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Best Game Ever, The: Colts vs. Giants, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Bowden
Creator: Phil Gigante
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $19.77
You Save: $10.18 (34%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 305612
Format: Audiobook, Cd, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Items: 5
ISBN: 1423367928
EAN: 9781423367925
ASIN: 1423367928
Publication Date: May 12, 2008 (In 1 Day)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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| Also Available In:
| • | Hardcover - The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL | | • | Audio Cassette - Best Game Ever, The: Colts vs. Giants, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL | | • | Audio CD - Best Game Ever, The: Colts vs. Giants, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL | | • | Audio CD - Best Game Ever, The: Colts vs. Giants, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL | | • | Audio CD - Best Game Ever, The: Colts vs. Giants, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL |
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Product Description
In 1958, the NFL was still in its infancy. Baseball was America?s favorite sport and football players made less money than teachers. But all that would change after the NFL Championship game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants played in Yankee Stadium on December 28 of that year. In The Best Game Ever, Mark Bowden delivers a brilliant narrative on the 1958 NFL Championship game, the story behind the key players in that game, and the effect the contest had on the modern game of football and today?s NFL.
The game, played on a freezing Sunday evening in front of 64,000 fans and millions of television viewers around the country, would go down as the greatest in football?s history. Amongst the Colts and Giants rosters there were 12 future Hall of Famers, including Colts greats Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, and Gino Marchetti, and Giants greats Frank Gifford, Sam Huff and assistant coaches Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry. An estimated 50 million viewers - at that time the largest crowd to have ever watched a football game - tuned in to see what would become the first sudden death contest in NFL history. It was a battle of the league?s best offense, held by the Colts, versus its best defense.
A sloppy first half in which the teams committed seven total turnovers saw the Colts jump out to a 14-3 halftime lead. But the Giants stormed back in the third quarter. After an heroic goal line stand early in the quarter, the Giants scored their first touchdown after a stunning 86-yard passing play took the Giants to the Colts one-yard line. Frank Gifford scored on a 15-yard passing play minutes later, giving the Giants a 17-14 lead late in the game. In the game?s final two minutes, Unitas marched the Colts from deep inside their defensive zone to the Giants? 15-yard line, forcing the game-tying field goal. The game would be decided in football?s first ever-sudden death, capped off by Alan Ameche?s two-yard run giving the Colts a 23-17 victory.
THE BEST GAME EVER is destined to be a sports classic.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Playbook of Mixed Success May 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The 1958 NFL championship game between the Colts and Giants has been chronicled and debated so much over the past 50 years that another book would seem to be past redundant.
But author Mark Bowden runs a fly route past the typical coverage and places the contest in a context of the NFL's evolution in the decade after the Second World War and relives the era through sketches of the participants, some who remain familiar names and others whose glory had faded like the print on the pages of sports sections in old newspapers.
The book is an nice primer to new fans and a decent stride down the sidelines to paydirt for those who have read extensively on this classic contest.
 Don't Believe All the Legends! May 8, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Raymond Emmett Berry did not have one leg shorter than the other; his father was NEVER called "Ray" by anyone except this author; and he went to Schreiner Junior College because he weighed 151 pounds his senior season in high school and, more importantly, because former Paris Junior College head football coach Chena Gilstrap had just moved to Kerrville as the new Schreiner head coach.
Coach Gilstrap was a life-long friend of both Raymond Emmett--his family name and his "Paris, Texas" name--and his father, Mark Raymond Berry, who was always called "Raymond," "Coach," or "Mr. Berry" by everyone who knew him. Another life-long friend was Gene Stallings--the Texas A&M, Alabama, St. Louis Cardinals coach--who replaced Raymond as the left end at Paris High School after Raymond graduated.
Why couldn't the author just ask Raymond to clarify some of those "legends" and errors instead of just copying them from some old newspaper story? Although they distract from the story--especially if you are Raymond Emmett's cousin, revered his father, and your brother played for Coach Gilstrap at UT Arlington--the story of the game itself is worth every minute of this read. Although I'm obviously somewhat biased, it was certainly the greatest NFL football game I ever saw!
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