[17][18] It marked the beginning of the NFL's popularity surge and eventual rise to the top of the United States sports market.

His 12 receptions set a championship record that stood for 55 years until it was broken by Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas in Super Bowl XLVIII.

Trailing 27–7 at halftime, Baltimore stormed back with four unanswered touchdowns to win, 35–27, clinching the Western Conference championship; several Colt players such as Unitas and Moore cited the victory as their best of the year.

New York started the season 2–2, then won seven of their last eight games, including a critical 19–17 win over the defending champion Detroit Lions on December 7.

Later on, however, the Giants stopped Detroit punter Yale Lary on a fake punt attempt and drove for the go-ahead score.

At Yankee Stadium in 20 °F (−7 °C) weather, the Giants defeated the Browns for a third time in a shut out, building a 10–0 lead at the half, which was the final score.

[22] After clinching their conference title on November 30, the Colts rested key players in the final two games, road losses in California.

One play later, Baltimore took the ball back when defensive end Gino Marchetti forced a recovered fumble from quarterback Don Heinrich.

On third down, Conerly threw a pass to wide-open fullback Alex Webster, but he slipped before the ball arrived and it fell incomplete.

The Giants took a 17–14 lead early in the fourth quarter with Conerly's 46-yard completion to tight end Bob Schnelker setting up his 15-yard touchdown pass to Gifford.

But after driving to the 27-yard line, Unitas was sacked twice in a row (once by Andy Robustelli and once by Dick Modzelewski), moving the ball back 20 yards and pushing the Colts out of field goal range.

On their ensuing drive, Baltimore drove 80 yards in 13 plays (all called by QB Johnny Unitas) on a tired NY defense.

During overtime, when the Colts were on the eight-yard line of the Giants, someone ran out onto the field of Yankee Stadium, causing the game to be delayed; rumors have stated that it was an NBC employee who was ordered to create a distraction because the national television feed had gone dead.

The difficulty was the result of an unplugged TV signal cable,[25] and the delay in the game bought NBC enough time to fix the problem before the next play.

[29][30] Seventeen individuals (including coaches and administration) who were involved in this game are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Baltimore head coach Weeb Ewbank led the Colts to a second straight championship game win over New York the next season.

The offensive coordinator was Vince Lombardi, who left the team following the game to take the head coaching position with the Green Bay Packers in January 1959.

In order to advance to both of those Super Bowls, Lombardi's Packers needed to defeat Landry's Cowboys in the 1966 and 1967 NFL championship games.

A year later, Texas billionaire Lamar Hunt formed the American Football League, which began play with eight teams in the 1960 season.

In Super Bowl LVIII, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers, 25–22, with three seconds left in the overtime period.

[39] Writer Mark Bowden, at the urging of his editor Morgan Entrekin, set out to write a book about the game in 2006, looking ahead to the 50th anniversary.

Bowden credited Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule with the "best game ever" phrase which he chose for his book title.

When asked about any insight writing the book had given him, Bowden remarked in part, "I wonder, if you got a group of New York Giants from 2006 or ’07 together 50 years from now, whether you would get the same sort of hilarity and knee-slapping comradeship that you find still exists among these [surviving 1958-game-veteran] players.

[41] Source:The NFL's Official Encyclopedic History of Professional Football, (1974), p. 111, Macmillan Publishing Co. New York, NY, LCCN 73-3862 The boxscore can be found on Pro-Football-reference.com https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/195812280nyg.htm