What are we to make of Peter Gent … whose third novel, The Franchise …, was published last month? Gent's first novel, the rowdy, swinging North Dallas Forty, received a lot of attention, sold vigorously, turned Gent into what Dan Jenkins might call a semi-celebrity and was made into a movie of sorts. Gent then wrote Texas Celebrity Turkey Trot, an admirable effort in that he was trying to write a novel that took him beyond the autobiographical environs of North Dallas Forty. Though this attempt didn't come off very well, Gent showed that he at least deserved to be looked upon as a genuine writer, rather than as a former football player fooling around with a typewriter….

There may have been a few other athlete-novelists, but none were quite Pete Gent, who came out of NFL warfare to become proficient in this radically different field of endeavor. Don't lightly...