"See Yourself & Groan"

The New York Giants were off and running toward their first National Football League championship in 18 years. Then they stumbled, lost to Washington and Cleveland. When they met the Philadelphia Eagles on the rain-soaked turf of Connie Mack Stadium last week, the Giants had their choice of winning the Eastern Division title for the first time since 1946 or slithering sloppily toward second place. The Giants chose to win.

Early in the second quarter. Halfback Frank Gifford took a pitchout from Quarterback Don Heinrich, sailed off around left end, stopped short and pitched a touchdown pass to End Kyle Rote. A few minutes later, Gifford faked the Eagle defense men out of their shoes and skipped across the goal line. That was all New York really needed, but the Giants scored again, ran out the game 21-7, and earned a crack at the Chicago Bears for the N.F.L. championship.

Scout, Squint, Study. Handsome Halfback Gifford was accustomed to such motion-picture heroics, being, in the first place, an occasional motion-picture bit-player and stunt man (Saturday's Hero, The All-American, etc.). He rehearsed for last week's game just as if for a movie. All week long Gifford and his teammates studied movies of the Eagles in action to learn their weaknesses and strengths.

Gifford, an All-America out of U.S.C. (1951), grew accustomed in his college days to the eye-straining practice of picking apart football movies. But the shots he studied then were far removed from pro productions. "Then we had 16 mm.," he remembers. "Half the time you weren't even in the picture. Now we have Cin-emaScope--and in slow motion. There's no place to hide. You see yourself and groan, 'Now why did I cut there? Why didn't I move faster?' "

He was a shifty tailback for U.S.C.. but when he reported to the pros, Gifford got a rude awakening. "They don't tap you," he says. "They jar the confidence right out of you, and you spend most of the first season picking up the pieces." While picking up, Frank decided that pro football is considerably more fun and infinitely more complicated than the college game.

Run, Run, Run. The pros are all experts at their jobs, and spend little time on fundamentals, practice on dozens of plays and work themselves into better condition than they ever knew in college. "When I was playing at U.S.C.," says Gifford, "a pass play might call for me to run ten yards downfield, then cut for the sideline. The pros are more subtle [if any 200-lb. giant moving at top speed is ever subtle]. Now I sprint until the defense man crosses his right foot over his left and turns his back on the sideline. Then I cut."

Such intricate demands, infinitely multiplied, have forced Gifford to improve constantly during five seasons with the Giants. "The most surprising thing about him," says Giant Coach Jim Lee Howell, "is that he's still improving." But he is already good enough to be the first pro this year to gain a total of more than 1,000 yds. running with the ball and receiving passes. He has gained an average of 5.2 yds. every time he has handled the ball this season. But Gifford figures that time is running out for him, and after two more years he will turn to the movies, television, sportswriting. real estate--any of the many careers he has already tried with impressive off-season success.

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