Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos Page #8

We had no business

being in San Antonio, Texas,

Jacksonville, Florida,

Memphis, Tennessee, Las Vegas,

'Hawaii, Calgary, Edmonton.'

All became stops on the Cosmos'

traveling circus.

It was like traveling with

the Rolling Stones. I mean, it was big.

The whole thing was lightning in a bottle.

It was a huge, huge aphrodisiac.

'It wasn't even behind closed doors.

'On the flight out to the Cosmos'

championship game in 1977,'

there were two sex acts

performed right on the plane,

headed for the championship game.

I was 27 years old and my editor said,

"Would you like to cover the Yankees?"

The most coveted beat in this country.

I said, "No, thank you.

I'll stick here with the Cosmos.

"I'm having too good a time.

Just too good a time."

The Cosmos' entourage included

a huge press contingent,

translators for more than a dozen

languages, even personal assistants.

All on the road

at Warner Communications' expense.

Giorgio's philosophy of life is that

he needs people to do things for him.

He doesn't have to do anything for them.

He's allowing them to be with him.

So Giorgio befriended Peppe.

'I wanted success.

I wanted to be there, on top.'

I wanted to succeed, and most of all

I wanted him to succeed.

'I felt that his success was my success.'

He became like the rug of Chinaglia.

Chinaglia stepped on him all day.

"Peppe, get me a pack of cigarettes!

Peppe, get me a lighter!"

That was Peppe Pinton.

'We were in the hotel

and heard some noise at 4:00 A.M..'

And it's Peppe carrying a television set

wearing a woman's pink nightgown.

So after we stopped laughing, we said,

"Peppe, what are you doing, man?"

And Peppe starts cursing. He goes,

"I'm busy. I'm in my room having a party.

"Giorgio called me,

the reception was no good on his TV.

- "He wanted me to bring his TV up."

- I wanted to watch television.

I had a bad one. He got to give me

his TV! What's the big deal?

The '78 Cosmos rolled into the playoffs

with a record of 24 wins and 6 losses.

They shattered league records for

points, goals and average attendance.

And in the first game of a two-game

playoff series against Minnesota,

they were stunned, 9-2.

'When we came back

to New York, Firmani our coach said,

"'After lunch just wait. Steve Ross

is coming to say a few words."'

He said, "I was on the West Coast

when we played Minnesota

"with 750 of our delegates,

"'and they didn't want to talk

about our latest project.

"'All they wanted to talk about

was that the Cosmos had lost 9-2."'

He said, "I felt a little bit embarrassed.

And I don't like to feel embarrassed."

And then he went on to say virtually,

"We are the best.

"We pay the best for the best.

We want the best performances.

"'If you don't want to be a part of that,

see the coach and you can go now."'

It was a fantastic motivational speech.

The 4-0 victory tied the series and

forced a sudden death mini-game.

'The Cosmos have

but one last chance.

'Five seconds and 35 yards separate

the Cosmos from elimination.

'The shooter, number 5, Carlos Alberto,

'has never before participated

in a shoot-out.'

'It was so tense.

Talk about excitement and build-up.'

That matched anything I've been

involved with in the whole of my career.

'If he misses, the season's over.

'Lettieri out. Shot! Goal!

'The Cosmos have won it!

An incredible comeback!

'The Cosmos are going to Portland!"

The win would carry the Cosmos to

a second straight NASL championship.

And the league to the Promised Land.

'ABC Sports presents...

'the North American Soccer League.'

We put a tremendous effort

behind the NASL package in 1979.

We had top-flight production.

We had tremendous promotion.

'And we assigned Jim McKay.'

'I'm Jim McKay and this is a moment

that I will remember

'because we're about to do something

we've done many times at ABC Sports.

'We're going to begin something

brand new to us.'

We wanted to give it our best shot

and I think we put everything behind it.

'I was the television expert.

'I had a very different view

of our television potential.'

Rather, I wanted us on anthology shows

like the "Wide World of Sports",

with standings, players, saves, goals,

player of the week,

to build all the extrinsics of the sport

and only put the championship game

on television.

- 'That was a marvelous half of soccer.'

- 'Beautiful half indeed. Wonderful play.'

'And I said

we will go on television and fail.'

Then they will blame soccer.

I got out-voted.

The Cosmos would be the cornerstone

of ABC's coverage.

With the team's success under

Chinaglia's handpicked coach Firmani

and without the guidance of Clive Toye,

the Cosmos' brash leading scorer

began calling the shots.

'When Giorgio said, "I can put

together this team better than you,"'

everybody said OK, because

they didn't know what to do.

'Giorgio ran a shadow

government on the Cosmos.'

He was the man behind the curtain.

In 1979, the team matched

its own league record

of 24 wins and 6 losses.

They'd again be pushed

to the brink of elimination

in the conference finals,

this time by upstart Vancouver.

Like the year before, it would come

down to a beat-the-clock shoot-out.

'The Cosmos have

one final chance to tie the shoot-out.

'Morais' shot... is in! It's in!

'But it's too late. The goal does not

count. The five seconds is up.

'The Cosmos' reign is over!'

Time ran out for the Cosmos.

Little did they know the clock was

also ticking down on the league.

After just one year,

ABC had seen enough.

'We did everything possible

to make it work.'

And unfortunately

we had a 2.7 rating in 1979,

'and roughly that was about on average

Television was handled

very poorly by ABC

and certainly by the league itself.

Nobody wanted to watch it on TV.

Absolutely nobody.

'I remember a very important game,'

nationally televised

at 12:
00 in the middle of July,

and they wondered

why the ratings weren't there.

Unnecessary to say it failed.

Soccer failed. It didn't have to.

League attendance

would peak in 1980.

New York would win its third title

in four years.

But without a network television deal,

the dream of soccer as a national sport

was all but gone.

'1980 came and Chinaglia

started to mingle with things.'

And I didn't want to put up with it.

'I resigned.'

Ultimately Giorgio became the president

of the New York Cosmos.

He wasn't loyal to us.

He wasn't loyal to the game.

'He was loyal to himself.'

Just because you are a carpenter

doesn't mean that you are an architect.

Giorgio was almost single-handedly

responsible for the death of the Cosmos.

He didn't run it to the ground. It was

running to the ground before that.

I heard that Giorgio started to pay

high salaries to his friends.

And I heard that he ran the losses

of the team in the millions of dollars.

High millions.

What are you talking about, millions?

No, I don't think so.

'You don't believe that

Giorgio Chinaglia ran the Cosmos?'

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