Sports
Frank Gifford’s Vermont Training Days Among The Memories His Bitter Widow Wants To Forget
Kathie Lee Gifford trying to forget the football great's infidelity
By Ted Cohen
The New York Giants and their legends made Colchester, Vermont the team's home away from home in the 1950s.
Hard to believe this summer marks the 70th anniversary of the Giants first summer practice at Saint Michael’s College.
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Iconic players such as Frank Gifford, Rosey Grier, Charlie Connerly, used to do their off-season drills at St. Mike’s.
The Giants held their summer training camps on the Catholic college campus from 1956 to 1960.
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During that era, players lived in campus dormitories and practiced on the turf fields behind Alumni Hall and Lyons Hall.
Gifford was joined by coaching legends such as offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi and defensive coordinator Tom Landry.
Though the Gifford memories for his Burlington-area football groupies are still a once-in-a-lifetime joyful reminiscence, Giff’s widow is trying still to put Frank Gifford’s celebrity behind her.
“Giff,” as broadcaster Howard Cosell called him when they did Monday Night Football together on ABC, was a shining star on and off the gridiron, with no skeletons anyone - except his third wife, Kathie Lee Gifford - knew of.
Now, three decades after Giff was caught cheating on Kathie Lee in a tabloid scandal that rocked the world, she's still talking about the lingering pain it has left her with.
Why now, people are wondering, is she still talking about Frank having hopped in a hotel bed with a mistress.
People magazine just did a cover story on a new documentary Kathie Lee is doing about her life, which explains why she and Frank Gifford, her self-described love machine, are back in the news.
“I Don't Want To Live In The Past” is the headline on People's cover story about Gifford's widow.
But she can't help it, judging from the whirlwind of TV interviews she's giving to promote the documentary and a new book she has written, an epic thriller that juxtaposes the narcissism and tyranny of Roman Emperor Nero with the self-sacrificial life of the Apostle Paul.
But enough about narcissism and Gifford's God-preaching widow trying to forgive as she insists her Lord requires…
Or maybe not. That's actually the point - KLG can't stop reliving Frank's infidelity, despite the fact he's been dead ten years, having died at age 84.
KLG, appearing recently on the Hang Out With Sean Hannity podcast, discussed the tabloid scandal involving her late husband's infidelity.
Gifford, 72, denied she considers the incident an "affair," claiming it was a one-time tryst at a hotel.
She also debunked lingering rumors that she had fled their family home, stating she forgave him immediately and they stayed together until his death.
Gifford, who was 22 years older than his third wife, first publicly denied the affair, as did she, but finally admitted it to his wife.
Kathie Lee Gifford, despite being a TV celeb in her own right, is still living in the shadow cast by the young football phenom who ran drills aa a New York Giant at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont.
