Although not directly Earthquakes related, the hour will feature Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known a little better by some other name.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Before Goodsport goes any crazier from talking to himself... There is a slight tie-in, albeit with the old NASL Quakes. Legend has it that at that point, the largest crowd ever to watch anything at Spartan Stadium was 25,048 on 8/22/76* for a 2-1 Quakes win over Pele's NY Cosmos. (Att. figure from Colin Jose's NASL tome.) People were sitting in trees because the stands, which weren't as expansive as now, were full. Thanks for the heads-up, Goodsie...I never would have known this was on A&E tonight without your post. *Almost 26 years ago. Ouch.
I had a lot to say but it got wiped out, so here goes... Interesting why he is considered without peer the greatest ever, but at home he's considered a sellout who did little. Actually, he did protest against the regime at the time but didn't want to say anything for obvious reasons. He did so by retiring on top after the 1970 World Cup, and he stated in an 1994 print interview with SI that he refused to take part in the 1974 World Cup for political reasons. If he sold out, so did Tony Hawk, Prince, and Lenny Kravitz. No matter, it's still worth the watch. Set your VCRs. Cheers!
Re: I had a lot to say but it got wiped out, so here goes... Oh well, no need to watch Biography now, thanx Nap! Sean
Even scarier was that I attended the game. Unfortunately, although a lot of the players (in the NASL) were world famous, it wasn't until I was older that I found out more about them...
In a similar vein, has anyone else caught "History of Football" on KCSM TV60? I caught just a bit of the series last night and it was a wonderful treatment of the political history of FIFA. I hope it's a series...Monday nights at 10...anyone else have more 411?
Yes, it is a series, Spartacus. Mondays at 10. The only one I've seen was 'the media', but my dad has seen more. Thats all I know. Sean
Thanks for posting this G--we enjoyed the show, and for lack of a better description (it doesn't exist), Pele was an amazing player. I thought the end was kinda sad though, when his former Santos teammate was singing their team song.
All I can say was great show--they should have reserved his Bio for 90 or 120 minutes. Idealistically Pele is due for a SportsCentury ep. Cheers!
Me too! There is more than one hour that they could fit in. I would have loved to know more about his years with the Cosmos--too brief. Maybe know as to how and why he got himself into a lot of trouble, again with his finances and so forth--it's a common occurance with athletes with a lot of money, be the superstar or the common--they invest their money into financial deals and many of them go bust. Also maybe talk about why the Brazilians detested him for his leaning towards the dictatorship. Surely he couldn't speak out against them--their is a public perception of things and a private persona behind that--I'm sure he could have tried to speak out but in his stature what could you do? Still a good show, but a lot more can be told.
http://www.biography.com should have something. For the sake of argument this is ongoing at the Business and Media thread: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=7089&perpage=15&pagenumber=1
At the end when they showed Pele playing in the NASL did anyone notice him scoring against the old Quakes team? How cool was that?
What would be cool is a DVD documentary on NASL that talks about the teams and the stars of the league from beginning to end, with lots of highlights!
      They're not great soccer players.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
      I completely agree with you, but I doubt that ESPN does.       The ending credits to the A&E Biography on Pele revealed that the episode was produced by the BBC in association with A&E. Even though the narrator was an American, it was obvious by whom they interviewed throughout the episode that it was British-produced (which could explain why the reference to Pele's days with the Cosmos got short shrift)... so of course, the subject of Pele's soccer (football) was taken seriously.       ESPN SportsCentury, on the other hand, is an entirely American-produced show - and in a series that even lists at least one or two racehorses as the Twentieth Century's top athletes, not a single player from the world's most popular sport was even considered for an episode (they should stop touting it as a show about "The Century's Greatest Athletes" and describe it for what it really is... a show about "The Century's Greatest Athletes who've played in North America north of the Rio Grande River, excluding Greenland and Iceland"! )       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Very common for an athlete such as him--ask Julius Erving, Ervin Johnson, Larry Bird, etc. His son speaks fluent English since he spent some of his time in the US during and after the Cosmos days.