ESPN to Air Greatest Game
December 13, 2008 04:56 PM | General
December 13, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – They say it was the greatest professional football game ever played. Whether it actually was or not can be debated.
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| New York's Sam Huff (70) tries to stop Baltimore's Alan Ameche from scoring the game winning touchdown in overtime to claim the 1958 NFL title.
AP photo |
Saturday night professional fans will get an opportunity to judge for themselves when ESPN Films presents a two-hour color documentary of Baltimore’s 23-17 overtime win over New York in the 1958 NFL championship game.
For the football purists there was a lot to be desired. There were plenty of turnovers in the game and neither team could hold a lead. The outcome was eventually decided in overtime on Alan Ameche’s 1-yard run in sudden death. Why the Colts chose to risk a turnover scoring a touchdown instead of attempting a field goal is anyone’s guess?
But what that 1958 NFL championship game accomplished was to introduce the sheer drama and excitement of professional football to millions of Americans. Many believe that game was the tipping point for the NFL, sending it down the path toward becoming the most popular sport in the United States.
There were a total of 17 Pro Football Hall of Famers involved in the game – 12 players, three coaches and two owners – including West Virginia’s Sam Huff.
Huff forced a fumble on Baltimore’s opening possession of the game when he hit Baltimore’s Johnny Unitas on a pass attempt that the Giants recovered at the Colts 37.
Unitas rebounded from that early turnover to lead Baltimore to its winning drive with 8 minutes and 15 seconds remaining in sudden death overtime, forever solidifying his name in professional football lore.
The Colts chose to run the ball instead of having Steve Myhra kick the winning field goal despite Myhra tying the game late in regulation. Myhra making another one was by no means a certainty. He missed a 32-yarder earlier in the game and had second try blocked by Huff.
Myhra had made just 4 of 10 field goal tries during the regular season.
Unitas wasn’t the only one to gain fame from that game. Sam Huff became the first NFL player ever featured on the cover of Time Magazine and also agreed in 1960 to do a television documentary for CBS narrated by Walter Cronkite called “The Violent World of Sam Huff."
Huff had the publicity but what he really wanted was a decent pay check.
“I never did make a lot of money in pro football,” Huff recalled recently. “My 13th year in the league I made $38,000.
“The most money I ever made in New York before they traded me to the Redskins was $19,000,” Huff said.
The winner’s take from the Greatest Game Ever was $4,718.77. Huff and his Giant teammates received $3,111.33. Adjusted for inflation, that comes out to around $22,000 in today’s dollars.
“I played football on Sundays at Yankee Stadium in New York. At 9 o’clock Monday morning I was at 41st and Broadway working for J.P. Stevens Textile Company selling men’s slack fabric in the garment district,” Huff said. “The guys would say, ‘I just saw you play football yesterday!’ I said, ‘Hell, I need the money.’ That’s what we did.”
Not only did the pro players back then have to scrounge for money, there were also jealousies and animosities that often played out in the locker room.
Huff readily admits that he was jealous of handsome Giants teammate Frank Gifford.
“I thought he was Mr. Hollywood,” Huff said. “He was from California and I was from West Virginia. I thought he was like a movie star and when we scrimmaged against each other he never scrimmaged against our defense. He carried the yardstick.”
For his part, Gifford thought Huff was a self-promoter who wore a bigger-than-usual jersey number 70 and oftentimes would jump on players that were down to get credit for tackles.
Today, the two have become cordial.
“I talk to Frank Gifford two or three times a year now,” Huff said.
Huff admits his greatest experience in professional football was getting the opportunity to play for both Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry during his long and successful career.
“I was taught by Tom Landry how to play pro football and I ended up with Vince Lombardi (in Washington),” Huff said. “The two greatest coaches ever in pro football were Lombardi and Landry and I had them both. I had the ability and they got it out of me.
“I was not easy to get along with,” Huff continued. “I was a back talker but those coaches stuck with me, taught me and worked with me.”
The Greatest Game Ever Played Presented by Sprint will air tonight at 9 pm on ESPN and ESPN HD.
