NFL legend, broadcaster Gifford, 84
Smooth style hallmark of careers on playing field, in broadcasting
Frank Gifford converted a Hall of Fame playing career with the New York Giants into a successful broadcasting career with “Monday Night Football.”
Frank Gifford, a gleaming hero of sports and television in an era when such things were possible, who moved seamlessly from stardom in the New York Giants’ offense to celebrity in the broadcast booth of “Monday Night Football,” died Sunday at his home in Connecticut. He was 84.
In a statement released by NBC News, his family said Gifford died suddenly of natural causes. His wife, Kathie Lee Gifford, is a host for NBC’s “Today.”
A shifty running back and later a cagey and clutch receiver who was inducted into the Pro Football’s Hall of Fame in 1977, Gifford began his career at a time when the professional game was overshadowed by college football and by Major League Baseball — hardly the American obsession it has become. But as much as anyone, he helped push it in that direction.
Helped NFL emerge
By the time he retired as a player in 1964, the Giants and the NFL had gained the national sports spotlight, and the versatile and handsome Gifford had become a celebrity. A few years later, in the early 1970s, he became one of the bestknown figures in television sports.
As the play-by-play man of ABC’s “Monday Night Football,” Gifford, with his low-key persona, provided the perfect backdrop to bring his boothmates — the contentious Howard Cosell (who died in 1995) and the country boy-irreverent Don Meredith (who died in 2010) — into high relief. It was a formula that made the weekly autumn broadcasts must-see programming for much of America.
As a player, Gifford was the personification of the Giants during their glory years in the 1950s and early ’60s. Gifford played for the team from 1952 until 1960, when a brutal injury interrupted and nearly finished his career. By then he had made seven consecutive Pro Bowls and helped the Giants reach three NFL championship games. They won one of them, 47-7 over the Chicago Bears in 1956, the same year Gifford was named the league’s most valuable player.
It was on Nov. 20, 1960, that Gifford was the recipient of one of football history’s most famous tackles. Playing against Philadelphia, he caught a pass and was flattened by Chuck Bednarik, the Eagles’ rough linebacker and a future Hall of Famer. Gifford was carted off the field with a concussion, ending his season, and in February 1961 he announced his retirement.
He returned, however, after missing only the 1961 season, and played three more seasons, returning to the Pro Bowl in 1963.
All told, Gifford ran for 3,609 yards and 34 touchdowns, caught 367 passes for 5,434 yards and 43 touchdowns, and threw 14 touchdown passes.
Along the way, Gifford became a part of the New York celebrity scene.
“All of a sudden, in a city where Mickey Mantle was a god and the memory of Joe DiMaggio even more sacred, there was an awareness of another sport, another player, another team,” Gifford said in his memoir, “The Whole Ten Yards,” written with Harry Waters. “I was the player, and the Giants were the team. Heady stuff — and I loved it.”
Perfect casting
Gifford’s luster remained undimmed after he retired as a player. He joined “Monday Night Football” in 1971, its second season, and the program — conceived by Roone Arledge, ABC’s director of sports, as a primetime spectacle — became a TV phenomenon. As the game broadcaster and later as an analyst and briefly as a pregame host, Gifford remained with the show through the 1998 season.
“Roone saw it not so much as a football game as an entertainment show,” Gifford said in his memoir. “Howard was the elitist New York know-it-all, the bombastic lawyer Middle America loved to hate. Don was the good ol’ country boy who put Howard in his place. As for me, I was cast as the nice guy, the guy who got the numbers out and the names down and the game played.”
Gifford also was in the public eye as the husband of Kathie Lee Gifford, a longtime co-host, with Regis Philbin, of the program “Live With Regis & Kathie Lee.” Frank Gifford occasionally filled in as a host.
But most of all, Gifford was the heart of his Giants teams.
“I always loved seeing Frank on our sideline before our games,” Giants chairman Steve Tisch said in a statement. “He had the handshake of a 25-year old, and he looked you right in the eye with his big blue eyes. He was such a strong person in every way. He will be missed and will always be remembered as a Giants’ Giant.”