The key piece of info: "Pele, who scored 1,281 goals in his 22-year career and is the only player to be on three World Cup champions, will be profiled on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET."
The SportsCentury project was supposed to have the 100 greatest athletes (originally way back in 1999). It seemed to be amended to "North American" athletes just to get Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe in there, mind you. Now, SportsCentury does profiles of everyone from Dennis Rodman to Ray Lewis. If there was a TRUE SportsCentury, it would have included Pele, Cruyff, Don Bradman, Juan Fangio, Dawn Fraser, Paavo Nurmi, Fanny Blankers-Koen, and a jillion other athletes from other nations.
I think Pele was included in the original 100, based on his time with the Cosmos. If I remember correctly, they put him lower on the list than perhaps warranted, but used the (almost-legitimate) excuse that, by the time he played here in North America, he was on the downside of his career, and his skills were somewhat diminished. By the way, who's Don Bradman?
Australian cricket player, generally considered to be the greatest player of the sport in the 20th Century. Possibly of all time, but since there's not much film footage of the 18th and 19th century greats, one can't be sure.