Frank Gifford dead

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Per the NFL app on my phone. RIP

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

IF YOU COULD SEE ME NOW, OUT ON A BIG SHIP CRUISE!

Oh, that's his wife.

RIP.

[ForeverChiefs58]

Frank Gifford, a Hall of Fame football player for the New York Giants and a legendary broadcaster, died Sunday at his Connecticut home of natural causes, his family announced. He was just seven days shy of his 85th birthday.

Gifford is survived, among others, by his wife, television personality Kathy Lee Gifford.

His family said in a statement: "We rejoice in the extraordinary life he was privileged to live, and we feel grateful and blessed to have been loved by such an amazing human being."

Gifford was a No. 1 draft pick by the Giants in 1952 and enjoyed a versatile career with New York, playing both offense and defense. He was named NFL Player of the Year in 1956 and named to seven Pro Bowls for three different positions – defensive back, halfback and flanker.

"Frank Gifford was an icon of the game, both as a Hall of Fame player for the Giants and Hall of Fame broadcaster for CBS and ABC," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "Frank's talent and charisma on the field and on the air were important elements in the growth and popularity of the modern NFL."

Though Gifford was the centerpiece of a Giants offense that went to five NFL title games in the 1950s and '60s, he experienced highs and lows as an NFL player. Gifford fumbled twice early in the 1958 NFL championship game, both of which led to Baltimore Colts touchdowns, and later came up short on a critical third down. The Colts eventually won 23-17 in the league's first overtime game. The thrilling finish helped popularize the NFL and was dubbed "The Greatest Game Ever Played," although not by Gifford.

"Not my greatest game," Gifford told the AP in 2008. "I fumbled going out (of the end zone) and I fumbled going in."

Gifford and his teammates felt he was robbed by an incorrectly spotted ball with less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter, though video technology employed for a 50th anniversary documentary indicated the call was correct. In any event, the Giants were forced to punt in the '58 game, leading to a famous drive led by Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas to send it into overtime.

Gifford had his best year in 1956, rushing for 819 yards, picking up 603 yards receiving and scoring nine touchdowns in 12 games. The Giants routed the Chicago Bears 47-7 at Yankee Stadium, where Gifford shared a locker with Mickey Mantle.

A crushing hit by 233-pound Eagles linebacker Chuck Bednarik in November 1960 flattened Gifford and likely shortened his football career. Bednarik was pictured standing over the unconscious Gifford, pumping his fist in a celebration thought by many to be over the top. Gifford was in the hospital for 10 days and sidelined until 1962.

In 12 seasons, all with New York, Gifford scored 34 rushing touchdowns and 43 receiving touchdowns.

His numbers led to his election to the Hall of Fame in 1977 and Gifford's jersey number, 16, was retired by the Giants in 2000.

After he retired following the 1964 season, the flexible Gifford turned to broadcasting. After initially working with CBS, he joined ABC's "Monday Night Football" in 1971, at first as a play-by-play announcer and then as an analyst.

Later in life he stayed in the spotlight through his marriage to Kathie Lee Gifford, who famously called him a "human love machine" and "lamb-chop" to her millions of viewers.

"He was a great friend to everyone in the league, a special adviser to NFL commissioners, and served NFL fans with enormous distinction for so many decades," Goodell added. "We will always remember Frank's contributions and miss his friendship. Our hearts go out to Kathie Lee and the entire Gifford family."

Gifford hosted "Wide World of Sports," covered several Olympics — his call of Frank Klammer's gold medal run in 1976 is considered a broadcasting masterpiece — and announced 588 consecutive NFL games for ABC, not even taking time off after the death of his mother shortly before a broadcast in 1986.

While he worked with others, including Dan Dierdorf, Al Michaels, Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson, Gifford was most known for the eight years he served as a calm buffer between the folksy Don Meredith and acerbic Howard Cosell.

In its early years the show was a cultural touchstone, with cities throwing parades for the visiting announcers and celebrities such as John Lennon and Ronald Reagan making appearances.

"I hate to use the words 'American institution,' but there's no other way to put it, really," Gifford told The Associated Press in 1993. "There's nothing else like it."

A handsome straight-shooter who came off as earnest and sincere, Gifford was popular with viewers, even if some accused him of being a shill for the NFL. When he wasn't on the field, Gifford tried to put his movie-star good looks to use in Hollywood, appearing in about a dozen films, most notably the 1959 submarine movie "Up Periscope."

Born Aug. 16, 1930, in Santa Monica, Calif., Frank Newton Gifford was the son of an itinerant oil worker. Growing up in Depression-era California, Gifford estimated he moved 47 times before entering high school, occasionally sleeping in parks or the family car and eating dog food. He was a star at Bakersfield High School and was an All-American during his senior season at the University of Southern California.

[Kman34]

Originally Posted by Sweet Daddy Williams

IF YOU COULD SEE ME NOW, OUT ON A BIG SHIP CRUISE!

Oh, that's his wife.

RIP.

Prayers sent to his family....

[thabear04]

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/2015...ies-at-84.html

Bakersfield High School football legend Frank Gifford, 84, died Sunday of natural causes in his Connecticut home.

The passing of the iconic New York Giants player, NFL Hall of Famer and “Monday Night Football” broadcasting star was confirmed in a statement from his family to NBC News.

One of the National Football League's best and most versatile players in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gifford's skill, good looks and gracious manner made him an all-around celebrity in New York City.

"Frank Gifford was the ultimate Giant. He was the face of our franchise for so many years," Giants President John Mara said in a statement.

But for Bakersfield, Gifford will always be remembered as a Driller.

HOMETOWN

Bob Karpe played at BHS with Gifford, and the two remained friends for decades. Karpe said he was surprised by the news that his friend had died.

"I didn't hear of him being in poor health. Must have been a sudden thing,“ Karpe said. ”I hadn't heard that he was sick at all. He was my age, and I guess that's old enough to be called a full life, and his was a sensational life as well.“

Karpe said Gifford was just a “plain good old guy. Just a typical Bakersfield guy, you know?"

Gifford started out tough and had seen both sides of the nation’s economy, Karpe said.

"He made it over a very long and difficult road,” Karpe said. “When I first knew him, he lived out in kind of a old, small house a ways out on the Edison Highway, not where you'd think Frank Gifford would be living. And of course, after he grew up, he never did again."

Paul Golla, Bakersfield High’s football coach since 2005, remembers Gifford’s deep connection to his home town and alma mater.

"The most impressive thing when I talked to him was how much he gave Homer Beatty credit. That was his head coach at Bakersfield High. He said Homer had so much to do with his successes in life," Golla said Sunday.

When the Drillers won the state championship in 2013, Gifford was watching from afar.

"He never really left. He remembered where he was from. (Gifford’s wife) Kathie Lee tweeted 'Go Drillers!' when we were on the bus on the way down to the state title game. He always remembered. They were little things, but that's a big deal to us,” Golla said.

COLLEGE

After winning the 1947 Central Section championship with the Drillers, Gifford graduated and went on to Bakersfield College.

”He was a typical Bakersfield guy, a Levi’s, T-shirt-type of guy, until he got into the NFL. He was a really good guy,” remembered BC offensive coordinator Carl Bowser, who was the Renegades’ water boy when Gifford played at BC.

“He had this little roadster car,” Bowser said. “He'd park it on California Avenue. I'd hang around after practice and leave about the same time he would leave. I would be riding my bicycle and he would be going the same way. He'd tell me to get on my handlebars and he'd tow me.”

Gifford transferred to USC, where he started for three years and was an All-American in 1951.

The next year, the Giants drafted him, and in a 13-year career, Gifford was All-Pro at three positions and the league MVP in 1956.

STAR PLAYER

Gifford was a key player for the Giants during their 23-17 loss to the Baltimore Colts in the 1958 NFL title game, which was decided in the league's first-ever sudden-death overtime period.

It came to be known as "the greatest game ever played" and sports historians say its dramatic finish and national TV coverage set football on a path to become the most popular sport in the United States and a multibillion-dollar industry.

Gifford, who played mostly as a running back and wide receiver, led the Giants to the NFL championship in 1956 while winning the league's most valuable player award, and he helped take them to the title game in five other seasons.

Gifford's career was interrupted in 1960 in one of the most notorious plays in NFL history, a brutal but legal hit by Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Chuck Bednarik that left Gifford unconscious. Gifford retired from playing but returned in 1962 and played three more years.

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 on the halfback option. He was named the most valuable player of the 1956 season, in which the Giants won the league championship. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.

Calling Gifford "an icon of the game," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Sunday in a statement: "Frank's talent and charisma on the field and on the air were important elements in the growth and popularity of the modern NFL."

Gifford had dabbled in broadcasting during his playing career — his first show was reportedly on Fridays during the NFL off-season on KERO-TV in 1957. He became part of the Giants television team after retiring before ABC hired him in 1971 for the second season of its iconic "Monday Night Football.”

"I was his guinea pig on KERO downtown,“ said Don Johnson, who played with Gifford at BHS and later against him at Cal and with the Philadelphia Eagles. ”We were both in the dark about how to do interviews, and I was one of those guys who he wanted to talk to. He wasn't a natural; he had to work hard, but you'd think he was a natural by the time he got done with it."

Former Californian sports editor Larry Press would have coffee with Gifford when he’d pop back into town to visit his mother.

"I went to a Super Bowl or two with him, and he'd always have a huge crowd, but he was always very nice. He called me Poison Pen, but if I wanted to get some time with him, he'd say, 'Hold on, let me get done with these folks,' and he'd give me all the time I wanted," Press said Sunday.

MONDAY NIGHTS

Gifford was teamed with another retired NFL star, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith, and the sharply opinionated Howard Cosell. Gifford handled the play-by-play work while Cosell and "Dandy Don" provided running analysis.

Much of the broadcast's appeal came from the interplay of the folksy Meredith and the acerbic Cosell, while Gifford played the straight man.

"Howard pontificated. Don Meredith was the country guy who kept the big city slicker straight. I kept law and order," Gifford said in an interview that aired when "MNF" ended its run on ABC and moved to the ESPN network for the 2006 season.

"Monday Night Football" was a steady winner in the ratings. Gifford stayed with "Monday Night Football" for 27 years before retiring in 1998.

In 1986, he married his third wife, Kathie Lee Gifford, star of "Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee" and later the Today Show.

Gifford had three children with his first wife, Maxine, and two with Gifford.

"Deeply grateful to all 4 ur outpouring of grace," Kathie Lee Gifford tweeted Sunday, adding his family was "finding comfort in knowing where Frank is."

REMEMBERED

Gifford leaves behind a legacy of mentoring younger generations of Bakersfield athletes.

Former NFL quarterback David Carr, older brother of Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, said he was reminded of his Bakersfield roots during his time with the New York Giants when Gifford showed up in the team's locker room.

"I had a chance to talk with him for a little while, " Carr said in 2015. "He walked into our locker room and said, 'Where's the boy from Bakersfield?' It was a really cool moment."

Former Driller Jeff Buckey was an All-Pac-10 Conference pick while at Stanford and played three years at the left guard position for the Dolphins and finished his career with the 49ers.

"One my favorite memories as a pro was when Hall of Famer Frank Gifford came and talked to me before a game with the Pittsburgh Steelers," he said. "Frank told me it was great to see another Driller player in the NFL and great to talk ‘Driller to Driller.’"

Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was one of many to tweet or otherwise issue statements about Gifford.

"Judy and I are saddened to hear of the passing of Driller great Frank Gifford,” he wrote. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He was a local product that graduated from Bakersfield High School and played at Bakersfield College before becoming an NFL Hall of Fame player. He never forgot Bakersfield and he will be missed.”

“Once a Driller, Always a Driller," McCarthy concluded.

[Saccopoo]

Frank Klammer?

[DaneMcCloud]

I used to like and respect Frank Gifford. Then I heard the recordings of him with his mistress on on Howard Stern, cheating on Kathy Lee.



I don't have any love for Kathy Lee but he was a dick. I'm still shocked she stayed with him, especially since she was earning quite a bit more than him (and exponentially more since when his broadcast career ended).

[Bowser]

RIP

Man, did he ever dislike the Chiefs, even when Montana was here.

[ChiTown]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That hit by Bednarik ended Gifford's career.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by Bowser

RIP

Man, did he ever dislike the Chiefs, even when Montana was here.

How does a Giant dislike KC?

Makes no sense.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by Sweet Daddy Williams

How does a Giant dislike KC?

Makes no sense.

Because Ch.uefs

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by Simply Red

Because Ch.uefs

This is.....

[Brock]

http://deadspin.com/the-night-johnny...ing-1442056831

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Yeah Frank Gifford was the definition of cool for me growing up. RIP.

In the 50's and into the mid 60's he was the cool sports star. Bet he pulled some serious tail.

Most only know him when he got old from MNF. He lived a good life.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Sweet Daddy Williams

How does a Giant dislike KC?

Makes no sense.

First game at Arrowhead post 9/11 was the NY Giants. First and only time that the visiting team was cheered coming onto the field. I cheered myself. It was a great moment shared among us Chief fans. Acknowledging our hatred of the visiting team could be put on hold for a week.

[HemiEd]

RIP
Truly enjoyed his work