Another point of view on '58 game's impact
Steve Sabol of NFL Films has offered a different take on the conventional wisdom that the 1958 Colts-Giants NFL title game launched the NFL into a TV juggernaut. Speaking to the New York Post's Phil Mushnick in a recent column (it's the second item), Sabol said the NFL really didn't take off for a few more years after The Greatest Game.
"TV viewership rose only a little the next season, then went flat in 1960," Sabol said. " ... The '58 game was more like the first distant rumble, the first flash of light from far away, a hint that something big might be coming. But that storm didn't arrive until the early 1960s, with Vince Lombardi's Packers. That's when it became clear that the NFL, as a televised sport, had arrived. That wasn't clear in 1958."
Comments
Sabol is not a historian, he is a film maker. In this case, he is just plain wrong. If this were true, why were there so many potential owners trying to get NFL franchises in 1959 and 1960? Why was the AFL formed in 1960? Why did the NFL expand in 1961? All of this occured before Lombardi's Packers had won a single championship.
BTW, someone needs to ask him why NFL Films has never done a definitive documentary on John Unitas.
Posted by: Sean | December 27, 2008 11:52 PM
Ray,
Maybe I carry a grudge ;-) but I was pleased that I could not find anything in the Indianapolis paper about the '58 game. The media there did not try to steal our history in this instance. After all, the old Colts are showing up here not there and we have all the '58 relics. Of course, maybe the Irsays will try to steal Colts history at their halftime. But I saw the Indy Irsay Super Bowl ring has only one diamond football so it seems they did not try to grab Super Bowl V in the ring. Of course, the team still prnits Colts stats along with Indy Irsay stats.
Given Indy's quiet on '58 game, how can the NFL have had the cojones to use Indy Irsay, and not Ravens, players in the documentary on the 58 game this year? I refuse to watch it. The answer: Another example of how the NFL is out for Baltimore ("build a museum"). Tagliabue's handpicked boy Goodell carries on the tradition.
Thanks for the rant space.
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Ray replies: The NFL didn't actually produce the documentary. It was produced by ESPN.
Posted by: LBBC and Taco | December 28, 2008 9:14 AM
Is my recollection correct that the game was blacked out in Baltimore. I seem to remember having to go to a friend's whose roof antenna brought in D.C. stations?
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Ray replies: No, the game was blacked out in New York.
Posted by: Chris | December 28, 2008 9:42 AM
Ray,
Point taken, but isn't ESPN a fully owned sub. of the NFL? Ha ha
Posted by: LBBC and Taco | December 29, 2008 10:47 AM
Chris, the '59 game was the one you remember being blacked out in Baltimore (because it was played at Memorial Stadium). I recall the tinfoil flags on the rabbit ears of our old TV and me and my dad fiddling with them throughout the game trying to get a clear picture through all the electronic snow. The poor reception we got trying to watch the '59 championship game was the primary reason my dad purchased a rooftop antenna soon after.
Posted by: WJS32246 | December 29, 2008 11:01 AM