http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/giants/ny-spymagfb5748822jul06,0,1473034.storyLegend has it that on Dec. 28, 1958, when the Giants and Baltimore Colts tangled in the NFL's first "sudden-death" championship scuffle, Yankee Stadium became the scene of "The Greatest Game Ever Played."
"It wasn't," Giants owner Wellington Mara always said. "Because we lost."
With the Giants leading 17-14 and two minutes to play, Frank Gifford swept end on a third-and-4 attempt near midfield and was stopped short of a first down, both Gifford and Mara forever believed, by the referee's bad spot. Which forced a punt, which led to a Baltimore march toward the tying field goal with nine seconds to play, which triggered the overtime format cooked up only a week earlier by commissioner Bert Bell, which ended eight minutes later when Baltimore's Alan Ameche punched into the Giants' end zone over right tackle.
It has been called a defining moment in the ever-more-lucra- tive sports- television part- nership, as a national TV audience - be- yond the 71,163 in attendance - was thrown into a swoon over a league that previously had modest, provincial followings but since has grown into a central piece of popular culture
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