1958's 'Greatest Game Ever Played' between Colts and Giants named best game in NFL history
NFL Films' "100 Greatest" series, celebrating the league's 100th season, rolled on Friday night with the reveal of the top 30 greatest games in NFL history.
The list of the league's 100 greatest contests was compiled by an 80-person panel put together by the Associated Press and NFL Media, with results revealed in another multi-part special on NFL Network.
In perhaps something we should have seen coming, "The Greatest Game Ever Played" was revealed as the best game in NFL history.
That nickname was given to the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants. The rosters were loaded with future Hall of Famers, and the contest was the first title game to go to overtime – forced when legendary Colts QB Johnny Unitas engineered a two-minute drill with the help of wide receiver Raymond Berry. The Colts would win the championship, 23-17, when Alan Ameche plunged in for the winning score in OT.
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Broadcast to a national TV audience, the game played at the original Yankee Stadium is attributed with helping the NFL gain more popularity in the mid-20th century.
The No. 2 game selected by the committee was the 1981 NFC Championship Game, defined by an iconic play simply called "The Catch." Immortalized by NFL Films, Dwight Clark's leaping end zone grab of a Joe Montana pass in the final minute ultimately gave the San Francisco 49ers a 28-27 win against the Dallas Cowboys and sent the Niners to the Super Bowl for the first time.
The third greatest game on the committee's list was "The Ice Bowl." This New Year's Eve game in 1967, the coldest in NFL history by temperature (-13), pitted the Green Bay Packers against the Dallas Cowboys with a spot in Super Bowl II on the line. And it culminated in one of the league's signature moments of its first 50 years: Bart Starr's QB sneak in the final minute that gave the Packers a 21-17 victory. Green Bay went on to beat the Raiders in the Super Bowl, providing the final title in Vince Lombardi's Packers tenure.
This is the second of several lists that will be revealed throughout the season. The NFL's greatest plays went first, with Franco Harris' "Immaculate Reception" taking the top honor.