Peter Gent - Post-Football Life

Post-Football Life

After leaving professional football, Gent wrote a semi-autobiographical novel titled North Dallas Forty, for which he will be remembered the most. Many have hypothesized that the main characters of the book, a quarterback and a wide receiver, are based on Gent and Don Meredith. The novel, published in 1973, exposed the seamier side of American football. It examines the NFL's hypocrisy regarding drug use—as heavy use of painkillers is recklessly encouraged to keep players on the field but personal use of marijuana and narcotics is frowned on. The book was made into a movie of the same name in 1979 starring Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, G.D. Spradlin, and Dayle Haddon. Gent wrote the screenplay for the film. He experienced creative difficulties with producer Frank Yablans on the set of the film.

Gent made his home in Texas for many years, where he was friends with many of the significant creative minds of the day, including Larry L. King, Billy Lee Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Bud Shrake, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Dan Jenkins. They called themselves the Mad Dogs.

Gent also examined the corruption deriving from the huge sums of money involved in modern professional sports in a sequel volume entitled North Dallas After 40, published in 1989, and in an unrelated football novel The Franchise, published in 1983.