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On December 28, 1958, the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts met under the lights of Yankee Stadium for the NFL Championship game. Played in front of sixty-four thousand fans and millions of television viewers around the country, the game would be remembered as the greatest in football history. On the field and roaming the sidelines were seventeen future Hall of Famers, including Colts stars Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, and Gino Marchetti, and Giants greats Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, and assistant coaches Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry. An estimated forty-five 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—the Colts—versus its best defense—the Giants. And it was a contest between the blue-collar Baltimore team versus the glamour boys of the Giants squad. The Best Game Ever is a brilliant portrait of how a single game changed the history of American sport. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the championship, it is destined to be a sports classic.
All NFL Roads Lead to this game
| Customer Rating:   | The 1958 NFL Championship Game is and always will be the starting point for any discussion about the birth of modern pro football. While some consider it the greatest game ever played, I think an argument can be made against that. Bowden recalls a list of the sloppy play that were part of this game. However, what is undoubtedly true is that this was the most important game in NFL history. Pro football was not the dominant sport and money making machine of today. Baseball still ruled the roost of professional sport. Bowden nicely weaves the elements that converged to give this game its importance -- growth of television in post-WWII America, a game that ran into prime time viewing hours so millions more than die-hard fans were tuning in to catch the end of the game, the first sudden death championship game in the NFL and the backdrop of the most important American city and the pantheon of sports, Yankee Stadium.
Bowden does a solid job, especially as he zeroes in on Raymond Berry and Johnny Unitas, the most unlikely of stars to emerge. However, I couldn't help feel that something was missing. I was left wanting more -- more detail, more context, more perspective. I felt like Bowden delivered the facts but a game of this magnitude and importance deserved more.
This is a solid book, certainly a quick read and well worth the investment. It certainly does match the magnitude of the game which it is covering, but is a great starting point for any fan of the NFL. |
Plenty of meat for most and a quick enjoyable read
| Customer Rating: | | I really never knew much about pre-Super Bowl era football except for what I've read on the Vince Lombardi coached the Packers (and his bio is fantastic BTW). This account really gives a nice history of the NFL leading up to this game and sketches brief but accurate bios of many of the games key participants. In particualr Raymond Berry gets a LOT of coverage, so does Johhny Unitas, to lesser extent so do Gifford, Ameche, Donovan, Big Daddy Lipscomb, Conerly, and Moore. He does an excellent job summarizing the game including excerpting radio broadcasts in key spots (the TV record is gone, much the way Larsen's '56 perfect game is gone, what were these execs thinking destroying this stuff?!). I don't have a complaint because this was a lot of new info to me, the reason I give it 4 stars is because those who are Giant's fans may find it Colts heavy. Those expecting a lot about the birth of the NFL will find it really ends with this game save a quick, Joe Namath signed for a lot, and soon everyone made money (except those like Bert Bell who dies shortly afterwards)which is really just a few pages at the end. Overall if you are interested in this and don't know the story yet, it's a great read. If you are wel versed in this story already it may not be for you. |
Lukewarm retelling of often tall story
| Customer Rating: | Mark Bowden has written some amazing and riveting works of non-fiction and would certainly rate in the top five of anyone today but this work really does not do his prior great writing justice. Basically he takes a lot of other people's work and pardon the pun he treads on well worn turf. Bowden does not reveal any new or insightful offerings into the game, already one of the most well known and well written about games in history. (It precedes my time on this earth so I can't say how it ranks but I will go by the accounts and say it was one of the greatest of all time.)
As a fan of football I would suggest reading it because Bowden is still a great writer and this is a great subject. Still he writes as a fan and as such this is very fluffy and doesn't have much in the way of focus or the hard edge Black Hawk Down and Guests of the Ayatollah had. But still go ahead and read it as it's very enjoyable regardless. |
Good Look at Turning Point in History of the NFL
| Customer Rating: | | I enjoyed reading this book about a key turning point in the history of the NFL. Once the college game was more popular, but starting around the time of this game the NFL took over the nation's interest. While that was the result of many factors, the excitement of this game was certainly one of them. I had also recently read the biography of Johnny Unitas, and the two together tell the interesting story of the NFL in transition from second fiddle to baseball and college football to premier sports franchise in the country. |
Enjoyable portrait of a great moment in pigskin history
| Customer Rating: | In recent times, using the adjective "best" in the title of a book about a sporting event has been used liberally. A golf match, the seventh game of the World Series and the NCAA basketball championship tilt have all received the designation as the greatest contest in the history of the sport. Mark Bowden's THE BEST GAME EVER casts its lot with the championship game celebrating its 50th anniversary this football season. The New York Giants and Baltimore Colts battled at Yankee Stadium in the first overtime game in football history. It was watched by millions of fans on their grainy black-and-white televisions, some who still recall the vision of Colts running back Alan Ameche plunging into the end zone to score the winning touchdown in sudden death overtime.
Bowden's title is ironic because, while it had a lasting impact on the National Football League, the championship game was more memorable for miscues than for quality. A crucial moment in the third quarter when the Giants made a goal line stand was the result of Ameche running the wrong play. But legends are built upon success, not failure. The game also marked the introduction of John Unitas and Raymond Berry to a nation of fans, unaware of their football talent. Unitas coolly led a drive in the fourth quarter to tie the game. Berry's 12 pass receptions are an NFL championship game record that stands today.
Though the game itself has been chronicled on many occasions, THE BEST GAME EVER recounts a number of details in a slightly different fashion. Using transcripts of the game's radio broadcasts, Bowden recreates some of the twists and turns that made the contest so memorable. Interspersed with the game details are biographical chapters of many of the players who dotted the rosters of the two teams. From Berry, Unitas and Sam Huff, to coaches Tom Landry, Weeb Ewbank and Vince Lombardi, the total number of participants ultimately enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is 17.
Remembering this epic game 50 years after the fact, this reader is struck by some new details. When time expired and the teams were tied at 17, many of the players thought the game was over. Some began heading to the locker rooms only to be admonished by the officials that an overtime period would commence. Sudden death has become a staple of professional football, but the 1958 overtime struggle between the Colts and Giants was a first. Likewise, in reading Bowden's account, I learned that when television transmission was interrupted by a cable problem, the network, not wanting the 45 million viewers to miss any action, had one of their own run on the field to stop play. Both the NFL and the television networks have come a long way since December 28, 1958.
Whether it was the Colts-Giants game or another NFL contest that qualifies as the greatest ever in NFL history is not really the question. The game chronicled by Bowden changed professional football, and television captured that moment. That the images of 50 years ago remain with us today speaks volumes about the game, the players and the moment. Football fans will enjoy being reminded of all those as they read this enjoyable portrait of a great moment in pigskin history.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman |
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