8) Opposite Words: Success/ Failure

              In John Grisham’s novel Playing for Pizza the main character, Rick Dockery, faces many trials of success and failure; most of which is failure. Dockery was an all-star in High School who continued on to play college football where he shined just as bright if not brighter. After his glory days in college, Dockery was drafted into the NFL as a third string quarterback, which was a good decision on the coach’s part since Rick completely choked up during games. His glory days were over. After playing through success and triumph, Rick now faced his bitter end, failure. The success he had so long before, came with an attitude and an arrogance so great that he couldn’t see past himself in order to play for his team. The failure that was now running through his veins was making him into a new man, making him realize that he wasn’t the best catch and that teams would do just fine, if not better, without him. He carried his failure with him to the Cleveland Browns where he faced his biggest failure, losing the Superbowl in eleven minutes with a 17-0 lead. As anyone could guess, he was humiliated, injured, and fired. Rick’s agent shipped him off to Italy to play for a club team who thrived off of failure. During his time in Italy, Rick learns that it’s okay to fall as long as you fall hard and to never forget to get back up and fight harder to win. His everlasting failure comes to a screeching halt in Italy; not only on the field, but also throughout his life and relationships with his teammates and the people around him.