Customer Reviews

North Dallas Forty

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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."

North Dallas 40 ranks right up there with some of the best books ever written about professional football. The characters in this book are able to invoke a full range of emotional responses from the reader. Gent is an extremely interesting writer and this book will be what he was remembered for.

Peter Gent wrote other books after North Dallas Forty, but none of them were as forceful, or prescient, as this one. Fans and the media are always surprised by the drug scandals in the NFL. The revelations about cocaine and steroid use in the last 20 years have been greeted with a sense of shock and incredulity, as if these problems never existed in the NFL's glory years. North Dallas Forty is a thinly fictionalized account of the Dallas Cowboys of the late 60's and early 70's. Needless to say, drug use was just as big a problem in the NFL then as it is now, as Gent graphically illustates through the trials and tribulations of Phil Elliot. Anyone who has read this book realizes that drugs are not a new problem in sports, but a continuing one. The book is laced with savage humor, graphic sex, and an unflinching exploration of the dark side of the NFL. It is fun to pick out the fictional versions of real-life figures. B.A. Quinlan is obviously Tom Landry. Seth Maxwell is obviously Don Meredith. Delma Huddle is obviously Bob Hayes. This book illustrates that athletes are basically the same people that they were 30 years ago. They aren't better or worse. The main difference is a 24 hour media that magnifies players' actions for entertainment value and increased salaries.

Kramer's book is non-fiction, Gent's is fiction based on his experiences. They were written about the same time period, but present two pretty different views of pro football players. Was Kramer's version sanitized, or was Gent's exaggerated?

By the way, the standard disclaimer in Gent's book ("any similarity to real persons is coincidental" etc.) is, in this case, a joke. If "Seth Maxwell" isn't Don Meredith, then I'm Howard Cosell.

Despite my giving this novel only three stars, it is a fine novel and a very enjoyable read about professional football. The author was himself a five-year veteran of the Dallas Cowboys, and thus writes this novel with insight and authenticity. The prose is good, and this novel holds the reader's interest pretty much throughout.

I dinged this novel for a fairly simple reason. Having already seen the movie (about a million times; it is one of my all-time favorites) I expected this novel to be primarily about the ins-and-outs, politics and issues, concerning professional football. It is that, but it dwells in an overlong manner on the protagonist's dope habit and the novel almost becomes a story (or does become a story) primarily about substance abuse. I would have liked more football and less marijuana in the novel. This is not a judgment about the use of pot and other drugs; merely a preference by myself that I would rather read about professional football, which is a fascinating topic, than about marijuana addiction, which is not. Yes, I get it that the idea was that the physical and psychological stress of professional football is what causes much or all of the substance abuse. I still think that this element was overdone in the novel.

Despite my criticism, this is a fascinating and enjoyable read. I am not even a huge pro-football fan, and I found this novel to be very interesting. Recommended. RJB.

I bought this 30th annivesary "Hall of Fame Edition", and I just finished reading it. I thought it was weird that the first chapter and last chapter were identical. I didn't find out until just now, that my book was misprinted. Chapter 1 in the book, was NOT the same as Chapter 1 (Monday) in the "Look Inside" that's linked above.

That aside, I really liked the book. I don't think I missed too much without the first chapter. I've never seen the movie, that's next on my list.

Chapter 7 (Sunday) was a really GREAT chapter about a football game, really made me feel like I was IN THE GAME!

Go ahead, read the book. But, be wary of the "Hall of Fame Edition"

This book differs from the movie somewhat in that it concentrates more on Gent and the character reportedly based on Don Meredith. The book details Gent's existential angst, his copious use of drugs, and his obvious fascination with watching the exploits and hedonistic behavior of his teammates, especially the team's libidinous quarterback (Meredith?).

As some reviewers have noted, Gent is not very nice, to say the least, of Tom Landry and the team's management staff. I'm not sure if Gent is exaggerating in the way he depicts Landry as a machiavellian, hypocritical, ruthless, yet extremely talented coach. Still, Landry's character in the book, like most of the book's characters, is compelling and interesting.

The book is well-written, funny, entertaining and held my attention throughout. The book also provides an interesting view into American and East Texas culture of the late-1960s, including insight into racial integration and the pro football community. I recommend it.

COuldn't put it down. A cracking read about a week in the life of a NFL player in the 70's. Very entertaining.