Book Review: The Best Game Ever by Mark Bowden

This past Christmas, I actually asked for a book for a gift idea from my parents. Yes, yours truly asked for a book. I haven't really been one to read in my life but lately I've been trying to be more scholarly.

The book I received was "The Best Game Ever" written by Mark Bowden. This book takes you through the background of the game that launched modern football, the 1958 NFL Championship Game. It really is a historical documentation of a game that I wasn't around to see and it shows you how both the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants were built into the teams that led into the Best Game Ever.

We get introduced to some of the major characters of each team early in the book, like Johnny U and Raymond Berry. We get to look into the strategy of the Giant offense run by the legendary coach Vince Lombardi before he was legendary and see the innovator of the 4-3 defense, future Cowboys head coach Tom Landry. Many of the players had jobs in the off season at the time of this game, and we get introduced to some of them. We get to see how Raymond Berry was known as a 'different' because he wanted to watch hours and hours of film and workout during the offseason.

Through the middle of the book, we are then shown how the game changed the history of football. The 1958 NFL Championship Game was the first football game ever to go to sudden death overtime, a notion that was just introduced after years of ties with no extra session. The game began in the late afternoon and led into the beginning of prime time as the entire nation watched the game go to overtime. The entire book is interesting in that it tells you a lot about how football has gotten where it was on television today.

There was one story that was extremely interesting: during the Colts winning drive in overtime, the Baltimore fans were jumping onto the field (back in those days, running on the field was okay) and somehow, someone unplugged something making the NBC signal go off the air. So, while the game was being decided, the nation was seeing a black screen. Someone who worked for NBC who's name escapes me right now, ran onto the field and took just enough time for security to catch him for NBC to get their picture back onto the air.

The final chapter follows some of the big players from each team and sits down with them for some commentary on the game and it's affect on the sport. Hopefully I didn't spoil much of the book for you. Like I said, it is a historical look at how the game changed due to this one game. It is a must read for all big football fans.

My next review will be on the book "America's Game" which I am working on reading now. Oh, and thanks to amazon.com for the picture.