The Musings of a Giant Idiot

2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the epic 1958 championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants, it is still the only NFL championship game to be decided in overtime. Mark Bowden, the author of Black Hawk Down, has written a book about the game and how it changed the NFL. In the latest Sports Illustrated there is an excerpt about one of the key players in that game, Raymond Berry. Since I began following football I can remember my Dad telling me about Raymond Berry, Johnny Unitas and the 1958 championship game. When I was younger I could have cared less about the past, I was interested in what Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and the 49ers were doing, there was no way those old guys had anything on my favorite players.

As I got older and began reading about the history of the NFL, I started to appreciate the importance of the 1958 game and realized that my Dad knew what he was talking about. That game brought the NFL to the masses and started the NFL down the path that would see it become the most popular game in America. The game featured 17 Hall of Famers, 12 of the players would be enshrined, 3 coaches would be inducted, Weeb Ewbank the Baltimore coach and two members of the Giant coaching staff, offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi and defensive coordinator Tom Landry, the Mara brothers who owned the Giants were also inducted.

The Colts were led by Johnny Unitas, who I feel is the greatest QB ever (a change of my pro-Montana youth) and his favorite target was Raymond Berry, my Dad’s favorite player. I cannot remember how many times I heard about Unitas to Berry, how they would practice their timing and study film or how Raymond Berry had one leg that was shorter than the other, how slow he was and that he had to wear contacts before it was common. Despite all of these perceived limitations Berry could do one thing better than anyone in the game and that was catch the football. It did not matter where the ball was Berry was going to catch it and he did it without gloves.

The excerpt from this book has me hooked just like a good movie trailer. I have seen some hour long specials on the ‘58 game but there has not been a book that has been devoted to the game and what it meant to the NFL. I am looking forward to picking up my copy and reading about the players who helped make the game the giant it is today.

After my epic build-up of favorite comic book/superhero movie scenes, I went to see Iron Man with a couple of friends on Friday night and the first blockbuster of the summer movie season did not disappoint. When it was announced that a movie based on the Iron Man comic book was coming out this year I thought it was going to bomb. Then I saw the trailer and added the movie to my must see list for the summer.

Robert Downey, Jr is great and is perfect in his portrayal of the smart aleck genius Tony Stark. Jon Favreau of Swingers fame does a great job directing and from what I have read has done justice to the source material. My only quibble was with Jeff Bridges as Obidiah Kane. He does a great job as the villain but to me he is always going to be Jeffrey Lebowski and it took away from his performance.

With no competition at the box office this weekend I would expect more big numbers from Iron Man. This movie will get repeat viewings and will be one of the top 3 grossing movies of the summer.