Continuing our look into the stories behind the names of the NFL playoff teams, we now move on to the NFC.

The New York Giants
Technically the New York Football Giants, this team is one of the oldest in the league.  They joined the league in 1925 and have been forever in the ownership of the Mara family.  Before 1956 the team played in New York’s famed Polo Grounds which at the time housed the New York Giants of baseball, before they moved to San Francisco.  I haven’t been able to find it absolutely confirmed anywhere, but in the era (see Pittsburgh Steelers) football teams who were tenets of baseball teams often took the same name as their hosts.

One Sunday in December by Lou Sahadi gives a nice breif history of the club. Read the full story

We’ve been talking lately about the “Greatest Game Ever Played.”  The 50th anniversary just passed so I thought it would be appropriate to give a few recommendations for some further reading.  Besides watching the actual game, the two books that have most informed me are right here:

One Sunday In December by Lou Sahadi

This book’s greatest strength is its even handedness, as they say, the winners write the history so most of the time stuff focuses on the Colts.  Not so with this one.  There are two forwards, one written by the Colts’ Gino Marchetti and another written by the Giants’ Sam Huff, bound forever by that controversial play.  Before the game recap, the chapters alternate between the two cities.  The book keeps things pretty brief and succinct.  It assumes a bit of a base knowledge of the game, but does a good job filling in the surrounding details, talking about the state of the NFL at the time as well as mentioning various cultural events that were happening.  Overall, it’s a good all around book for getting the scoop on the game.

Johnny U by Tom Callahan

This book is more of a biography but it uses the game as kind of a climatic point.  Being more about Unitas, the book isn’t nearly as evenhanded as the other one, but it had a great, great, play by play breakdown of the game.  Interspersed with these are cutaways, some blurbs, some longer, giving greater depth into the plays.  They range from interviews with the players, to narratives on things like practice routines.  Basically, you get the play and the story of how the play was even possible.  This helps build up some nice tension, and Callahan never over does it by trying to describe every little thing, you get the breakdown, a couple of interesting details, and you can really fill in the blanks.

Here is a linkto a different kind of view of the game.  It disputes, though not totally, the theory that the 58 game sparked the television movement.  The theory here is that it helped, but it was really Lombardi’s Packers that made the difference.  I think that is a fair point, though I would argue that more has to do with the creation of a viable competitor with the AFL as a direct result of the 58 game.  One hand washes the other as the saying goes.

Currently I’m reading The Colts’ Baltimore by Michael Olesker and the early impressions are good.  As the title suggests, it focuses on the impact that the Colts had on the city of Baltimore in the late 1950’s.  Those who don’t have much of an interest in Baltimore may not find it the best read, but it is still interesting to see the far reaching effects that a sports team can have on an area and that can be applied to any team.

So that about covers it.  There are tons of articles and books about the game out there, especially now given the anniversary.  I encourage everyone to get out there and check them out!  Don’t hesitate to let me know if there’s anything particularly good I should take a look at.

In that grand NFL championship game of 1958, the final seconds ticked away with the score knotted at 17.  No one really knew what to do.  Gino Marchetti, who had insisted that he stay on the sidelines after having his ankle broken, was taken to the locker room under duress.  The fear was that spectators would swarm the field, as happened frequently in those days, and his injury would be aggravated or worse.

Some believed that that was it.  The game ended in a tie, the prize money would have to be split, and they could all go home.  Others just waited around to be told what would happen.  The situation had never occurred before, so no one knew what to expect.  The rules came down, there would be an overtime, fifteen minutes like a quarter but with one new wrinkle.  It was to be sudden death, whoever scored first would win the game, and the losers would have no chance to respond. Read the full story

The attendance of the ’58 championship game at Yankee Stadium (Art Donovan had grown up several blocks away, incidently) was 64,185.  That is a good deal bellow sell-out.  This wasn’t necessarily because no one wanted to watch the game, though the NFL was not terribly popular, but most attribute it to the fact that the newspapers were on strike.  The home audience, however, that new concept, was healthily in the millions.

The second half of the game saw the Colts get the ball.  The game stood at 14-3 Colts.  That’s a fairly surmountable lead, but sloppy play from both sides couldn’t have been too encouraging.  The Colts were making a strong argument for the offense being better than the defense.  Despite the Giants playing fairly well and getting turnovers, the Colts had two good drives.  The Giants, however, couldn’t get anything going on the other side of the ball. Read the full story

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