Cbz40
The Grand Poobah
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Old Timers many believe this game was responsible for the rise of the NFL as we know it today. I remember it well.....My Grandfather, Uncles, Cousins....all sitting around that 17" B&W TV watching this classic.
Your thoughts...comments....Was this the game that made the NFL the most popular professional sport across the land?
WHAT IF!!!!!!!
What if the Colts-Giants game had not been such a classic?
ESPN.com
The NFL staff has identified plays or events that may have altered the course of history. Each Tuesday and Saturday throughout the offseason, we will be tackling a different scenario and speculate on how things might have gone differently.
As the world's most lucrative sports league, with annual revenues that tower over its three main North American rivals, the NFL is truly in a league of its own. While visionaries like Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue deserve plenty of credit, the immense popularity of the NFL is often traced back to one Sunday afternoon, ironically enough, at Yankee Stadium.
AP Photo
The 1958 NFL Championship made national celebrities out of John Unitas, Frank Gifford and others.
Formed in 1920, the NFL was hardly a major league in its early years. The arrival of college stars such as Red Grange, and the institution of an annual championship game (1933), caused a slight increase in popularity, but professional football still lagged far behind baseball.
Everything changed on December 28, 1958, when the Baltimore Colts met the New York Giants for the NFL championship. Behind two rushing touchdowns from Alan Ameche, the Colts outlasted the Giants, 23-17, in the first NFL game to go into overtime. The game has since become widely known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played".
As the NFL had embraced television, the Colts-Giants matchup was televised across the nation by NBC and drew record TV viewership. By the mid-'60s, professional football had surpassed baseball as Americans' favorite spectator sport in some surveys, and in the 1970s and '80s, the NFL solidified its dominance.
Perhaps the rise of the league was simply an eventuality, but many sports writers and fans mark this game as the beginning of it all, raising the interesting question: What if the Colts-Giants game had not been such as classic? Would football still be king? If so, how much longer might it have taken for the NFL to take off?
Your thoughts...comments....Was this the game that made the NFL the most popular professional sport across the land?
WHAT IF!!!!!!!
What if the Colts-Giants game had not been such a classic?
ESPN.com
The NFL staff has identified plays or events that may have altered the course of history. Each Tuesday and Saturday throughout the offseason, we will be tackling a different scenario and speculate on how things might have gone differently.
As the world's most lucrative sports league, with annual revenues that tower over its three main North American rivals, the NFL is truly in a league of its own. While visionaries like Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue deserve plenty of credit, the immense popularity of the NFL is often traced back to one Sunday afternoon, ironically enough, at Yankee Stadium.
AP Photo
The 1958 NFL Championship made national celebrities out of John Unitas, Frank Gifford and others.
Formed in 1920, the NFL was hardly a major league in its early years. The arrival of college stars such as Red Grange, and the institution of an annual championship game (1933), caused a slight increase in popularity, but professional football still lagged far behind baseball.
Everything changed on December 28, 1958, when the Baltimore Colts met the New York Giants for the NFL championship. Behind two rushing touchdowns from Alan Ameche, the Colts outlasted the Giants, 23-17, in the first NFL game to go into overtime. The game has since become widely known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played".
As the NFL had embraced television, the Colts-Giants matchup was televised across the nation by NBC and drew record TV viewership. By the mid-'60s, professional football had surpassed baseball as Americans' favorite spectator sport in some surveys, and in the 1970s and '80s, the NFL solidified its dominance.
Perhaps the rise of the league was simply an eventuality, but many sports writers and fans mark this game as the beginning of it all, raising the interesting question: What if the Colts-Giants game had not been such as classic? Would football still be king? If so, how much longer might it have taken for the NFL to take off?
