The movie Sylvester Stallone called “one of the low points of my life”
Even at the beginning of his career, Sylvester Stallone carved out a reputation for himself as a tough guy. After all, this was the actor who trained like a man possessed and proceeded to give some of the most physical performances in the likes of Rambo and Rocky.
Action cinema would not be what it is today without Stallone, who has proven himself time and time again capable of handling whatever physical challenge is presented. However, there was one moment in his career when he seemed to struggle with one of the greatest sports of all time.
Naturally, we associate Stallone with the sport of boxing, but the truth is that old Sly had also tried his hand at football in the 1981 sports war film Escape to Victory, which starred Michael Caine, Max von Sydow, and a swathe of famous footballers, including Bobby Moore, Pele, and Ossie Ardiles.
Sylvester Stallone had previously thought that football was an easy sport to play, but he quickly learned the physical demands of the sport. “I thought Rocky was tough, but I’ve never trained so hard,” Sly had once said. “I thought soccer was a sissy sport until they kicked the ball into my stomach, and I crossed the border into Austria with haematomas on both hips.”
Michael Caine, who was 47 when the film was made, had seemingly shown Stallone what the British sport was all about and was said to have left the Rocky and Rambo star with broken ribs and a dodgy shoulder. Before long, a broken finger was also suffered due to the power and prowess of football icon Pele.
The result was that Stallone went on to call Escape to Victory “one of the low points of my life”. He said, “What a butt-kicking I got! I still have a broken finger from trying to block a penalty by Pele.” The film told of a group of Allied prisoners of war in a German prison camp during World War II who are invited to play in a football match against a German team.
Discussing the moment Pele, widely regarded as one of the greatest players ever to play the game, struck a ball with all his might at Stallone, the actor noted, “He put on a pair of World War II shoes, which were steel-tipped, and the ball was like a cannonball – it was twice as thick and heavy as footballs are today… He was telling me he was going to take a shot, and I thought, ‘It’s soccer, what’s the big deal? It’s easy.'”
Naturally, the ball shot past Stallone and into the goal. Still, Pele wasn’t entirely done there and picked up another ball and blasted it past the quivering Stallone between the sticks. That ball actually “ripped through the back of the net and broke a window” of the nearby barracks where the shoot occurred. Suddenly, Stallone found a “new kind of respect” for football, understanding the game’s physical demands.
Sure, Stallone might be one of the most physically impressive stars in Hollywood, but he was still dealt a lesson in the realities of sport, showing him that what might be perceived as a “sissy” game could contribute to the lowest point of his life.