The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever Hardcover – Bargain Price, November 4, 2008

This a very good accounting of the 1958 NFL Championship game by one of the NY Giants stars, Frank Gifford. He tells all of the background to the game,the game itself and what happened to all of the key players of that game. I knew hardly anything about this game and most of its players before reading it. I had always heard about "The Greatest Game Ever Played" but knew nothing about it. It's a good history of what the NFL was like before it became wildly popular in the following decades. It was mostly made up of a bunch of talented,tough and hard around edges players that played the game for the joy and fun than for the money. Of which there was not much of at this time. Gifford tells much of the nuances that made the game great and why it was considered this decades later. Gifford wrote this after David Halberstam was tragically killed in a car accident while doing research for his own book about this game. Gifford makes no bones about this book probably isn't nearly as good as anything Halberstam would have written. I agree with that and think of the great loss that was. Still this is a very good book Gifford put out while most of the key players were still alive and could tell their story about it. Sadly Gifford just passed away and there are few left who played in this game.

This book is not just about the "greatest game ever played." It is about two cities and the players who lived there, and what it was like living in those cities in 1958. Gifford does a fine job explaining the era and the differences between New York City and Baltimore. Gifford also gives his recollections of that fateful day in December 1958. While he did score a touchdown, he also had two critical fumbles. His recap of the game is very good.

Frank also gives his opinions on players and coaches for those teams. He adored teammate Kyle Rote (so much so he named his son for him) and he speaks of him glowingly. On the other hand, to say Frank thought little of Giants head coach Jim Lee Howell would be an understatement.

The book's main drawback is the lackluster editing job. One example is Alan Ameche running the ball, but Raymond Berry being the player tackled. In addition, there's a silly factual blunder. Frank said in 1978 Phil Simms was in his third year with the Giants. Phil was still in college then. Either way, this is a quick, easy read that's worth your while. Still though, I wonder how this book would've turned out if it was written by the late David Halberstam. Probably would've been better, maybe a classic.

Written in an engaging and conversational style, The Glory Game by Frank Gifford and Peter Richmond chronicles the epic 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants. Eventually won by the Colts in the first sudden-death overtime in the history of the sport, "The greatest game ever played" or "Best Game Ever" cemented the NFL's place at the forefront of American popular culture. There has been lots written about the game over the years, but Gifford, the Giants star Running Back from 1952-64 offers a unique field-level perspective. Relying on his own memories supplemented by interviews with his teammates as well as former Colts players, Gifford gives the reader a down-by- down play by play account of the Colts thrilling march to victory. Along the way he offers anecdotes and insights that I haven't seen in any other books. He also uses the game as a jumping off point to discuss the NFL culture of the 1950's, considered by many to be pro-football's golden era.

Gifford began the book as a tribute to his friend David Halberstam who was working on a similar book at the time of his death.

I've read 6 books on football this year (including two others on this game) and this is by far the best.

Wow, what a story! The book contains background information on the "Greatest Game Ever Played" that only Frank Gifford, with his media & player connections and personal experience, could assemble and put in print. It has information that will help give better insight into the game years from now when the game celebrates its 100th anniversary and all participants will likely have passed. I give it a five star rating because of the valuable, historic information in contains about the players and details about the game.

It is not a particularly easy book to read and could probably have benefitted from better review by the editor (perhaps it was rushed to meet the game's 50th anniversary). At times it was hard to follow because Frank skips around in the book telling personal stories he knew or was told of the participants, often only using first names and sometimes leaving you wondering who specifically he was referring to. There is however, a method to his style. He tells the story pretty much chronologically but drifts into stories about different characters as they enter the story or event. Also there were a few things that seemed contradictory, such as his frequent use of the Giant's "family" atmosphere - yet he talked of the offense and defense as if they were two separate teams and had many disparaging comments for all of the coaches involved except Vince Lombardi, and a not so subtle despise of head coach Jim Lee Howell.

Frank displays an obvious dislike for all coaches, although he has something good to say about all of them at some point in the story, except Jim lee Howell. Maybe Frank's comment of Jim Lee Howell's retirement as "one of the few smart decisions he ever made" was a compliment? But he is more critical than complimentary of all of the coaches, again, except Vince Lombardi. And with Vince Lombardi he deflects criticism, such as his starting of Don Heinrich over Charlie Conerly as having "Jim Lee Howell's fingerprints all over it." Also he gave Lombardi credit to ending an unsuccessful experiment of using Frank as quarterback in 1959 (but Vince Lombardi was coach the Packers in 1959, so the year, coach, or event is in error). I don't recall him criticizing any of the players. On the other hand, coaches receiving his criticism include Steve Owen, Tom Laundry, Weeb Ewbank, and most definitely Jim lee Howell. His dislike for Coach Howell seems to be a result of, or starting with a berating he received in 1957 while slacking off in practice. Frank was the MVP the year before but that didn't seem to matter to Coach Howell. Then again, maybe he needed the whole team's attention, including the young super star. It seems as though Frank may have waited 50 years to get his revenge, and with "Jim Lee 'High Pockets' Howell" long since passed, his remarks and depictions will likely go unchallenged.

I think you have to keep in mind that the book is told through Frank's vision which may not be 100 percent accurate. For example, he and Sam Huff both claim to have had Mickey Mantle's locker at Yankee stadium when the Yankee's season was over and the Giants were occupying the stadium. Frank admits there are some stories that the participants don't all agree on the way it actually happened, as you might expect after 50 years.

All-in-all, I think the book gives good insight to the players back then but I wouldn't say the same about the coaches he criticizes. All the coaches he criticizes are in the Hall of Fame except his number one target, Jim Lee Howell, and he has the best all time winning percentage of any New York Giant head coach with more than a couple of years tenure. But there is no argument that Vince Lombardi's record is better. Nonetheless, Frank states, "In the long run, Howell's profile in NFL history is remarkably low." I can't see it that way but perhaps there's something more that I missed or Frank didn't add.