Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

Rick Dockery's football career never amounted to much.  He played for 8 NFL teams in 6 years, almost always as a third-string quarterback.  He didn't gain national attention until he managed to blow a game that Cleveland had wrapped up-- a title game that would've sent the Browns to the Super Bowl.  With nowhere left to play and dozens of death threats from Browns fans, his agent sends him to Italy to play for the Parma Panthers in a league that Dockery never knew existed.  Playing for Pizza, like several other escapes from courtroom thrillers (notably Bleachers and A Painted House), features a character at a crossroads of life, searching for meaning.  While football is a core part of the book, it is essentially a backdrop.  Dockery arrives in Italy with no expectations of staying longer than necessary to get the call from his agent that brings him back to the NFL. However, Dockery grows throughout his Italian adventure, and is a (somewhat) changed man by the end of the novel.  This is not classic literature and will not be taught in classrooms.  But it's not pulp fiction, either.  It is a good, quick, light read.  It's fast-paced, and it will hold the interest of even the most casual of readers.