| Regular season | |
|---|---|
| Duration | September 28 – December 14, 1958 |
| East Champions | New York Giants |
| West Champions | Baltimore Colts |
| Championship Game | |
| Champions | Baltimore Colts |
The1958 NFL season was the 39thregular season of theNational Football League.
TheBaltimore Colts defeated theNew York Giants, 23–17, in the first sudden-death overtime in an NFL Championship Game. The game became known toAmerican football fans as "The Greatest Game Ever Played".
The1958 NFL draft was held on December 2, 1957, and January 28, 1958, atPhiladelphia'sWarwick Hotel. With the first pick, theChicago Cardinals selected quarterbackKing Hill fromRice University.
The 1958 season is regarded as a watershed year in which the popularity of professional football in the United States began to rival that ofbaseball in the public imagination. "Professional football was beyond coming of age in 1958," one writer enthused, "it was on an even plane with baseball as the game of the people."[1]
Stadium attendance was robust throughout the league, with crowds in excess of 100,000 twice filling theLos Angeles Coliseum to see theLos Angeles Rams, while theDetroit Lions managed to sell a staggering 42,000 season tickets in advance of the 1958 campaign, ensuring home sellouts atBriggs Stadium.[1]
At the other end of the attendance spectrum, theChicago Cardinals faltered with the live gate, overshadowed yet again by the legendaryBears. The team ultimately moved two of their home games for 1959 toMinneapolis before departing forSt. Louis in 1960.[1] Similarly, thePittsburgh Steelers were disappointed with their attendance in their new home atPitt Stadium, which proved difficult to access and provided a particularly windy and inhospitable place to watch a game.[1] The team sought to remedy its problems by opting out of its two-year lease.[1]
Cleveland Brownsrunning backJim Brown electrified football fans around the league by gaining more than 1,500 yards on 257 carries, an average of 5.9 yards per carry.[2] The powerful Cleveland runner smashed the previous NFL record of 1,146 yards in a 12 game season, set bySteve Van Buren in 1949.[2] He also nearly doubled the total of the second leading ground-gainer of 1958,fullbackAlan Ameche of theBaltimore Colts.[2] Brown's 17 touchdowns scored similarly dwarfed the tallies of any other player, with Colts endRaymond Berry second on the list with 9 scores.[3]
Youngwide receiverDel Shofner of the Los Angeles Rams led all receivers with 1,097 yards gained on 51 catches — a bountiful average of 21.5 yards per completion.[3] BaltimorequarterbackJohnny Unitas made use of a plethora of offensive weapons, connecting with halfbackLenny Moore for nearly 950 yards and wide out Ray Berry for nearly 800 more,[3] leading the league with 2,875 yards passing.[4] Unitas' interception percentage of 2.7% was also a league low among starting quarterbacks.[4]San Francisco 49ers QBJohn Brodie led the league with a completion percentage of 59.9%.[4]
On the defensive side of the ball,defensive backJames Patton of theNew York Giants lead the league with 11 interceptions in the 12 game season, followed by Pittsburgh Steelers defenderJack Butler with 9.[5] Quarterback sacks were not an official statistic in this era, but the league-low 183 points allowed by the New York Giants (15.25 per game) give testimony to the stoutness of their defensive unit.
The 1958 Colts–Giants title game was a milestone in the popularity of pro football, but the Giants almost did not qualify. TheCleveland Browns led the Eastern Division title race up until the final week. On December 14, the 9–2 Browns visited the 8–3 Giants. As a snowstorm swept overYankee Stadium, the Browns' 10–3 lead gave way to a 10–10 tie game onFrank Gifford's pass toBob Schnelker, which would still have suited Cleveland. The Giants'Pat Summerall missed a 31-yard field goal with 4½ minutes left. With two minutes to play, Summerall had another opportunity from 49 yards out, in inclement weather and connected for a 13–10 win.[6] The Browns and Giants finished with 9–3 records, and in theplayoff the next week, the Giants won again at Yankee Stadium, 10–0.
The Western Division race was over after ten games, with the Colts at 9–1, and the Bears and Rams mathematically eliminated at 6–4. The Colts lost their final two games on the road in California to finish at 9–3, a game ahead of Chicago and Los Angeles.
TheGreen Bay Packers finished with a league-worst record of 1–10–1 and hiredVince Lombardi, offensive coach of the Giants, as head coach in January1959. Philadelphia finished tied for worst in the East, at 2–9–1. Two years later, both the Eagles and Packers would play for the championship.
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Eastern Conference Playoff Game
| Most Valuable Player | Jim Brown,Fullback, Cleveland |
| Coach of the Year | Weeb Ewbank, Baltimore Colts |
