MAKING SOCCER A `KICK IN THE GRASS'

Abstract

Soccer's popularity in the United States surged during the mid-1970s when Pelé played in this country. Although the Brazilian star certainly deserves credit for the interest he brought to both professional and youth soccer, acknowledgment is also owed to the writers of mainstream periodicals who presented the sport to a largely ignorant and apathetic audience. An analysis of several print sources published during Pelé's three seasons with the New York Cosmos reveals that the media was chiefly concerned with simultaneously entertaining and educating their assumed audience of largely new or unconverted soccer fans. Moreover, the rhetorical strategies employed by these writers effectively undercut decades-old stereotypes and presented the sport in a way that was more appealing to the `average American'.