The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL | 
| Author: Mark Bowden
Creator: Phil Gigante
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 1076697
Format: Audiobook, Mp3 Audio, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: MP3 Una
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 1423367944
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9781423367949
ASIN: 1423367944
Publication Date: May 12, 2008
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Product Description
On December 28, 1958, the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts met under the lights of Yankee Stadium for that season?s NFL Championship game. Football, growing in popularity amid America?s post-war economic boom, was still greatly over-shadowed by the country?s favored pastime ? baseball ? but the 1958 championship proved to be the turning point for pro football.
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.
Played on a freezing Sunday evening in front of 64,000 fans and an estimated forty-five million television viewers around the country - at that time the largest crowd to have ever watched a football game - the championship would become the first sudden-death contest in NFL history. With two minutes left in regulation, Baltimore had possession deep in its own territory, and the ball in the hands of the still unproven quarterback Johnny Unitas.
The Best Game Ever is a brilliant portrait of how a single game changed the history of American sports. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the championship, it is destined to be a sports classic.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Excellent insight. July 10, 2008
Fine writing, excellent content, interesting insight by Bowden make the book a great read for all fans of football interested in the most exciting game of football ever played, but an especially great read for fans of the old Baltimore Colts.
The Best Game Ever lives up to the hype July 10, 2008
The Best Game Ever brought back to life many of the characters I grew up watching on TV when I was a young boy, Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, Frank Gifford, Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry, the list goes on. The book is as compelling as I'm sure the game must have been and after reading it you come away with a better appreciation of the roots of America's new favorite pass-time. Highly recommended!
The definitive account July 8, 2008
Mark Bowden has crafted a terrific narrative of the THE GAME, the one that changed everything. He places the weight and the credit where it belongs and explains how each major event unfolded. Mainly he provides background and insight into a group of extraordinary men and how everything came together at just exactly the right moment and in exactly the right place. He contrasts the glamorous, endorsement contract lives of many of the Giant players with the hardscrabble, sooty backwater of neighborhood Baltimore where the Colts lived and worked.
He explains the pivotal plays in the game and how early unsuccessful plays actually set up later successes. He describes the crowd, a significant part of which rooted for the Colts. Finally, he covers the personalities behind the legends throughout the book, delving into the background of each critical player and coach, right down to Frank Gifford's whining which continues to this day. This is a must read for anyone interested in how the NFL came to be.
The Greatest book on The Greatest Game Ever Played June 22, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Mark Bowden has written a brillant book on the Giants VS Colts,1958 Championship game. Bowden brings the game and the inpact it had on the sport into perfect harmony. His insight into the meaning of the game beyond the score brings greater understanding of today's billion dollar NFL brand. Whether your a football fan or a fan of American culture Bowden's work is a remarkable merging of the the two. Enjoy the read.
 Lightweight treatment of a great game June 16, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
December 28, 1958 marks one of the most classic moments in NFL history. That's the date the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in sudden death overtime to win the NFL title as 45 million fans watched on television. It marked the birth of the modern NFL as football began to step out of the shadows of baseball.
The match up featured the greatest concentration of football talent for one game as 17 future Hall of Famers were involved. It pitted a team of self-made men and the league's best offense (Colts) versus a team of glamour boys and the best defense (Giants).
Author Mark Bowden tells the story of the 1958 championship game through a handful of players and coaches such as Raymond Berry, Weeb Ewbank, Sam Huff, Tom Landry (Giants' defensive coordinator) and Vince Lombardi (Giants' offensive coordinator). Bowden's exceptional study of Berry is the cornerstone of the book.
Bowden recounts how Johnny Unitas and Berry teamed up to take the Colts 86 yards in two minutes to tie the game. And, how Unitas engineered the 13-play drive in overtime to secure the thrilling victory. Unitas' greatness and leadership in the game elevated him to the highest echelon of NFL quarterbacks.
Interestingly, many of the players didn't realize that the game would continue into sudden death overtime after it was tied in regulation.
As a writer, Bowden makes the reader feel like he's in the middle of the game. He makes you wish you had been able to witness this great game. You envy those who did. NFL Commissioner Bert Bell called the Colts-Giants sudden death overtime game, "The greatest day in the history of professional football."
While I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it's definitely a lightweight treatment of the subject. The book is 239, easy-to-read pages. When I finished the book, I wanted to read more about the game and its impact. I suspect many other readers will feel the same way.
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