They fought back. The last quarter got away.

The Giants had gone 3–6–1 in 1945. A year later, they were 7–3–1 and back in the championship game. That is a season with a recovery in it before we even reach the final.

The Bears came to the Polo Grounds. An attempted-bribery investigation overshadowed the game. Commissioner Bert Bell suspended Merle Hapes; Frank Filchock was allowed to play.

That is part of the history, and it needs to be told accurately. The record establishes an investigation; a claim that the game was fixed would require evidence of its own. The football still has its own record.

Fourteen down. Level after three.

Chicago took a 14–0 lead. Filchock threw two touchdown passes to bring the Giants back. They entered the fourth quarter tied, 14–14.

There is the team I want to see in this account. Down two touchdowns in a championship, with all that attention around the game, and still able to get back on even terms.

Sid Luckman’s 19-yard touchdown run broke the tie. Chicago scored the final ten points and won 24–14.

Chicago owned the last quarter. The Giants had already done the hard work of making a game out of it, which can make the ending even harder to accept.

The full history deserves an honest telling: the investigation that hung over the afternoon, and a team that fought back before the championship slipped away.