I recently read Frank Gifford’s account of the 1957 NFL championship, The Glory Game.  This game between the New York (football) Giants and the Baltimore Colts at Yankee Stadium has been called the greatest football game ever played.  It was the first, and remains the only championship game to be decided in sudden death overtime.  It featured terrible weather conditions, an heroic two-minute drill by Johnny Unitas to tie the game in the closing seconds, and a bone-crushing, 1 yard run by Alan Ameche to win the game.  It was the first NFL championship game to be nationally televised in prime time. This game is considered by many to be the birthday of the modern NFL – a game perfectly matched to television and to American culture. I doubt, however, the players and coaches on the field that day (nearly two dozen are in the Hall of Fame), would recognize the wealth and glamour that even third tier players enjoy today.

            Back in 1957 nobody made enough money during the season to live on the rest of the year – everyone had to have an off season job. No one expected it to be different. Frank points out that the men who played for Weeb Eubank, Vince Lombardy, and Tom Landry that day were veterans of the Depression, a World War, and a police action in Korea. Andy Robustelli was the son of a barber in Stamford Connecticut. Charley Connerly’s dad was deputy sheriff, and jailer in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Johnny Unitas’ dad drove a coal truck in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jack Stroud’s dad was a dock worker, and so was Jack in the off season.

            Frank Gifford’s father worked the oilfields as a roughneck, then a driller, and a tool pusher. Frank lived in 37 different towns growing up, but ended up going to High School in Bakersfield, California, where he caught the attention of the football program at USC. He worked in the oilfields too, as a necessity.  His family were faithful churchgoers, and an episode from his youth, which Gifford relates in matter-of-fact simplicity is truly inspiring.

            It seems that when Frank finally had a little pocket money he took great pride in donating a nickel out of his paycheck to a fund at church which provided Christmas baskets to needy families. When Christmas morning arrived, one of those baskets was sitting at the Gifford’s own front door.  There are as many possible reactions to this event as there are people to react – and I suspect most reactions would be negative. Frank Gifford, however, feels pride that he had a part in providing the basket his family received.*

            I love that story for the way it encompasses both giving and receiving which are the two halves of the same indivisible whole – the act of blessing. God blesses us by making us part of blessing process.  He has given us needs, and He has given us gifts - making it necessary that we share. This is God’s plan, and our place in it is to give sometimes, to receive sometimes, and to be blessed at all times because we are part of the blessing.

            That afternoon when 5000 men, and their families reclined in orderly rows on the green grass by the shores of Galilee, the Apostles all had empty baskets.  Every Jewish male carried a small straw basket – a sort of First Century fanny-pack – in which he kept kosher food for a long journey. When the twelve had gone off in two’s to preach the gospel they didn’t pack any food for the road. Upon their return the crowds had demanded their time before they had a chance to eat, or to even buy food.  After serving the crowd from the little boy’s lunch, each of their baskets was full with the remnants.**

**Matthew 14.13-21; Mark 6.30-44; Luke 9.10-17; John 6.1-14