Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos Page #6

I remember one night, there was Pel

with a blonde on each arm.

He looked at me, smiled and said,

"Not for the book, my friend."

He'd sit in the lobby doing the old

winky-winky,

like he was on the cruise.

Their shared passion for life may have

cost them a shot at the championship.

In the second round

of the 1976 playoffs,

the heavily favored Cosmos

faced the Tampa Bay Rowdies

and Rodney Marsh.

We knew about the Cosmos team

and the personnel,

'so we had a limo

that met them off the plane

'with two girls in the limo

and two bottles of Chivas Regal.'

And 24 hours later at the game,

they both came out onto the pitch

looking very much the worse for wear.

Tampa Bay won the match 3-1.

Steve Ross was not happy.

He didn't like to lose games.

No, he didn't like to lose in anything.

He didn't like to lose in board games.

A soccer game?

He hated to lose a soccer game.

And championship games?

You didn't want to lose one of those.

Immediately following the loss in '76,

Ross took his team

where it could be truly appreciated.

We went on tour playing all over Europe.

'France and then Belgium

and Switzerland and Italy.'

They went on two exhibition tours

in the span of seven months.

We became like the ambassadors

of good will.

Steve Ross wanted them

to be treated like great stars.

'We traveled first class,

five-star hotels, unlimited budgets.'

No such thing as per diem.

They were spending

shareholders' money!

The publicity that we generated

for Warner was enormous.

Publicity that they couldn't buy.

One little stockholder said to us

at the annual meeting,

"What does this cost?

Do you lose money?"

He says, "Well, we lose some."

"How much do you lose?"

He looked at her straight in the eye

and said, "Two cents a share."

And the whole audience applauded.

What a wonderful venture this is!

Not recognizing that

two cents a share was $5mn!

In 10 years,

American soccer had developed

into a different game

than world football.

The league had tailored the rules

for American fans.

'There had to be a winner.

If it ended 2-2, it went into a mini-game.'

'If it stayed at 2-2 or even became 3-3,'

it had to go to what was called

a NASL shoot-out,

'going one-on-one with the goal keeper

from 35 yards out,

'and having five seconds

to get your shot off.'

- And I loved it.

- I thought it was fantastic.

It makes the game more emotional.

I still think in Europe they should try it.

In the spring of '77, Steve Ross

was at last able to move the Cosmos

across the Hudson River

to Giants Stadium

for Pel's final season.

While the League had

Americanized the game,

Steve Ross wanted to take it

a step further.

He asked me to prepare a plan

which included

the Cosmos cheerleaders.

The half-time show.

Bugs Bunny, who I was able to get

from Jungle Habitat.

Americanizing the game.

'Americans like putting

their own twist to things.'

That's what they were trying to do-

to have more of the American fans

come in and embrace it.

At the same time, he continued

internationalizing his team,

surrounding Pel and Chinaglia

with 14 new players

from seven different countries.

We were the first team to have

a totally international squad.

'It was like Noah's Ark.'

There was something to please

everybody.

Nevertheless, they lost three

of their first five games,

averaging little more than 20,000 fans

in their new giant home.

Here we're putting up a lot of money

on the field and we're not drawing.

So he wanted to make a change.

Raise the bar.

They sent me to Germany.

They sent me to sign

Franz Beckenbauer.

Turned back by Geoff Hurst in England

in the classic World Cup final of 1966,

the Kaiser would lead his country

to glory eight years later.

He was the ultimate team leader-

the one that organized in the back,

who is just so calm and collected

on the ball.

'You never got the sense that he was

in any sort of state of panic,

'regardless of whether he was up

by four goals or down by four goals.'

Twice voted European

player of the year,

Franz Beckenbauer was lured

to America at the height of his career.

I knew Pel and Giorgio Chinaglia

were there,

but the rest I didn't know

so it was an adventure.

'Giorgio was berserk, "Why

do we need to hire Beckenbauer?"'

"Why do we need Beckenbauer here?

We don't need him at all!"

'Now he was the third banana.'

Beckenbauer's first game was

a 4-2 loss to arch rival, Tampa Bay.

The following week, they beat Toronto

at home in front of 31,000 fans.

Steve Ross wanted more.

Steve was what you would call

a star-f***er.

Every time, somebody was in New York

shooting a film or doing an album,

they got dragged to a Cosmos game.

'Warners owned a movie

company and six record companies.'

- You can get celebrities. That's easy.

- Actors, actresses, politicians.

You name it, we had them all

at the stadium.

I don't know who they were.

The locker room was littered with people.

- It was becoming a joke.

- Henry Kissinger never missed a game.

I have a passion

for what we call soccer.

I remember once Gordon Bradley looked

over in the corner and saw this guy

with longish hair,

skinny as a rail,

looked like he was on drugs.

He told our security guy,

"Get that guy out of here."

"Who is this guy?" Everybody came

to him and said, "Mick Jagger."

But he didn't recognize him

because he looked so terrible.

Jagger and Kissinger were

welcomed on a weekly basis,

while the first two men on the Cosmos

team were quietly shown the door.

I came in May '77. After three weeks,

Clive Toye, the president, resigned.

'Gordon Bradley, the coach, was fired.'

I said to myself,

"Oh, my God, where am I?"

Just weeks before he was fired,

Bradley had dropped Chinaglia

from the first team.

They didn't like me, so the only way

to get rid of this guy's to drop him.

But they have little minds.

They thought I'd ask for a transfer.

Some people push the buttons.

On Giorgio's recommendation,

Ross hired coach Eddie Firmani

away from Tampa Bay.

He brought in Eddie Firmani to coach

the team knowing he'd do his bidding.

Just put the balls in front of Giorgio.

Giorgio wants the ball in front not behind.

'He flowered under Eddie

and scored many goals.'

Knock all those beautiful balls

just in front of him.

- They'll go straight in the goal.

- I try.

It is unquestionable that

Giorgio Chinaglia had a malign influence

'over Steve Ross,

and therefore over the Cosmos.'

No question about it.

And I say "malign" advisedly.

I can think of stronger words but maybe

women and children are watching.

What they don't understand,

if you do your job good

I'm going to give you a lot of credit.

I have my credit on the field.

Why do I need anything else?

My goal was to have

the world's best team,

and it was good for the company,

that was my goal, nothing else.

The lunatics took over the asylum.

He was always pleasant to me.

You know, he's a suck-up guy.

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