There are some moments in sports history that transcend any sort of description.
There are some plays, that when you see them, you don’t even have the capacity to say, “Oh my god,” or, “How the hell did that happen?”
We’ve all seen these plays millions of times, on commercials, YouTube, or ESPN Classic; but they never lose the ability to render us completely and utterly speechless.
Lorenzo Charles’ dunk in the ’83 NCAA Championship to defeat the mighty University of Houston and win the title for NC State’s Jim Valvano comes to mind. Derek Jeter’s flip to Jorge Posada in the 2001 ALDS in Oakland comes to mind. Adam Vinatieri’s field goal at the end of regulation to vanquish the “Greatest Show on Turf” in Super Bowl XXXVI (that’s 36 for all you non-Romans) comes to mind.
And now, as painful as it is for me to admit, Eli Manning miraculously escaping the clutches of the entire New England Patriot pass rush, rolling out to the right, throwing a meatball of a 32-yard pass to David Tyree, and then Tyree, by some inexplicable divine intervention, trapping the ball with one hand against his helmet while simultaneously being mauled by Rodney Harrison is going to come to mind.
This play will forever be the face of XLII. We are all going to see it at least six billion more times and each one, for me and my fellow Patriots fans, is going to be more and more painful to view.
This is the football equivalent of Bill Buckner.
This was a moment that we were so sure was going to go our way. This was a play that we thought would be the end of this pesky Giants insurgency against our perfection. As Manning’s white No. 10 jersey disappeared into a sea of linemen, my thoughts turned from game to celebration, from worry to relief.
When I saw Manning emerge from that mess of linemen, I still thought there was no way the play could result in positive yardage for the Giants, I still thought there was no way my perfect team was going to be denied their final victory.
When the ball left Manning’s hand, I relaxed even more; thinking that there was no way a Giant was going to come down with such a rainbow of a pass. As I watched the ball float softly through the desert air, my only thought was, “Interception, interception, interception."
David Tyree was the 211th pick of 2003 draft, taken in the sixth round by the New York Giants. He is listed at 6’0”, 206 pounds. He had zero touchdowns in the 2007 NFL regular season. He only had four catches for 35 yards.
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