Long ago, deep in the mists of time, England would come to a standstill on a May afternoon for the FA Cup final. It was by far the biggest game of the season, and TV offered devoted, dawn-to-dusk coverage.
Helicopters would follow the teams to Wembley almost like a state occasion, a day on which the glamour trophy every club craved was won and lost. A crowd of exactly 100,000 wearing rosettes -- this was so long ago that replica shirts had not yet been invented -- would gather at the iconic national stadium, where the lush, manicured green surface contrasted starkly with the mud heaps on which most league matches were played up until the year 2000.