A&E Bio on PELE Tonight!

Thanks

Thats really cool of you ..

 

Good catch.

 

after seeing that I realize Pele is a great player but a shady person.

 

same falcon!!!!!!! lol... it was really good, but there were too many ads and they were all long. The only full game I've ever seen with Pele was Italy v. Brazil, but this gave me a better and larger look at what he can do.

 

That goal he scores against Sweden where he chips the ball to himself over an onrushing defender and slots it home is one of the nicest goals...gets better every time.

A nice show. By the way, how much would it suck to be Pele's kid when you step on the soccer field? I know there's a fair amount of pressure down in Brazil as far as meeting expectations, but that's just ridiculous. Any Santos fans know how he was?

 

It was a good bio on Pele. Great as a player but poor on business relations IMO. His family life seem to be his low points due to his football lifestyles. But how many professional athletes go though family difficulties along with being a professional athlete. It was very interesting how Pele live his life through racism, political pressures and injuries from matches (especially the Brazil-Portugal game in WC 1966 - ouch!!!).
Is it ironic that in 1970, the press and fans felt Brazil weren't going to be good in the World Cup and that Pele was labeled overweigh and unfit.
Pele and 1970 Brazil = Ronaldo and 2002 Brazil?
Deja vu anyone?

 

I was upset that I missed it but found it will be shown again at 12!

 

I think the show was way too negative. He is not NEARLY as shady as they portrayed him.They didnt mention his Movie Appearances (Victory with Stallone for example) and BARELY showed Cosmos stuff.

 

I agree with you about the cosmos. I thought they should have shown more about the effect that had on spawning youth leagues all over the country and how it raised the profile of the NASL.

 

I also agree. They could at least show more nice clips and highlights of his days with the Cosmos. Consider the show was 60 minutes they couldn't fit it all from all the negative stuff on him.

 

The negative stuff is crap... they just tried to paint a bad picture of him. The guy was naive business wise early on and now has recovered and has lots of money which he earned honestly.

They could have spent time talking about positive things he has done like basicly plant the seed that has given us, the USA, a team that finished 8th in the WC. Pele is partially resposible for where soccer is today in AMerica...more than partially responsible.
They also didnt mention the fact that he stopped a war in AFrica once for a few days just by visiting the warring Nation.

They failed to mention that he doesnt smoke, never did drugs, never beat up on his wife, was never arrested, like many athletes are known for doing.

They failed to mention his brief hollywood career which was part of the Cosmos contract deal with Warner Brothers.

Again, I think a show like Biography tends to want to show ups and downs in a persons life to make it interesting, like a cliffhanger. So dont just assume that Pele is a bad guy because he had a few business deals that SOME say were shady.

I think they lost focus of his skills also. I dont think they expressed or showed enough of the Pele magic to make a newbie see why he is the best of all time.

Good to see the show FINALLY gave soccer a shot, dissapointed that it wasnt better. Then again i have a feeling A&E didnt produce it, looked maybe British with voice overs by the A&E guy.

 

I Agree that goal was amazing. 99.9% of players would have never even thought of knocking the ball over the defender, brilliant.

Its amazing how much the game has changed since the late 50's to 60's. I think they were trying to be fair about not only portraying him as a hero. His story is kind of a sad one after the 70 cup.

Any thoughts on how good he would be as a player today? Its obvious he was way ahead of his time athletically. Surely he would be a great star, but would he be as far ahead of the pack if he played today?

 

>>His story is kind of a sad one after the 70 cup.

Any thoughts on how good he would be as a player today? Its obvious he was way ahead of his time athletically. Surely he would be a great star, but would he be as far ahead of the pack if he played today?
>>

Sad after the 70's? Are you nuts? Financially it was his best years the 70's, 80's 80's...and he had a good time here in theUS. Nothing sad about it.

As a star today , did you see what the guy on the show said? Today he would score 2500 goals instead of 1200 cause the offensive players are more protected than in his days when yellow and red cards didnt exist.

 

Thanks for telling us about the show. I missed parts of it because I was putting the kid to bed, though. I'd like to see it again, and I'm sure they'll re-air it. Anyone know for sure if that's the case?

(I don't feel like researching it, not on a dial-up connection).

 

even though it didn't explore everything in his life that was the most in depth profile of Pele that I have seen. Also, with the movies. I've seen some of those and glad that clips weren't shown, they were stinkers.
Anyone rememeber when Gretzky was on Saturday Night Live a few years back and how awkward and stilted he looked? Well Pele was about 10 times worse.

 

the thing that stuck out in my mind is that he charges 50 grand per interview now. I seem to remember a miss veronica paysee interviewing him. Don't tell me SUM plopped down 50G's so this airhead could talk to him.

 

Speaking of Cosmos Pele footage--anyone know where his Cosmos highlights can be gotten a hold of? Or maybe like 74-79 NASL highlights?

 

Speaking of red cards, I particularlly liked that "Pele Strikes Back!" segment. How vicious was that one elbow he threw?! Having not seen too much old footage of soccer (Boys from Brazil was about as far back as I've seen), I was amazed at the fouls that went uncalled back then.

The other thing that added a new perspective: Pele was really into his personal accomplishments, kind of like a soccer Rickey Henderson.

Finally, did they not show his famous midfield chip? I only missed a couple of minutes when some kid selling magazines came to the door (as if all us recent college grads here have bags of money stacked somewhere just for him ), but I don't remember seeing it.

 

I hope Disney remakes this so we will only see the happy times. Pele deserves better treatment.

 

I found it very interesting that Pele didn't figure out how to be an Ambassador of Sport until he came to the US. Sure, he was the most recognized athlete on the planet prior to coming here, but he failed to profit from it. The US sports market has an interesting way of taking foriegn athletes of his stature (Gretzky, Fernando Valenzuela, Ichiro also come to mind) and turning them into cash machines.

 

Yeah, I thought it was a bit too negative at some points, but that's what any biography tends to portray. I was just glad they did a soccer one, and reiterated how much better he was than everyone else.

So until A and E does one for Mr. Maradona, I think his argument that He is the best player of all time can't be put to bed...or maybe he'll just shut up if we can score him an 8-ball...

 

I would imagine that his son was a capable but not necessarily good player. He only played for a few years. I was also surprised at the amount of blantant and dangerous fouls that went uncalled. Could you imagine how much money clubs would lose today if it was still like that? My guess is that as the clubs invested more money in players they made refs call a more strict game.