rick learns more about himself and the sport he loves than he ever could have learned by playing in America.

2) Significance of the Title:

                  John Grisham titled his football novel Playing for Pizza because of where the story’s setting takes place; Italy. Grisham’s main character, Rick Dockery, is a NFL reject who is recruited to play as the quarterback for an Italian football team in Parma, Italy. It’s a club team where most of the men play for fun instead of for money and the majority of the players have daily jobs. However, instead of money, they are paid in pizza; thus the title Playing for Pizza. Rick on the other hand, because he is the quarterback, is actually paid in money, as well as pizza. Playing in Italy is a wake up call for Rick because he is so used to playing for fame and fortune. When he arrives in Italy, his life changes not only with the culture, but also by the way the game he loves so much is played. Grisham cleverly titled his novel Playng for Pizza to show that playing sports, playing football isn’t only for fame and wealth. After all, it is only a game and should be played for the fun of it. Rick Dockery was sent to Parma just in time to save him from himself by showing him that he can have fun and be payed to do so.