Victory came with a catch
Giants' Manning lauds Tyree play
PHOENIX - After all the tears of joy had dried and all the confetti had been brushed away and all the emotional embraces had been shared deep into a desert night, Eli Manning had a chance to lay down his weary body, but not to sleep. He was exhausted, yes, but so, too, was he curious, which is why he turned on the television.
"I wanted to see it," said the Giants quarterback yesterday morning, some 10 hours after Super Bowl XLII had ended. "I hadn't seen David Tyree's catch."
It was pure brilliance, Manning agreed, and after watching the clip of Tyree leaping high, snaring the ball, then somehow holding on to it when he was hit by Rodney Harrison as they fell to the turf at University of Phoenix Stadium, the quarterback understood how it was that his team was able to drive 83 yards on 12 plays for the dramatic 17-14 win over the undefeated Patriots.
Watching replays of Tyree's effort solved half of the mystery that was a 32-yard completion on a third-and-5 play with 1:15 left. But the other half? The beginning of the play, when Manning escaped from onrushing Patriots like a surfer emerging from an exhilarating tube ride along a 20-foot wave? Well, on the morning after, he still didn't have an answer for that, and no TV highlight could help.
"People were asking me how I came out of that jam I was in, and I really don't know," said Manning, who stepped up in the pocket but couldn't throw because the Patriots' Jarvis Green had a good hand on him. So Manning ducked. Then he dodged. Then he went this way and that way.
"They were pulling me down. I felt them holding me. But I never felt anybody pull me to the ground. I stayed alive and I saw David in the middle of the field. I gave him a shot to make the catch - and it was an unbelievable catch."
Winners keep and losers weep, which is why a play that instantly became a Super Bowl classic will be viewed differently depending on which side you embraced. Patriots fans forever will bemoan the fact that Green couldn't keep hold of Manning or that the heavy-hitting Harrison wasn't able to separate Tyree from the ball. Giants fans will attach the same lofty stature to the play that 49ers faithful do to the Joe Montana-to-Dwight Clark heroics in the 1981 NFC Championship.
Oh, there were differences, for sure. Montana's 6-yard heave into the back of the end zone to a leaping Clark with 51 seconds left actually proved to be the winning touchdown as San Francisco beat Dallas, 28-27. Manning's throw to Tyree got the ball to the Patriots' 24 and there was still 1:15 to play. In both cases, however, suffocating defensive pressure had forced the quarterback to scramble, so neither of them ever saw the completed pass until they found a TV and watched replays.
Since Montana-to-Clark probably has trademark dibs on "The Catch," it will be left for clever New Yorkers to give a title to the Manning-to-Tyree highlight-reel play. But the quarterback is on record with where he wants credit to rest.
"It's just a great individual effort by him," said Manning.
The 27-year-old QB stood at the podium inside the Phoenix Convention Center to represent the Super Bowl winners, along with coach Tom Coughlin. Admittedly, Manning had not had very much sleep, but he wasn't complaining.
"When I finally made the commitment to get some sleep, I just kind of sat there with my eyes wide open, replaying plays in my head," he said. "I don't know what I'm going on right now - just emotions and excitement from last night."
All week, the history story line swirled around Super Bowl XLII and, indeed, history was made inside the dome in the desert. But instead of having the first 19-0 team in NFL annals, for the first time we have brothers winning back-to-back Super Bowl MVP honors.
"He came into the locker room after the game and was excited for me," said Eli.
One year ago, Peyton Manning led the Colts to a Super Bowl win, but that came in his ninth NFL season, so Eli, who turned the trick in just his fourth, is well ahead in that department. On this day, in this wave of excitement and joy, that hardly mattered to the youngest of Archie and Olivia Manning's three sons, even as he held the MVP trophy; instead, Eli Manning seemed to acknowledge that he's still in his older brother's shadows, still hounded by skeptics.
Yes, he helped deliver a stunning Super Bowl triumph to the nation's largest city and one of the NFL's most storied franchises, but Eli Manning insisted he would stay loyal to his humble persona.
"I'm a Super Bowl champion - that's the difference," he said, when asked how his orchestration of a last-minute, game-winning drive would change his life. "It doesn't change my attitude, my personality, or even my goals for next season. You still want to have this feeling again."
You also want access to the TV replays to see what you missed.
Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com 