Playing For Pizza by J. Grisham - Ch. 8-9

Sam met up with Rick in the cafe. Rick told Sam about his introduction from judge Franco, and Sam assured him that no other American had received such a special welcome from Franco. After the cafe Sam brought Rick to open a checking account. After, with a quick tour of the neighborhood Sam introduced Rick to the style of living in Italy. Sam gave him a car it had a manual transmission and Rick was not familiar with this, he didn't even like the color, a deep copper. 

Rick had his first practice today with the Panthers. One of the players, Sly, came in wearing a Denver Broncos Sweatshirt. Sam said, "You wearing that for a reason?" Denver was the team Rick was playing in the AFC championship, when he blew the game for Cleveland. Sly was another American and he was joking around with Rick about the game, he grew up near Denver. Another American, Trey Colby, came running up from the locker room. He also joked around about the game but Sly told him he didn't want to talk about it. For about hour they threw around the football and talked about players back in the U.S.

When all the players arrived in the small locker room Rick gave a speech. This was Sly and Trey's second and there last year in Italy, few Americans stay for a third year. During practice they ran wind sprints and Rick doesn't believe he should be doing them because he is the quarterback. He felt that this practice was like the practices back in high school, he needed to talk to Sam and straighten this out. Rick met the back up quarterback, Alberto, who had a weak arm and would prefer to run the ball. Nino was not comfortable with giving Rick snaps and Rick was not comfortable with the speed of the snaps. They ran wind sprints again and Rick thought to himself again that quarterbacks don't run wind sprints.