Super Bowl XLII has now come and gone. Who would have thought we’d be talking about one of the biggest upsets in football history as opposed to the perfect season. That’s where we find ourselves, however, talking about what I think is officially being called “That Play”. The day after the game no matter where you turned someone was talking about “That Play”. No one had to explain which play was being discussed, it was one of those plays that simply stood out above the rest of the game.

Every Super Bowl has that extra special moment. This play had a little bit of it all, though. It could have very easily been the end of the line for the Giants. If Eli Manning had taken a sack in that position, the Giants would have been in a 4th and long position, trying to decide where to go from here. Instead, we watched in disbelief as Manning fought his way out of the pile of oncoming pass rushers. In the next moment, Manning is pulling that ball back and launching it deep down field.

Whether a Giants fan or a Patriots fan, the thought process here was something along the lines of “What is he doing???” Putting the ball up for grabs in that situation is simply asking for trouble. Then for the second time in a matter of seconds, the unexpected happens. Tyree is in the air with his hands on the ball. Still most people are thinking there isn’t any way he can come down with the ball. In this play of the game, however, everything we thought we knew proved to be false.

Really, Eli Manning made the play of the game from the Quarter Back position, not Tom Brady? The jump ball went to someone besides Burress? Surely this couldn’t have really happened. As the seconds ticked on and the Giants ran off another play, the reality sinks in. The Giants are going to win this game. This isn’t the type of play that a team makes on the way to a losing cause. This is the play that propels a team to a win, no matter how much the rest of the world doesn’t want to believe it.

The magnitude of this game, the sheer drive necessary to even get a throw off by the QB, the athletic ability necessary to pull down that catch, “That Play” had it all. For all of those reasons, I personally think this is the single biggest play in the last few decades of the Super Bowl.

I just said it in the other thread - one of the top 3 Super Bowl plays of all-time. Easily. For Tyree to even get to that ball, with how wobbily and prayer-like it was, was amazing enough, but to pull it down in double coverage with one hand and his HELMET was just awe-inspiring. I spilled my beer.

Even though the Giants winning cost me the $200 I put on the game, I felt honoured to have seen that moment. It's something we can tell our kids about.

"Lemme tell you somethin' you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a mean, ugly, nasty place. And I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you down to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it! You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward."
-Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, Rocky Balboa, 2006.

i almost cried at that point yarg...

Does this defining silence mean nothing to no one but me?