47 pages • 1 hour read
Playing For Pizza
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Background
Authorial Context: John Grisham
John Grisham is a prolific American author best known for his legal thrillers. Born February 8th, 1955, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Grisham initially pursued a legal career for years before becoming a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. His legal background has an important influence on his writing, which often features protagonists who are lawyers or individuals grappling with legal challenges.
His first novel, A Time to Kill (1989), follows attorney Jake Brigance as he defends a Black man who killed two white men after they brutally assaulted his daughter. Grisham’s first bestseller was The Firm (1991), in which young lawyer Mitch McDeere joins a prestigious Memphis law firm, only to then learn it operates as a front for illegal activities. Major themes in these novels and most other works by Grisham include persistence, corruption, and the struggle for integrity within flawed legal and societal systems.
Playing for Pizza represents a significant departure from Grisham’s legal thrillers, though it also features characters struggling to maintain integrity and persistence. The novel is based on Grisham’s personal experience watching the Parma Panthers, a real American football team he discovered while on a research trip in Italy.
Cultural Context: American Football
American football is a physically demanding sport played between two teams of 11 players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The objective is to score points by advancing the football into the opposing team’s end zone or by kicking the ball through the opponent’s goalposts. Scoring can be achieved in several ways. A touchdown, worth six points, is scored by carrying the ball into, or catching it, in the opponent’s end zone. Following a touchdown, the scoring team has the option to kick the ball through the goalposts for 1 point, known as an extra point, or to attempt another play from the 2-yard line for a 2-point conversion. A field goal, worth 3 points, is scored by kicking the ball through the opponent’s goalposts during general play. A safety, worth 2 points, is awarded to the defense if they tackle an offensive player with the ball in the offensive team’s end zone.
Key playing positions include the quarterback (like Rick in Playing for Pizza) who is the leader of the offense, calling plays, passing the ball, and dictating the tempo of the game. The running back (Sly Turner in the novel) specializes in rushing plays, and running the ball forward, while wide receivers (Fabrizio and Claudio in the novel) focus on catching passes from the quarterback. The offensive line includes the center, guard, and tackles, who protect the quarterback and block for running backs. The tight end is a hybrid position that blocks like linemen while also catching passes like wide receivers. On defense, defensive linemen focus on stopping the run and rushing the quarterback, while defensive backs defend against passing plays.
Understanding the rules of American football is essential to reading Playing for Pizza, which features lengthy passages describing the Parma Panthers’ games against their opponents. Rick’s playing style changes dramatically over the course of the novel, signifying his emotional growth. In sports novels, the protagonist’s relationship to their chosen sport and the way they play is often an extended metaphor for their character arc.
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