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Bowden brings the setting and the game alive in a thrilling account of the game that launched modern football. Enough detail for a rabid football fan but enough human drama for a Sunday afternoon viewer. fascinating, funny, touching, makes you wish you'd seen it and knew the men that played it.
The Best Game Ever is a fairly good account of what is probably the most famous game in NFL history - the 1958 NFL Championship game where the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants 23-17 in the NFL's first sudden death overtime game. But it also tells the story of other key players on both sides of the ball to greater or lesser degrees. But overall it completely documents the game and the key turning points that lead to the eventual outcome, including Frank Gifford not making a first down on third and short that would have allowed the Giants to run out the clock to win the game, and the Unitas to Barry connection on an improvised play for a first down on the final drive in regulation to tie the game. The game also sported three legendary coaches, Vince Lombardi on offense for the Giants, Tom Landry on defense for the Giants, and Weeb Ewbank, head coach of Baltimore who went on to win another seminal NFL Championship when his New York Jets upset his former team, the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. While I wouldn't classify this as The Best Football Book Ever, it is well done and worth reading. As most who follow football closely know, this game is considered the launching point of the modern NFL because it occurred in the early years of television and at least the last part of the game was seen by an estimated 30 million people. The game pitted some of the greatest players of all time against one another such as Johnny Unitas and Raymond Berry of the Colts, and Frank Gifford and Sam Huff of the Giants. It does a less stellar job of building the drama of the game, maybe because we already know the outcome.
After this game the popularity of professional football took off, particularly because the action is well suited for television viewing. This book tells the story of the game mostly from the players' perspective, focusing somewhat more on the Baltimore Colts, particularly Johnny Unitas and Raymond Berry, who both had phenomenal performances in this game. For a football fan this is certainly an enjoyable book and provides some insight into the game and the players, particularly Raymond Berry who gets the most coverage.
But the Giants soon started an epic comeback. It was the best offense in the league vs the best defense in the leaque. BeattyI read the book "The Best Game Ever" By: Mark Bowden. But back then it was very rare games went to overtime or "sudden death".
In this epic game there were many to be Hall of Famers, including Johnny Unitas, coach Vince Lombardi, and Tom Landry. By A.C. The Giants had a 2 point lead with 2 minuites in the fourth. This was know as the "Greatest Game Ever Played due to its amazing play, and it's suspense and Super Bowl tickets for the winner. Who ever won the game went to the Super Bowl that year.
Unitas led one of the greatest comebacks in the history of football that night. Everything was on the line in that game. The book is about the 1958 NFC Championship between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts. Few of the players had ever heard about this overtime ordeal. That night 45 million people, the most ever to watch a single game tuned in.
The Colts dominated the first half. Then the future Hall of Famer led an amazing 13 play drive with an almost unbelieveable score to win the game in sudden death and advance to the Super Bowl. I thought this was an amazing book, and would reccomend it to any one who loves football or just loves sports.
He introduces us to a group of dedicated men doing something they loved, and he shows us the old game through their eyes. He captures the grit, the pain, the excitement and the flow without ever losing sight of his larger theme. He sets the stage by introducing us to the game as it was played before TV made it a weekly spectacle, when its players often had to hold second jobs in the off-season just to make ends meet, thus making them more accessible and somehow more real to fans. He brings us to the game that might well mark the birth of today's NFL, and he captures the moment with uncanny clarity and style. This book is an instant addition to the Sports Writing Hall of Fame. Nonetheless, Bowden brilliantly brings The Game back to life for our current generation. Describing it in writing is a tricky proposition that rarely rises above flat and boring, but Bowden pulls it off. Football, with so much going on in every play, is a sport made for TV, with its instant replay and multitude of camera angles.
Bowden had me wishing that someone had had the foresight to somehow tape the game as it was broadcast so we latter day fans could watch that epic game today. Then he shows us The Game with a style that is detailed yet smooth and flowing. Bowden takes us back to an earlier time, a time when football as we now know it did not yet exist. He gives us sportswriting at its best. His portrait of Raymond Berry is exquisite, helping me appreciate Berry's eventual term as head coach of the New England Patriots in my own time. His account is riveting, even though we know the outcome from the start. It's more than a little ironic that the TV broadcast is, as Bowden tells us, lost to history, but the radio broadcast was recorded and preserved. Bowden's book ranks with "Instant Replay" and "Ball Four" as my personal favorite sports books
Appropriately dedicated to David Halberstam, "The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Undersized and undervalued, Berry quietly revolutionized the sport with his meticulous preparation and unceasing quest for information. Bowen informs us that some of the players did not know about the "sudden death" rule, designed to produce a winner in a championship game. Author Mark Bowen clearly outlines the background and significance of the contest; he does so with both admiration and considerable affection for the men who fought on the semi-frozen Yankee Stadium turf that late December afternoon and evening. As well, Bowen expertly analyzes the nascent confluence of television and football, a relationship nurtured by prescient NFL commissioner Bert Bell. If Bowen extols the performance of the favored Giants, he reserves his greatest warmth for the underdog Baltimore Colts. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL" seamlessly blends a gripping journalistic description of the thrilling National Football League championship game with riveting personal stories of participants and witnesses. As the Colts marched down the field for the winning touchdown, the public address announcer's repetitious statement, "Unitas to Berry," exemplified two emerging stars summoning peak performances during moments of unbearable pressure."The Best Game Ever" contains marvelous anecdotes about the game and its witnesses.
Seventeen members of the NFL Hall of Fame participated in the contest, "the greatest concentration of football talent ever assembled for a single game."Bowen provides compelling portraits of some of the sport's iconic figures: Vince Lombardi, Sam Huff, Tom Landry, Frank Gifford, Art "Fatso" Donovan, Lenny Moore and Johnny Unitas. However, Raymond Berry, the self-made wide receiver for the Colts holds a special place in Bowen's heart. He gives life to the most famous photograph of the day, one taken by a teenager who gained access to an end-zone perspective by pushing wheelchair-bound veterans to one end of the field. Ardent fans of professional football and students of American culture will find something to cherish in "The Best Game Ever."
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