This image is the cover for the book North Dallas Forty

North Dallas Forty

National Bestseller: The “powerful novel” about the hidden side of pro football, written by a former NFL player (Newsweek).
 On the field, the men who play football are gladiators, titans, and every other kind of cliché. But when they leave the locker room they are only men. Peter Gent’s classic novel looks at the seedy underbelly of the pro game, chronicling eight days in the life of Phil Elliott, an aging receiver for the Texas team. Running on a mixture of painkillers and cortisone as he tries to keep his fading legs strong, Elliott tries to get every ounce of pleasure out of his last days of glory, living the life of sex, drugs, and football. Adapted for the screen in 1979, this novel, written by ex-Dallas Cowboy Peter Gent, is widely considered the best football novel of all time.

Peter Gent

Peter Gent (b. 1942) never intended to become a football player. In high school and college he was a basketball center, and upon graduation was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets to play in the NBA. On a whim, he attended a training camp for the Dallas Cowboys, who asked him to join the team. Over four seasons he did well for the team, but his contributions off the field were more important. The first Cowboy to wear his hair long, Gent brought the ’60s to one of America’s most conservative franchises. At his career’s end, Gent turned to writing, debuting with the sensational North Dallas Forty, a look at the dark side of professional football, which was made into a film in 1979 starring Nick Nolte. He lives in his hometown of Bangor, Michigan.

Open Road Integrated Media