47 pages • 1 hour read
Playing For Pizza
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Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Rick Dockery wakes up in a hospital, unsure of how he got there. He sees his agent, Arnie, who informs him that he has been unconscious for nearly 24 hours after taking a brutal hit in the final minutes of a professional football game, resulting in a disastrous loss for his team. He has officially been released from the Cleveland Browns and, because of his poor performance, no other teams are interested in picking up his contract. Arnie encourages him to retire, but Rick insists that he wants to play football.
The next day, Rick learns that angry Browns fans tried to storm the field as he was being carted off, and that others were arrested after making a scene outside the hospital. Arnie encourages Rick to give up on football and find a new career. After reading an article in which local sportswriter Charlie Cray calls him one of the worst athletes of all time, Rick collapses into tears.
Chapter 2 Summary
Arnie calls the staff of half of the other teams in the league to try to find Rick a spot on a roster, but no one is interested. Arnie met Rick when he was a senior at Iowa. Although talented, Rick was considered too erratic to be a reliable quarterback. Despite Arnie’s efforts, he wasn’t chosen until the last round of the draft. He bounced between teams in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL) without a permanent home. Arnie decides to make one more call before fully giving up on Rick.
In Parma, Italy, American Sam Russo is moonlighting as a tour guide when he receives Arnie’s call. Arnie suggests that Sam sign Rick Dockery as quarterback for the American football team he coaches in Parma. Sam explains that, in the Italian league, quarterbacks are typically American and receive a paycheck while the rest of the team is Italian and plays for the joy of the game. Sam agrees to talk to the team’s owner.
Chapter 3 Summary
Rick packs up his apartment in Cleveland and drives south, hoping to spend the off-season golfing in Florida. When Arnie calls with the offer from the Parma Panthers, Rick rejects it. At a rest stop, Rick is confronted by angry Browns fans, who jeer and insult him. Although furious, he acts like he doesn’t hear them.
Later that night, Arnie calls again with more details about the Parma deal: They have offered Rick $20,000 to play quarterback for the season. Rick is gratified to hear that the team is excited about signing him, but nervous when he learns that the linemen who would be protecting him are not being paid. He agrees to consider the deal.
Arnie reveals that a cheerleader that Rick once dated is planning to sue him for child support for her baby. Rick insists that she was sleeping with other players, and that the baby is not his. Arnie reminds him that he can’t be sued if he’s living in Italy.
Chapter 4 Summary
Sam waits anxiously at the Parma train station, wondering how his new quarterback will fit in with the rest of the team. Rick arrives dressed for a Florida summer, despite the cool temperatures, and his many suitcases barely fit in Sam’s small car. Sam takes him for a tour of Parma, starting in the town’s main palazzo, which is over 400 years old. He points out the opera house and several cafes and bars where Parma locals socialize, encouraging Rick to get to know the town.
Sam takes Rick to his new apartment, which is provided as part of his salary by the team owner, Signor Bruncardo. The apartment is old but spacious. Sam leaves Rick to change and arranges to meet him at a local café. Sam is glad to notice that Rick is dressed more like the Italians he saw on the street. He encourages Rick to learn Italian to talk to his teammates, and to try to enjoy himself.
Chapter 5 Summary
The Panthers practice and play at the Stadio Lanfranchi, a rugby stadium on the edge of Parma. As a result, the field is 10 yards shorter than a regulation football field. The Stadio has seating for 3,000 but rarely sees that many fans, even though the tickets are free. The tiny grounds remind Rick of his college and high school fields, and he tries not to compare them to their NFL counterparts. Sam explains that football came to Italy 20 years prior, and that it is much less popular than rugby and soccer. Only the annual Super Bowl is televised. Rick is relieved to know his games won’t be broadcast to the world. He learns that practice is three times weekly, in the evenings after the other players finish their day jobs. The other Americans on the team, Slidell Turner and Trey Colby, are former college players who didn’t make it in the NFL.
Chapter 6 Summary
Sam takes Rick to a local restaurant owned by Nino, the Panthers’ center, and his brother Carlo. Nino and Carlo greet Rick as if he’s an NFL superstar and express their confidence that he will bring the Panthers to a Super Bowl victory. Rick wonders if Sam has been lying about his abilities.
Nino and Carlo bring Rick a platter of parmesan cheese, prosciutto, and local olive oil. Nino explains proudly that Parma makes the best food in the world, and that everything he serves is produced locally. Rick is amazed by the food and begins eating voraciously, but Sam warns him to pace himself.
Rick and Sam are joined by two more players: Giorgio, who speaks no English, and Paolo, who played college football in the United States before returning to Italy. They eat tortellini in brodo, veal parmesan, and stuffed pasta while drinking lots of wine. Sam watches as Rick enjoys the meal, confident that the food and drink are defeating his culture shock.
Chapters 1-6 Analysis
The opening chapters of Playing for Pizza contain a unique narrative structure in which the inciting incident—the disastrous loss that causes Rick Dockery to be dropped from the Cleveland Browns—occurs before the action of the novel begins. Rather than including the game in the opening chapters and allowing readers to “watch” Rick’s accident, Grisham begins the novel with Rick in the hospital, unsure of how he got there. This immediately introduces the crisis of Rick's sudden unemployment and the potential end of his football career.
Rick begins the novel as a restless and rather isolated young man who does not yet know The Value of Forging Meaningful Connections. His poor performance has led to his firing from the NFL, and he does not appear to have many social connections. He is portrayed as someone prone to behaving irresponsibly or indifferently toward others and the community at large: After leaving the hospital, for example, Rick drives under the influence of Vicodin while acknowledging that “he wasn’t supposed to drive while drugged” (19). Later, when Sam suggests that Rick learn Italian to communicate with his teammates, Rick claims he’s “not bothering with the language” because it’s “too much trouble” (36). These scenes demonstrate Rick’s tendency to center himself and his own needs over the needs and safety of others. As the novel progresses, Rick will learn to rethink his attitude.
Although Grisham maintains third-person omniscient narration throughout, the opening chapters shift focus between three characters—Arnie, Sam, and Rick— offering important insights into the motivations and feelings of Arnie and Rick especially. In Chapter 1, the narrative remains with Rick in his hospital room as other characters like Arnie and Rick’s doctor come in and out. The focus remains on Rick’s thoughts in the hospital bed, emphasizing his despair and loss of confidence as he “waited for the drug to work its magic, to knock him out clean, then, hopefully, to take him away forever” (11). Chapter 2 shifts to follow Arnie’s perspective. Arnie is “tired of Cleveland” and resentful of the fact that “making phone calls for Rick Dockery was not going to help his credibility” (12), which explains why Arnie initially urges Rick to retire. The narration provides direct insight into Arnie’s personal views which he would not have shared with Rick, and therefore would not be accessible to the reader in the first chapter. Grisham’s use of multiple narrative focuses adds distinct perspectives beyond that of the protagonist, adding depth to the characterization of secondary figures like Arnie.
The opening chapters of Playing for Pizza also demonstrate the novel’s thematic interest in The Pressures of Fame. Rick is introduced as an athlete with a “propensity for concussions” who has had so many bad accidents that he frequently confuses them (14). Although Rick is not a successful player, the novel suggests that his experience is typical. When Arnie suggests retirement, Rick reckons that “to leave the game with three concussions […] was not as bad as it seemed” considering the fact that “the average NFL running back lasted three years [and] retired with all manner of leg injuries” (23). In addition to the physical consequences of the game, the novel suggests that the emotional toll of fame and competition is also intense, as Rick faces criticism in the form of newspaper articles, jeering strangers, and even threats of violence. The novel indicates that there are serious drawbacks to playing football at the professional level; nevertheless, Rick feels determined to continue his career and agrees to go to Italy despite the pressures he has experienced.
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