Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The world, and particularly Brazil, lost a great one when Edson Arantes do Nascimento, famously known as Pelé, died on Thursday.
Pelé was incredible in the sport of football, famously known in the U.S. as soccer, with championship play that lifted the spirits and the national pride of South America’s largest nation, even as it suffered through a brutal dictatorial regime in the 1970s and ’80s.
Widely known as “the king of football,” Pelé is the only player to ever win the World Cup three times and is arguably the greatest ever in his sport. He was a global sensation in his day, loved and respected even by his staunchest opponents.
I got to watch him play after he had delivered three World Cup titles to Brazil. He went on to play three seasons with the New York Cosmos and my brother Ron, who was living in New York City at the time, took me to Giants Stadium to watch the superstar in action. It was a performance unlike anything I’d ever seen.
I’ve never played competitive soccer, but a refined knowledge of the game wasn’t necessary to watch and admire Pelé’s skills. I don’t remember the final score, or even the opposing team, but I remember Pelé’s incredible athletic prowess.
I guess every sport has larger-than-life athletes from time to time, someone who lifts their sport to a higher level — and it’s often the “backstory” coupled with their abilities that take them to iconic heights.
Pelé started playing soccer with rags wrapped up to resemble a ball, and his skills — borne from inherent natural ability — grew from there. He’s now part of Brazil’s national identity.
History is rife with athletes who transcend their chosen sport and become symbols of something bigger. Mohammed Ali was one such man — some have called him the greatest boxer ever (I’d argue that, in the ring, Jack Johnson was even better in his day), but Ali’s legacy goes far beyond his sport. His refusal to fight in Vietnam cost him dearly as an athlete but earned him a place of respect in America’s cultural history.
Others, like Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics, and NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in recent times, also suffered setbacks for their defiance, but they each left indelible marks off the fields and arenas where they competed.
The power of sports often goes far beyond the sport itself. Pride and identity get wrapped up in the home team, with hometown heroes emerging from great athletic feats to go on to bigger and better things. Go to Lovington sometime and ask a local who’s the biggest name to come out of Lovington and they’ll likely tell you it’s Brian Urlacher, the former linebacker for the Chicago Bears — not Paul Foster, who went on to become a super-wealthy Texas oil man who’s donated millions of dollars to medical facilities in Lubbock and El Paso. I’m not aware of anything in Lovington named after Foster, but the Lovington High School football field was named after Urlacher in 2019.
There are those who prefer that athletes, movie stars and other celebrities remain in their respective lanes and stay out of politics, and for them athletes like Pelé and basketball great Michael Jordan, both of whom stayed politically neutral, are heroes. Others, like me, see nothing wrong with superstars using their positions to address things that matter to them, even if it’s controversial. There are, after all, bigger issues than the game itself.
But deference needs to be given to the late, great Pelé, who just wanted to play the sport he grew up on. And play he did, like no one else, before or since.
Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at: