I enjoyed reading this book about a key turning point in the history of the NFL. Once the college game was more popular, but starting around the time of this game the NFL took over the nation's interest. While that was the result of many factors, the excitement of this game was certainly one of them. I had also recently read the biography of Johnny Unitas, and the two together tell the interesting story of the NFL in transition from second fiddle to baseball and college football to premier sports franchise in the country.

In recent times, using the adjective "best" in the title of a book about a sporting event has been used liberally. A golf match, the seventh game of the World Series and the NCAA basketball championship tilt have all received the designation as the greatest contest in the history of the sport. Mark Bowden's THE BEST GAME EVER casts its lot with the championship game celebrating its 50th anniversary this football season. The New York Giants and Baltimore Colts battled at Yankee Stadium in the first overtime game in football history. It was watched by millions of fans on their grainy black-and-white televisions, some who still recall the vision of Colts running back Alan Ameche plunging into the end zone to score the winning touchdown in sudden death overtime.

Bowden's title is ironic because, while it had a lasting impact on the National Football League, the championship game was more memorable for miscues than for quality. A crucial moment in the third quarter when the Giants made a goal line stand was the result of Ameche running the wrong play. But legends are built upon success, not failure. The game also marked the introduction of John Unitas and Raymond Berry to a nation of fans, unaware of their football talent. Unitas coolly led a drive in the fourth quarter to tie the game. Berry's 12 pass receptions are an NFL championship game record that stands today.

Though the game itself has been chronicled on many occasions, THE BEST GAME EVER recounts a number of details in a slightly different fashion. Using transcripts of the game's radio broadcasts, Bowden recreates some of the twists and turns that made the contest so memorable. Interspersed with the game details are biographical chapters of many of the players who dotted the rosters of the two teams. From Berry, Unitas and Sam Huff, to coaches Tom Landry, Weeb Ewbank and Vince Lombardi, the total number of participants ultimately enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is 17.

Remembering this epic game 50 years after the fact, this reader is struck by some new details. When time expired and the teams were tied at 17, many of the players thought the game was over. Some began heading to the locker rooms only to be admonished by the officials that an overtime period would commence. Sudden death has become a staple of professional football, but the 1958 overtime struggle between the Colts and Giants was a first. Likewise, in reading Bowden's account, I learned that when television transmission was interrupted by a cable problem, the network, not wanting the 45 million viewers to miss any action, had one of their own run on the field to stop play. Both the NFL and the television networks have come a long way since December 28, 1958.

Whether it was the Colts-Giants game or another NFL contest that qualifies as the greatest ever in NFL history is not really the question. The game chronicled by Bowden changed professional football, and television captured that moment. That the images of 50 years ago remain with us today speaks volumes about the game, the players and the moment. Football fans will enjoy being reminded of all those as they read this enjoyable portrait of a great moment in pigskin history.

--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

There were lots of inside things in the book. I greatly enjoyed it. It also arrived very prompt.

Bowden always delivers. This is a quick read of the '58 NFL Championship Game. It's like watching a documentary of the game on ESPN Classic. A little game action then switch to a little background on some of the colorful personalities of the GIANTS or COLTS. All in all it delivers and entertains. I'm too young to have seen the game but I could picture my dad(a big Colts fan) cheering on Johnny Unitas! The names of the players, owners and coaches are legendary, all in all 17 of them from this game would make the NFL Hall of Fame. I really enjoyed some of the locker room stories between the players no doubt the stories have grown in stature over the years as has this game and the NFL. Highly recommended.

The Best Game Ever brought back to life many of the characters I grew up watching on TV when I was a young boy, Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, Frank Gifford, Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry, the list goes on. The book is as compelling as I'm sure the game must have been and after reading it you come away with a better appreciation of the roots of America's new favorite pass-time. Highly recommended!

Fine writing, excellent content, interesting insight by Bowden make the book a great read for all fans of football interested in the most exciting game of football ever played, but an especially great read for fans of the old Baltimore Colts.

Mark Bowden has written a brillant book on the Giants VS Colts,1958 Championship game. Bowden brings the game and the inpact it had on the sport into perfect harmony. His insight into the meaning of the game beyond the score brings greater understanding of today's billion dollar NFL brand. Whether your a football fan or a fan of American culture Bowden's work is a remarkable merging of the the two. Enjoy the read.

December 28, 1958 marks one of the most classic moments in NFL history. That's the date the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in sudden death overtime to win the NFL title as 45 million fans watched on television. It marked the birth of the modern NFL as football began to step out of the shadows of baseball.

The match up featured the greatest concentration of football talent for one game as 17 future Hall of Famers were involved in the game. It pitted a team of self-made men and the league's best offense (Colts) versus a team of glamour boys and the best defense (Giants).

Author Mark Bowden tells the story of the 1958 championship game through a handful of players and coaches such as Raymond Berry, Weeb Ewbank, Sam Huff, Tom Landry (Giants' defensive coordinator) and Vince Lombardi (Giants' offensive coordinator). Bowden's exceptional study of Berry is the cornerstone of the book.

Bowden recounts how Johnny Unitas and Berry teamed up to take the Colts 86 yards in two minutes to tie the game. And, how Unitas engineered the 13-play drive in overtime to secure the thrilling victory. Unitas' greatness and leadership in the game elevated him to the highest echelon of NFL quarterbacks.

Interestingly, many of the players didn't realize that the game would continue into sudden death overtime after it was tied in regulation.

As a writer, Bowden makes the reader feel like he's in the middle of the game. He makes you wish you had been able to witness this great game. You envy those who did. NFL Commissioner Bert Bell called the Colts-Giants sudden death overtime game, "The greatest day in the history of professional football."

While I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it's definitely a lightweight treatment of the subject. The book is 239, easy-to-read pages. When I finished the book, I wanted to read more about the game and its impact. I suspect many other readers will feel the same way.

Mr. Bowden does an excellent job.. I was growing up in Baltimore at the time. He accurately captures things I remember, and gives enormous (and fun) incite into the rest of the story.

A great book! What an amazing group of players and coaches who went on to define the NFL. Truly as the Sports Illustrated cover stated. "How Raymond Berry and Johnny Unitas invented the modern NFL."

Its a great book to read and to learn more about a game and football itself. The book takes you inside the huddle and puts you in the middle of the field and in the mind of the great Johnny Unitas.

I THINK I saw this game on our old B/W TV....
None the less, a great chronicle of this great game.
If you're my age, 55, it brings us back to another era, where really tough men played a really tough game, not for the big bucks, but because it was their one and only job. From this game, though, the NFL matured. The players became larger than life, a bit spoiled, but what celebrity/athlete hasn't become larger than life?
With father's day coming up, this is a good gift for an old fa*t my age!
The author is a journalist from the newspaper beat writer era, and I think this is a major plus. I only wish the pictures could have been a bit larger and glossy...minus that----this was a good read and well worth the time.
Will we ever see a video of this game? How about releasing the NFL Film's coaches tapes? It would be as riveting as the story....
The author was lucky enough to see these films, how about us?

Mark Bowden has a proven record as an exciting writer of history. The Best Game Ever is his best book ever. He makes the 1958 NFL title game come alive. I have memories as a high school senior of watching this game on television. The game's black-and-white starkness is imbedded in my memory. Mr. Bowden makes this memory come alive in all its vivid character. His lively style is more that of an analytical journalist than an academic historian, and he offers insights that I have not read elsewhere. The photos of this cold-weather game offered in the book made me want to bundle up in spite of the fact that it is 90 degrees in San Antonio (my home) today. Every football fan should be grateful for this book.

What you have here is not so much a book about the game but rather some feather duster treatment of a few of the people who played in it ... and a whole lot about Raymond Berry which, combined with the Epilogue, constitute the only redeeming features of the book.

You will read about John Unitas but there are certainly better books about him. You will read about Sam Huff, but oddly in this volume you will not read a word about the 1960 documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite called "The Violent World of Sam Huff" which will tell you more about the player than anything you'll find between the pages of The Best Game Ever. You'll find out about the tenacious kid who took a lucky picture of the final score in overtime but who really cares? And you'll soak a little in the late 1950's nostalgia assuming you are interested in how many people watched television back then.

To tell the truth, if it weren't for the Epilogue featuring some transcribed conversations among Colt veterans this would be a 1.5 star book. And without the Berry story, there would be virtually no book at all. The author handles language well enough. He just didn't produce anything close to The Best Sports Book Ever.

The 1958 NFL championship game between the Colts and Giants has been chronicled and debated so much over the past 50 years that another book would seem to be past redundant.

But author Mark Bowden runs a fly route past the typical coverage and places the contest in a context of the NFL's evolution in the decade after the Second World War and relives the era through sketches of the participants, some who remain familiar names and others whose glory had faded like the print on the pages of sports sections in old newspapers.

The book is an nice primer to new fans and a decent stride down the sidelines to paydirt for those who have read extensively on this classic contest.

Raymond Emmett Berry did not have one leg shorter than the other; his father was NEVER called "Ray" by anyone except this author; and he went to Schreiner Junior College because he weighed 151 pounds his senior season in high school and, more importantly, because former Paris Junior College head football coach Chena Gilstrap had just moved to Kerrville as the new Schreiner head coach.

Coach Gilstrap was a life-long friend of both Raymond Emmett--his family name and his "Paris, Texas" name--and his father, Mark Raymond Berry, who was always called "Raymond," "Coach," or "Mr. Berry" by everyone who knew him. Another life-long friend was Gene Stallings--the Texas A&M, Alabama, St. Louis Cardinals coach--who replaced Raymond as the left end at Paris High School after Raymond graduated.

Why couldn't the author just ask Raymond to clarify some of those "legends" and errors instead of just copying them from some old newspaper story? Although they distract from the story--especially if you are Raymond Emmett's cousin, revered his father, and your brother played for Coach Gilstrap at UT Arlington--the story of the game itself is worth every minute of this read. Although I'm obviously somewhat biased, it was certainly the greatest NFL football game I ever saw!