Red and Black Power

By: André | October 19th, 2009

Nelson Rodrigues was a brazilian dramatist – also a journalist and writer. He was born on August 23, 1912 in Recife. He moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1916 and there lived under the influence of his journalist father, working since he was 14, covering the police beat for his father’s newspaper. By 15 he dropped out of school and by 16 he already had his own column. But in a couple years his family’s business would fail. His dad died and he and his brothers had to seek work at rival newspapers.

Nelson Rodrigues and Zico

During this period, after Nelson was diagnosed with tuberculosis, he started writing his plays, most of them considered outstanding. He also wrote some books, soup operas, movie scripts and novels.
Nelson Rodrigues was a huge Fluminense fan. Crazy about his team and about football, he wrote books and chronicles about the game, especially about the supporters, mainly those who went to stadium to watch a Fla-Flu (our way to call the derby Flamengo – Fluminense). He was the one who said:

Fluminense is the only tricolor team in the world. The rest are only three colors teams.

In the opening day of paradise, there was an opened-gates Fla-Flu, and people ran down the walls.

(And his most famous one)

Fla-Flu came 40 minutes before anything.

He and his brother, Mário Filho, were very important spreading football in Rio and creating the Fla-Flu mystique. Maracanã is officially named after Mário Filho (Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho) and Nelson Rodrigues called his brother as “The Crowds Creator”, honoring him for his role in the popularization of football in Rio as a football commentator on radio.

In 1955, when Flamengo turned 60 years old, Nelson Rodrigues wrote a chronicle about the team, describing poetically how Flamengo used to play football and how he missed that on the other teams. The text was (called “Flamengo Sessentão”) originally published on an old magazine called Manchete Esportiva (November 26, 1955), and later joined the book À Sombra das Chuteiras Imortais (In the Shadow of Immortal Football Boots).

Here is a fragment from the text showing what I consider to be the closest anyone has come to describe what’s the power of Flamengo’s shirt.

To anyone, the shirt is as good as a tie. Not to Flamengo. To Flamengo, the shirt is everything. Has already happened several times that – when the team isn’t good enough, the shirt is hoisted, unfurled, by invisible hands. Opponents, referees, tremble, then, intimidated, cowed, beaten. Maybe there will come the day when Flamengo will not need players as well as managers, or anything else. Will suffice its shirt, opened at the arc. And in the frenzy of a helpless opponent, the red and black shirt will be an impregnable bastille.

10 da gavea

Is really exciting to read something like this written by a fan of your rival team, isn’t it? This is the proof that my team is admired and respect, even by my major rivals, even by the most intelligent ones. This is how Flamengo became one of the most glorious teams, with the largest number of fans around the world, winning 31 Rio State Championships, two Brazilian Cups, five Brazilian Leagues, one Libertadores da América and one Intercontinental Cup.

This is why people say you can’t let Flamengo get close to the top. If you let, Flamengo will certainly win the title. Yesterday we beat Palmeiras (1st on Brazilian League) 0-2, growing the streak to 9 matches, and now, with 8 matches to play, we are 6 points behind the leaders. If you say it is too many points and too few matches, you don’t know Brazilian League, because here the champions are known with only two matches to play.

I don’t know if we’ll win the title or even if we’ll be one of the 4 qualified teams to Libertadores da América 2010, but I know the other teams let us get closer and you know what people say. And what people say, tends to be true.