The First America's Team. Bob Berghaus

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СКАЧАТЬ it, just two sides and the setting surface—the wind had blown the bench back onto the playing field. It may have blown maybe ten yards out onto the field. Our capes and all kinds of shit was being strung all over hell and back. The trainers were trying to pick everything up because of that wind. I don’t know what the wind chill factor was but it was bitter cold.”

      The wind was so severe that it tore the American flag that flew in the stadium. One of the cameras used for the national telecast blew over. In the baseball dugouts, photographers built little bonfires to thaw out their cameras. Before the Packers kicked off to begin the game, the ball fell off the tee three times because of heavy wind gusts.

      Despite the elements, the Giants fans were ready for the Packers. Shouts of “Beat Green Bay. Beat Green Bay” filled the stadium from the more than 62,000 that attended.

      Fans in a team’s home market could not watch their team’s regular season and playoff games on television because of the NFL’s blackout policy, which was in place to protect gate receipts. Because of that policy, many residents of New York City piled into cars and traveled to hotels in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania so they could watch the game on TV.

      The primitive conditions forced Lombardi to scrap his plan on surprising the Giants with a passing attack. As usual, the Packers offense would revolve around Taylor, whose every move was being followed by Sam Huff, the Giants All-Pro linebacker. Huff had help; the Giants couldn’t wait to hit Taylor over and over.

      “They beat the shit out of Taylor,” Hornung remembered almost fifty years later.

      Early in the game Taylor bit his tongue when he was tackled, causing him to swallow blood for much of the game. He also suffered a cut on his arm and was stitched up by team doctors at halftime. As his teammates tried to thaw out at halftime they heard Taylor scream in agony from the trainer’s room while he was being sewn up.

      Despite the pain and physical punishment he was enduring, Taylor played like a champion. Of the Packers’ forty-six running plays, Taylor was given the ball thirty-one times, finishing with 85 of the toughest yards he would ever gain in a game. During the second quarter with his team up 3–0, thanks to a 26-yard first-quarter field goal by Kramer, Taylor scored the game’s only offensive touchdown on a 7-yard run that gave his team a 10–0 lead.

      Years later Huff said, “Did everything I could to that sonofabitch.”

      It turned out that Taylor was playing sick; he was diagnosed with hepatitis a week later.

      Davis remembers Taylor being upset because he was considered second fiddle to the great Jim Brown, the Cleveland Browns fullback who led the league in rushing every year he played during his nine-year career—except in 1962, when Taylor won the title with 1,474 yards.

      “He was always mindful of Jim Brown,” Davis said. “Nothing would have pleased Jim Taylor more than having a breakout game in the championship game so he could say to Jim Brown, ‘In your face.’

      “The Giants really took it to him that game. He was literally beat up by the end of the game and even into the next week when they discovered he had a sickness. Still he played a tough game and he didn’t get one free yard.”

      Following the game, while talking to reporters, Huff paid the ultimate compliment to the Green Bay fullback.

      “Taylor isn’t human. No human being could have taken the punishment he got today,” Huff said. “Every time he was tackled it was like crashing him down on a cement sidewalk because the ground was as hard as pavement. But he kept bouncing up, snarling at us, and asking for more.”

      Taylor told reporters that the Giant players taunted him throughout, calling him over-rated.

      “I never took a worse beating on a football field,” Taylor said. “The Giants hit me hard, and then I hit the ground hard. I got it both ways. I just rammed it right back at them, letting my running do the talking. They couldn’t rattle me.”

      Meanwhile, the Giants offense couldn’t get into the end zone. Tittle kept trying to go long, but the gusting winds sometimes pushed the ball several yards back. The Giants had success with short passes but 3 turnovers—1 interception and 2 fumbles—were devastating.

      “The ball was like a diving duck,” Tittle said after the game. “I threw one pass and it almost came back to me. The short ones worked, but the long ball broke up. We needed the long one.”

      After the Packers took a 3–0 lead Tittle used short passes to drive to the Packers 15-yard line. Tittle had tight end Joe Walton open on the goal line when he delivered a pass. But Nitschke got his hand on it, tipping it in the air. The ball was intercepted by Dan Currie, who made a long return but staggered as he fell to the ground because his knee gave out. He looked like a punch-drunk fighter trying to stay on his feet before hitting the canvas.

      “I go about 30 or 40 yards and it starts to waver and wobble,” Currie said after the game. “It’s not that strong yet.”

      The Giants’ lone score came in the third quarter, and it was without any help from the offense. Packer flanker Boyd Dowler, who also was the team’s punter, had a bad leg, which kept him from punting. That chore fell to Max McGee, who before Dowler arrived had been the punter. He took a snap while standing in his end zone, and Giants defensive back Erich Barnes swooped in untouched and blocked the kick. Giants special team player Jim Collier fell on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown that cut the Packers lead to 10–7.

      The crowd at Yankee Stadium was re-energized, and shouts of “Beat Green Bay” rose louder than ever. But Tittle just couldn’t deal with the wind. He needed 41 attempts to complete 18 passes for 197 yards. Shofner had 5 receptions for 69 yards but never could get past cornerback Jesse Whittenton, who played much of the game with limited mobility after suffering a jarring hit to the ribs delivered by Giants fullback Phil King. Had it not been so windy, Shofner may have been able to get downfield for an opportunity for a long play.

      “I busted up my ribs in the first quarter,” Whittenton said after the game. “King had the ball on a sweep or a screen—I don’t remember which—and I came up and got it in the side. I had figured to play Del tight, but after that I had to drop off him because I couldn’t move around as good as usual. I had to give him the short one, and I’m glad they couldn’t throw the long one.”

      The Packers secondary suffered another loss when safety Willie Wood was ejected in the third quarter after he unintentionally knocked down back judge Tom Kelleher. Wood had tipped a pass directed at Shofner and Kelleher called it interference. Wood approached the official and began to protest when he slipped and hit Kelleher, causing him to fall down. Wood was replaced for the remainder of the game by one-time starter Johnny Symank.

      “I was covering Shofner on a crossing pattern,” Wood said after the game. “I went for the ball and suddenly I saw the white handkerchief go down. I jumped up to protest and my hand must have hit him in the chest.”

      Said Kelleher, “In my opinion, Wood committed an overt act in striking me and that called for disqualification. If I had bumped into him it would have been a different matter.”

      The rest of the scoring was done by Kramer, who during the regular season had made 38 of 39 extra-point attempts and was good on 9 of 11 field-goal tries. He booted a 30-yarder with four minutes left in the third quarter for a 13–7 lead.

      Then, with 1:50 remaining in the game, Kramer capped the scoring with a field goal from 29 yards for a 16–7 lead, which on this brutal day was enough to secure a second championship for the team СКАЧАТЬ