The Monumental NFL Championship of 1958: A Game That Changed Everything

As 45 million TV viewers watch professional football now, they were about to see something that no one had ever seen before.

Because for the first time in league history, the championship of pro football would not end in a tie.

It would end in sudden death.

Welcome to the pig pen.

That that title belonged to baseball.

With Mickey Man, Willie Mays and Ted Williams, those were the names dominated the sports pages all across the country.

The NFL was a regional curiosity, popular in Cleveland, Chicago and Green Bay, but largely ignored by the rest of the country.

Television networks were not competing for broadcast rights.

Players had had to hold second jobs in the off season just to make ends meet and because football alone wouldn't be able to pay the bills.

But the league was changing as a new era of stars was emerging.

In Cleveland, a fullback named Jim Brown was running through defenses like they were made of paper.

1527 Yards, nearly double the next man in just 12 games.

In Baltimore, a crew cut quarterback named Johnny Unitis was building something special for with head coach Weave Eubank.

And in New York, the Giants had assembled one of the most brilliant coaching staffs in history.

Offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi and defensive coordinator Tom Landry.

Yes, those two on the same sideline.

The Los Angeles Coliseum was filled with over 100,000 people.

Twice that season, the Lions sold 42,000 season tickets before a single snap.

And something was brewing.

But no one could have predicted that the final game of the season, played in the freezing cold of Yankee Stadium in New York City and broadcast into millions of living rooms for the first time, would have the trajectory that had on sports forever.

But.

But they had something changing too.

They had a young quarterback named Johnny Unit, who just a few years earlier was playing semi pro football, earning $6 a game after being cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the traditionally worst teams in the league.

But the Colts had stormed out of the gate with six straight wins.

With Unitis.

But there's a little bit of an asterisk on this game.

But because Unitis didn't play when he returned three weeks later trailing the San Francisco 49ers 277 at halftime, he staged one of the greatest comebacks in football history to that point.

Four unanswered touchdowns, a 35 to 27 victory, and the western title was clinched.

With that game, the New York Giants took a little bit of a harder road.

After a 2 and 2 record after four games, they clawed their way back to 9 and 3, forcing a tiebreaker playoff against the Cleveland Browns.

A game played in 20 degree weather at Yankee Stadium, which the Giants won 10 to nothing.

In a defensive struggle that Tom Landry was very proud of, Lombardi had hoped a little bit more from his offense.

The Landry's unit had only allowed 183 points all season long.

That was the best in the league.

That's quite a tough defense there with that umbrella defense that he has staged out.

And so the stage was set with Baltimore to play at New York, the Colts explosive offense, Unitis, Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry against the giants.

Immovable defense, three and a half point favorites, 16 future hall of Famers on the field and a national television audience watching on NBC for the first time an NFL championship game had ever been broadcast from coast to coast.

What followed was not a masterpiece of clean execution.

It was something better.

A raw, brutal, unforgettable football game.

The two teams combined for six turnovers in the first half alone.

Fumbles, interceptions, a blocked field goal, and the Giants drew first blood with a pass Summerall 36 yard field goal, taking a 3 nothing lead.

But then the Colts responded.

Defensive end Ray Krause recovered a Frank Gifford fumble, setting up a two yard touchdown plunge by Alan Amici.

Second seven three Baltimore.

Moments later, another Giants fumble and this time Gifford again, forced by the Colts defensive back Milt Davis, who was playing the game with two broken bones in his right foot.

The Colts drove 86 yards and 15 plays, ending with a 15 yard United Staber touchdown pass at halftime.

Baltimore led 14 to 3.

The Giants look like they were finished.

In the third quarter, the Giants mounted a goal line stand, stopping Amici on fourth down at the one yard line.

It was kind of a moment that turns a game.

Four plays later, Charlie Connolly dropped back deep in his own end zone and uncorked an 86 yard pass to Kyle Rowe, who wrote.

Who broke tackles at midfield before being stripped from behind at the Colts 25 yard line.

The ball bounced and hit the turf and Alex Webster scooped it up and carried the ball down to the one.

Now Mel Triplett punched in from there and in the next snap, early in the fourth quarter, Connerly found tight end Bob Schnelker for 46 yards and hit Frank Gifford on a 15 yard touchdown pass.

And it was the first time in NFL championship history that a team had erased a double to take a lead in the fourth quarter.

Baltimore moved into scoring range twice more and came up empty both times.

A missed 46 yard field goal, a drive killed by back to back sacks from Andy Robestelli and Dick Maguleski.

The Colts championship hopes were slipping away.

With just two minutes remaining, the Giants faced fourth and inches on their own 40 yard line and they punted.

The Colts took over at their full and 14 yard line with two minutes to play.

And what happened next would change football forever.

Johnny Unit started the drive with two incompletions, third and 10 from his own 14.

One more miss in a championship.

Along to New York, he dropped back and fired an 11 yard strike to Lenny Moore.

First down.

After another incompletion, he went to Raymond Barry.

Three straight completions, 62 yards.

Barry caught 12 passes that day for 178 yards, a championship record that stood for 55 years.

And United through for 349 yards, also a championship record.

With seven seconds remaining, Baltimore kicker Steve Myra, who had missed two kicks earlier in the day, lined up for a 20 yard field goal attempt.

The snap was clean, the hold was good, the kick Split the uprights.

17 17.

The first overtime game in NFL playoff history had commenced.

Back in Baltimore, the television sets flickered with a sight no one had ever witnessed In New York, 64,000 fans stood in stunned silence.

NBC's national broadcast, which had briefly gone dead when a cable was accidentally unplugged, was restored just in time, allegedly after an NBC employee ran onto the field to stall play.

The Giants won the overtime coin toss and received the kickoff.

Don Maynard muff the catch, but recovered.

Three plays later they punted and the Colts took over at their own 20 yard line.

Then Unitis did what Unitis does, 13 plays, 80 yards, 8 minutes and 15 seconds of methodical, relentless football.

Ameche caught a critical pass on third and eight.

Barry hauled in two more for 33 yards.

And on third and goal from the one yard line, Ameche plunged into the end zone behind the avalanche of Baltimore to blockers.

Final score, Baltimore 23, New York 17.

The Colts were the National Football League champions, and professional football would never be the same.

The numbers tell part of the story.

45 Million viewers, a national television audience that dwarfed anything the league had achieved before.

But the deeper impact was psychological.

Americans had seen football as a gritty regional pastime, something played in the mud by men with blue collar day jobs.

Drama, artistry, and a narrative arc that rivaled anything Hollywood could produce.

This was not just a sport.

This was a spectacle.

Within five years, the NFL would sign its first major television contract.

Within a decade, the super bowl would be born, and the league's popularity would surge past baseball, eventually becoming the most profitable sports enterprise in the world.

A nationwide poll of 66 media members voted this game as the greatest in the NFL's first 100 years.

It remains the gold standard now.

17 Men who played or coached in that game now reside in a pro football hall of fame in Canton.

But the game's true legacy lives in every fourth quarter comeback, every overtime thriller, every moment when a quarterback looks at the clock and knows, hey, there's still time.

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