Filed under: Colts, Giants, NFL Fans
Anyone who has ESPN clearly knows that Yankee Stadium will hold its final baseball game today. I'm not as awed about the place closing as others are ... but it did remind me what the stadium meant to the history of the NFL.
People forget that Yankee Stadium was also an NFL field. The New York Football Giants played their home games there from 1956 to 1973.
In the 1956 NFL Championship Game, the Giants offensive assistant was Vince Lombardi. The defensive assistant was Tom Landry. Pretty strong.
Yankee Stadium was the site of "The Greatest Game Ever Played" -- the 1958 NFL Championship game between the Giants and the Baltimore Colts. The Colts won in overtime, 23-17, the first time the NFL title was won by sudden death (above is the audio from that game).
There was also the legendary hit the Eagles' Chuck Bednarik put on the Giants' Frank Gifford.
Sports
The Yankees played there, too. Well, the New York Football Yankees. In professional football's early days, there were four attempts to create a Yankees football team (1926, 1936-1937, 1940-1941, 1946-1949) in various leagues.
Many people forget that some of our great, legendary baseball fields played host to the NFL. Heck, about 15 years ago, multipurpose stadiums were all the rage in both leagues. Now, only Dolphins Stadium, HHH Metrodome and McAfee Coliseum share both NFL and MLB teams.
So as the curtain closes on Yankee Stadium and the baseball history it certainly represents ... take a minute to rememeber the impact it had on the NFL.
