New York Giants Secure Two Spots in Sports Illustrated’s 100 Greatest Sports Moments in History
By Neal Lynch
Sports Illustrated released their list of the 100 Greatest Sports Moments in History and the New York Giants were part of two of them: David Tyree’s Helmet Catch over safety Rodney Harrison in the waning moments of the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII at #19 and “The Greatest Game Ever Played” between the Giants and Baltimore Colts when the G-Men lost to Johnny Unitas’ crew at Yankee Stadium in the 1958 NFL Championship Game landing at #4.
The Helmet Catch
I had the misfortune of listening to FOX Sports broadcaster Joe Buck deliver the call for this play. It was tone-deaf, unexciting, uninspired, and I’d bet if you were to ask Buck if he’d like a redo, he’d sign up for that 10 out of 10 times. If you really want the full fanboy experience, listen to Giants radio broadcaster Bob Papa expertly nail the commentary. NFL.com actually ranked Papa and boothmate Carl Banks’ call combined with Patriots’ radio broadcasting team’s call #3 on their list of the top 50 sounds.
NFL Films’ Steve Sabol called it “the greatest play the Super Bowl has ever produced“. The play was also named by NFL Films “The Play of the Decade (2000s)“. Fox Sports lists the catch as the greatest play in Super Bowl history. It also won the 2008 Best Play ESPY Award.
The Greatest Game Ever Played
The 1958 NFL Championship Game was the first NFL playoff game to go into sudden death overtime and marked the beginning of the NFL’s surge to becoming the most popular sport in the United States. Why the “Greatest” though? Because the game was nationally televised by NBC.
From Wikipedia:
"“During overtime, when the Colts were on the eight-yard line of the Giants, someone ran out onto the field of Yankee Stadium, causing the game to be delayed; rumors have stated that it was actually an NBC employee who was ordered to create a distraction because the national television feed had gone dead.”"
In his book, “The Glory Game“, author Peter Richmond wrote that the difficulty was the result of an unplugged TV signal cable, and, according to Mark Bowden’s book “The Best Game Ever“, the delay in the game bought NBC enough time to fix the problem before the next play.
An estimated 45 million people watched the game on television in the U.S. and could’ve been larger had the game not been blacked out in the greater New York City area. Seventeen people who were involved in this game are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Giants wouldn’t win their next playoff game until the 1981 postseason.