Playing For Pizza

“Rick needed a softer game. Another concussion and he might indeed suffer the brain damage so often joked about. Truthfully, Arnie didn’t care. Just another phone call or two and Rick Dockery was history.”

Rick’s sports agent Arnie is cynical and selfish, and does not care about Rick’s wellbeing. This passage both points to the serious threat to Rick’s health posed by repeated football injuries, and the fact that Rick cannot even trust his own agent to genuinely care for his interests, once more highlighting The Pressures of Fame.

“There, not too many years ago, in front of 100,000 fans, on a gorgeous autumn afternoon, he’d thrown four touchdown passes and picked the defense apart like a surgeon. Big Ten Player of the Week. More honors would certainly follow. The future was so bright it blinded him.”

Rick’s central problem as a football player is his inconsistency: Although he has moments of brilliance like the one described in this passage, he also tends to make dramatic mistakes. His past successes make Rick’s dramatic fall from grace even more painful for him.

“Me, I’m not bothering with the language. Too much trouble. When I played in Canada, there was a lot of French. Didn’t slow us down. Everyone spoke English, too.”

At the beginning of the novel, Rick is resentful about his lack of success in the NFL, but still feels as if he is too good to be playing in Italy. In this passage, his lack of interest in learning Italian points to his disinterest in fully becoming a part of the team, emphasizing his initial rejection of The Value of Forging Meaningful Connections.

“But these guys take it serious, especially in the heat of the battle. They love to hit, both before the whistle and after. They cuss and fight, then they hug and go drink together.”

Most of the Parma Panthers have full-time jobs and are not paid for playing on the team. The enthusiasm of the Italian players helps Rick to both remember why he loved football and regain his sense of self beyond the field, while invoking The Value of Forging Meaningful Connections.

“‘Is this in slow motion?’ Rick asked, a half attempt at humor.

Franco’s mouth fell open. He was wounded.

‘Just kidding,’ Rick said quickly. ‘A joke.’”

In the early stages of his time with the Parma Panthers, Rick feels like he is better than his teammates simply by virtue of being American and a quarterback. In this passage, he jokingly insults Judge Franco’s highlight reel at their first meeting. Despite the insult, Franco remains loyal to Rick, helping him resolve misunderstandings with the police.

“How many playbooks? How many assistant coaches? How many teams? How many stops along the way in a frustrating career that had now led him to a small town in northern Italy? He drank a beer at a sidewalk café and couldn’t shake the lonely feeling that this was not where he was supposed to be.”

Rick’s sense that there is nowhere where he belongs is essential to his characterization at the beginning of the novel and his growth as it progresses. Rick’s identity is closely tied to his professional life: Since he has not had a stable career with one team, he feels like he has no home. The act of memorizing a new playbook reminds Rick of this instability.

“As the warmup dragged on, he caught more glances from his teammates, just checking to see if a real pro quarterback could grind it out with them. Was he a member of the team, or a prima donna just passing through? Rick kicked it up a notch to impress them.”

Initially, Rick believes that, as quarterback, he should not be required to complete the same conditioning routines as his teammates. In this passage, he realizes that his teammates would lose respect for him if he stopped, believing he couldn’t keep up. Rick’s desire to impress his teammates is evidence of his need to feel like he belongs to a team and The Value of Forging Meaningful Connections.

“The bar was full and noisy, and his first inclination was to make a quick exit and return to the safety of his Fiat. But no, he had signed on for five months, and he would not spend that time on the run.”

For Rick, learning to drive and park the Fiat is the first step in assimilating into Italian culture. This scene, in which Rick learns how to properly order coffee at an Italian bar, is the first moment in which Rick fully commits to the Panthers and his life in Parma.

“There was always hope. The next call could mean the next contract. The next team could mean the big break. Each spring brought a fresh dream that he’d finally find his place.”

Rick and his agent Arnie have spent years trying to piece together a career with stints at different teams in the NFL and CFL. Despite the years of rejection, Rick still greets each spring offseason as a time of hope. This passage suggests that, despite his expectations, spring football in Parma might be the right place for Rick.

“Rick thought he looked rather nice. Ink-colored navy jacket, dark slacks, real socks, black loafers, white shirt, and tie. All purchased from one of the stores Sam had suggested. He almost felt like an Italian.”

Rick’s clothing serves as a symbol of his gradual assimilation into Italian culture and acceptance of the end of his career. He arrives in Parma dressed as a stereotypical American and resists Sam’s urges to change his appearance. In this passage, Rick tries to dress to impress the Italians, but is still shown up by men in tuxedos.

“The Italian players had quickly adopted their American teammates. Sly said it happened every year. They were honored to have real professionals play on their team, and they wanted to make sure Parma was hospitable enough.”

The hospitality of the Italian players helps endear them to Rick, who initially feels as if there is a distance between him and his teammates. Their tradition of taking players to dinner reflects the novel’s motif of food as a way of cementing relationships.

“Franco pounded into the middle, and Andreo, Sly’s replacement, swept right and left with little speed, few moves, but a gritty determination. Playing for nothing but pride, the Panthers finally scored with ten seconds to go when Franco lurched his way into the endzone.”

This passage reflects the crucial difference in attitude between Rick and his Italian teammates. Rick sees his teammates as having “little speed” and “few moves” and lurching movements, and the passage reflects that view. However, the passage also hints that the “gritty determination” and pride of the Italians is what makes them successful.

“‘You lost more than a game yesterday. You lost your team.’

‘They weren’t exactly ready to play.’

‘True, but don’t pass the buck. You’re the key, whether you like it or not. They feed off you, or at least they did.’”

Rick’s journey to accepting his role as leader of the Parma Panthers is an essential part of his character arc. In this passage, Coach Sam Russo warns Rick that the Panthers won’t win without his strong leadership, and that he needs to work to win it back after his hungover loss in Milan.

“Late that night, he finished his story and zipped it around the world to Cleveland, in plenty of time for the Monday morning sports special. He could not remember having so much fun.”

Sports reporter Charley Cray is the novel’s primary antagonist and an emblem of The Pressures of Fame. He follows Rick from Cleveland to Parma to report on his career with the Panthers. The first game Cray watches is a loss for the Panthers, and Trey Colby’s leg is broken in a violent accident. The fact that Cray enjoys watching a game in which the Panthers lose and Trey is injured points to his lack of sympathy and gleeful delight in finding scandalous or petty stories to report.

“A curtain was pulled, and Rick was left alone with the last black Panther, a very sweet country kid from rural Mississippi who would now be shipped home to his mother like broken merchandise […] What would he do now? What was Sly doing now? What would any of them do once they faced the reality that the game was over?”

The drawbacks of playing professional football and The Pressures of Fame are important thematic concerns throughout the novel. In this passage, the image of Trey being shipped home like a piece of merchandise is a reflection of the objectification of athletes. The novel implies that, even in the Italian football league, athletes are treated like replaceable objects.

“Arnie was on a roll. ‘Pack your bags, drive to the train station, park the car, leave the keys on the seat, and say adios. What’re they gonna do, sue you?’”

Throughout the novel, Arnie’s efforts to help Rick’s career are also driven by his self-interest: As Rick’s agent, he earns a percentage of all of Rick’s earnings. This passage suggests that Arnie places his own interests over the needs of others. In this case, Arnie’s desire for Rick to make money in Saskatchewan is more important than Rick’s loyalty to the Panthers. This raises the issue of The Importance of Loyalty.

“Rick had to smile. He had not heard the voice in years, and it brought back fond memories of one of the few coaches who had believed in him.”

The novel implies that the only reason Rick considers leaving the Panthers for the Saskatchewan Roughriders is his affection for the team’s coach Rat Mullins. After a long career of rejection from multiple teams, Rick has a degree of loyalty to Rat as one of the only coaches to respect his talent. As soon as Rat breaks his loyalty to Rick, Rick returns to Italy.

“Far above them, in the vaulted ceiling, old Correggio had somehow managed to paint an extravagant scene of Mary surrounded by angels. Livvy looked at it as if she might be overcome with emotion. Rick looked at it with an aching neck.”

At first glance, Rick and Livvy have almost nothing in common: He is 28 and interested in nothing but golf and football, while she is 21 and fascinated by all aspects of Italian culture. In this passage, the repetition of the phrase “looked at it” highlights the differences between Rick and Livy, who have very different reactions to the church mural. The novel implies that Rick only pretends to be interested to make Livvy happy, but his willingness to do so implies that he is taking the relationship more seriously than his previous affairs.

“He was no longer a hired gun, a ringer brought in from the Wild West to run the offense and win games. He no longer dreamed of NFL glory and riches. Those dreams were behind him and fading fast. He was who he was, a Panther, and as he looked around the cramped and sweaty locker room, he was perfectly happy with himself.”

In the final section of the novel, Rick realizes that the Parma Panthers offer exactly the type of camaraderie and loyalty that he has been looking for in the NFL and CFL. In this passage, the contrasting descriptions of “glory and riches” and his current, humble state are used to demonstrate the distance between what he thought he needed to be happy and what actually makes him happy.

“If unpaid, Fabrizio would have gone to the locker room and called it a day. But the salary had brought a responsibility that the kid had maturely accepted.”

Fabrizio is a talented but testy player who left the Panthers after an embarrassing loss and only returned once he had a signed contract and salary. This passage suggests that the salary is the only thing keeping him tied to the team, and that he might not be a valuable player without it. The issue of pay inequality within the team is related to the novel’s concerns about the drawbacks of playing professional football.

“And with that they passed another little milestone, took another step together. From flirting, to casual sex, to a more intense variety. From quick e-mails to much longer chats by phone. From a long-distance romance to playing house […] And now an agreement on exclusivity. Monogamy.”

Rick’s relationship with Livvy develops very quickly: After one dinner in Milan and a weekend visit in Parma, Livvy essentially moves into Rick’s apartment. This passage reflects the speed and intensity of their relationship, which is primarily driven by Livvy’s actions. The novel suggests that Rick is happy to follow Livvy’s lead in their relationship thanks to his new belief in The Value of Forging Meaningful Connections.

“‘Where are you?’ Sam demanded.

‘Venice.’

‘With that young girl?’

‘She’s twenty-one, Coach. And, yes, she’s close by.’”

The novel suggests that Panthers coach Sam Russo does not approve of Rick’s girlfriend Livvy. As this passage indicates, Sam thinks that Livvy, 21, is too young for Rick, 28. Sam also believes that Rick spends too much time with Livvy when he should be focusing on football. Sam’s disapproval of Rick’s relationship is tied to the novel’s interest in The Pressures of Fame and their impact on personal lives.

“I must say, however, that this is real football. The hitting is brutal, tremendous hustle and desire, no one slacks; these guys are not playing for money, just pride, and it is a powerful incentive.”

This passage comes from sports reporter Charley Cray’s notes about the Italian Super Bowl. Cray is the novel’s primary antagonist and a determined hater of everything Rick does, making his praise of the game and the Italian players even more impressive. The fact that even Cray has grown to admire the league demonstrates the widespread nature of its appeal.