As much as I’d like to believe otherwise, it’s widely reported that athletes don’t respond well to lengthy, overly dramatic pep talks.  As a fan of sports movies, I’d like to believe that all it takes in order to get that big win is the coach firing you up in the locker room, tearing the place apart, and saying what is needed.  In reality what really happens most of the time is the coach gets down to brass tacks, points out what can be improved, leads a little team yell, and it’s back to the field.

All that said, Baltimore coach Weeb Ewbank is remembered as giving one of the best pep talks ever before the 1958 championship game.  He famously went around the locker room and pointed out all the failings and rejections of each player before reaffirming their status on their current team.  He had plenty of material too.  Stars like Gino Marchetti and Art Donovan were leftovers from the failed Dallas Texans.  Wunderkind revolutionary player Johnny Unitas had been cut from the Steelers and was playing amateur ball before being picked up by Baltimore.  Kicker Steve Myhra was awful that season, but he was a Colt, and the Colts were in the championship. Read the full story

I’ve written a number of times in passing about the so-called “greatest game ever played” (Sports Illustrated actually called it the best game, but popular nomenclature has won out) and I’ve also written about the nature of energy in sports.  So if you follow me that far, then the greatest game ever played is like some giant nebulous quasar around which all football revolves and in itself contains multitudes of nuclear explosions.  If any game is deserving of such hyperbole, it’s this game.

This year marks the 50th anniversary, with the actual date coming up at the end of this month.  As such, information and retrospectives are running high.  ESPN aired a colorized version of the game, complete with player interviews and commentary.  That of course comes after a much earlier NFL films version of the game, complete with interviews and commentary.  Papers are featuring articles, and people out there may even be hearing of it for the first time.

So, for those just tuning in, 1958 NFL Championship Game, Baltimore Colts at the New York Giants, Yankee Stadium, Sunday, December 28.  There were no two better teams to have in such a game. Read the full story