North Dallas Forty [Paperback]

Peter Gent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2000

The story of eight harrowing days in the chaotic life of a professional football player, North Dallas Forty, originally published in 1973, exposes an NFL rife with corruption, drugs, sex, and violence. His body already racked with multiple injuries, Phil Elliot (played by Nick Nolte in the major film of 1978) is a cynical tight end hooked on painkillers and other mind-altering substances who must choose between enduring abuse by crazed coaches and depraved teammates or giving up his dreams of glory. This graphic story explores the disturbing relationship between violence in the football stadium and violence in American culture itself. "[Gent] balances shock with humor, irony with warmth, detail with insight, and ends up with a book that easily transcends its subject matter." - Dick Schaap, ESPN

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One of the best sports novels ever.” —Dick Schaap

 

“Funny and powerfully disturbing.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

 

“Talk to a football fan about North Dallas Forty and the fan smiles.” —The New York Times

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 386 pages
• Publisher: Total/Sports Illustrated; Reprint edition (October 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892129892
• ISBN-13: 978-1892129895
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,308,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Touchdown, January 2, 2003

By 

John Royal (Webster, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: North Dallas Forty (Paperback)

There's a good reason that Sports Illustrated included this book in its list of the Greatest Sports Books ever: it's a good book. And the movie version is far tamer than the book, and compared to the book, the movie has an upbeat ending.

North Dallas Forty, an thinly-veiled insider view of the Dallas Cowboys of the late-1960s. Written by a former Cowboys' wide receiver, the book takes you inside a football franchise struggling to stay on top. After reading the book, your body aches -- you know what it feels to be drilled in the ribs while running over the middle.

Watch the team and the NFL go out of the way to protect the stars while throwing aside those pawns that make the greats great. Read this book and become disgusted by the NFL, the owners, the coaches, and the entire league apparatus, but glory in the sheer talent and determination of the players doing the only thing that they know how to do.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still the Best Novel Ever About Professional Football, January 31, 2004

By 

James Sadler (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: North Dallas Forty (Hall of Fame Edition) (Paperback)

Pete Gent's most famous work was reissued a few months ago and hopefully it garners as much attention now as it did when originally issued. Ostensibly a thinly veiled semi-biography of his own pro football experiences, the book, when originally issued, was considered scandalous as it exposed the underside of the professional football world.

At the center of the novel is Phil Elliot, a fairly talented tight end who relies on pain killers to get him through the season. He carouses with the quarterback, only to ultimately find that the man he considered his closest friend when not be there for him in the end, and downs alcohol and drugs with a sense of abandon. To Elliot's mind, he is a team player because of his willingness to play with pain, taking painful, burning shots of cortisone in his knees in order to practice and play. But to his coaches, he is a loose cannon who they will only tolerate so long as he is useful to the team.

Ultimately, Elliot loses the game he loves. He learns that his only real value to the team is his ability to perform and when the side issues with him outweigh his talent to catch a pass, he loses that which he loved above all else (even if he would not admit it to himself): the game.

If you've seen the movie, you've only gotten a taste of the novel. Gent has written other books, but this remains his best. The book exposed a raw nerve at the time of its first release and was decried in many corners as nothing more than the fanciful tirade of a embittered former player. Instead, over the years we've learned that Gent's revelations regarding sex, drugs, and alcohol abuse in the NFL were all too true. And despite stringent drug testing rules, all of the problems exposed in his novel are still present in the NFL today.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars North Dallas Forty; The Bible of Football Fiction, October 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: North Dallas Forty (Hardcover)

NDF, written by former Dallas Cowboy, Peter Gent is one week in the life of Phil Elliot, professional football player. The work is a piece of fiction, but firmly planted in the reality of Gent's pro-football career.

Gent unfolds his story with graphic violence, graphic sex and absolute savage humor. Any sports fan who ever wondered what professional football/sports was really like behind the TV cameras, should read this novel. Memorable characters that parallel real-life football stars, and a great pace make this book one of my favorites. To quote one critic of the book, "...Gent isn't a great football player who just happened to be a talented writer, but he's a great writer who just happened to play football. North Dallas Forty is a must-read."