Yeah but back then defenders were allowed to use samurai swords and baseball bats on attackers. And if you cried to the ref you got booked.
Back in Pele's days you were able to retalliate, even worse prior to him when an attacker could even charge on the keeper, score and nothing happened there.
O Rei was quite famous for his retalliation and sometimes even being the agressor, it was common in such context (not just him), a big part of the respect he commanded it's that he was mean and strong as a bull.
He took advantage of his superior strength and athletism and got revenge or attack when it suited him, of course mostly he was the victim and just reacted to awuful fouls.
What you are describing it's mainly the late 70's and mostly the 80's, with the worse scenarios probably were the WCs, Copas Americas and Libertadores matches (these last two still are pretty rough affairs, kind of a time machine where Refs forget what year is it).
In any case constant fouling still exists and a forward protesting, even rightfully most of times, ends on with yellow card for him, that's why peoiple going over the top with diving does not get that offensive players are constantly being pushed, grab, hit, etc...if that "it's part of the game" faking it, it's too, more when you can retalliate like the old days.
Sure, but the quality of the game overall back then was horrendous from the players. Based on the short sample of games I could find / see, your average player back then was similar to a pub player these days.
It's not true either that everyone was a pub player or the level was atrocious, it was mainly different.
Players like Di Stefano, Pele, Mane, Eusebio, Best, Sivori that were special in the stamina, speed, ability department (in case of Pele or Alfredo, on everything). Had more atributes to have the edge against a tad slower, less athletic rivals, but it's just that.
On the other hand it's not that Pele or Alfredo that had extraordinary atributes for even today, with current training would make 100 metres in 7 seconds, it doesn't work that way either.
And BTW if the scenario it's like people tend to think it was, no matter how good you can be, you'll have quite a difficult time to do anything if everyone was a donkey bar you, it's a team sport. People also many times take really awuful videos in terms of quality, like the bible, without taking in account that the edition, angles and edition was mostly awuful when filming, most of those vids also have frames issues and a large etc.
So at the end of the day, every period has its differences, even if at any sport we as humans become a tad faster, more stamina etc. There are always in games like football, specially in this sport, other characterictics and different aspects to take in account that doesn't make it as black and white as a 100 metres competition.
