Dec. 28, 1958. Yankee Stadium. NFL Championship. The Colts’ 23-17 overtime win over the Giants is remembered as the “greatest game ever played.” Fifty years later, football fans call it the game that started America’s love affair with football. Phil Richards of the Indianapolis Star reports that surviving Colts and Giants stars from that game will be honored during a halftime ceremony at the Jacksonville-Baltimore game on Dec. 28.

“The NFL is king today, but back in 1958 baseball ruled,” Richards writes. “Horse racing regularly attracted larger television audiences than football. The Colts and Giants changed that. The league’s two best teams played in sports’ most storied venue in the world’s media capital. An unprecedented 45 million viewers tuned in on NBC. They saw a jarring game with huge momentum swings. They saw pro football’s first sudden-death overtime. America was captivated.” Full story

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