Greatest Super Bowl Of All-Time
Mike Celizic

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Greatest Super Bowl ever. That's what you watched Sunday, and if you didn't see it, find somebody who recorded it and see for yourself.

If you're a kid, you're going to be talking about this one for the rest of your life. If you're a geezer, you're going to have to shuffle your memories around, throw out whatever other Supe you had in the No. 1 slot and replace it with Giants 17, Patriots 14.

There have been bigger upsets, including the Patriots' victory over the Rams in the 2002 Super Bowl. And no upset will ever be bigger than the Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969. That win, guaranteed by Joe Namath, legitimized the old AFL and made its merger with the NFL the success story that it has been.

But I'm talking about the greatness of a game, and when you think of who was playing and what was involved and how it ended, nothing that has come before can match Super Bowl XLII.

It had everything - a first half filled with violent and smothering defense. A final quarter consisting of two great drives, the first by the master of the genre, Tom Brady, the second by the kid who wasn't supposed to have the onions to be here, Eli Manning.

And in the middle of that winning drive was a catch that is as great as any ever seen in a game so big and a situation so critical. People have marveled at the Joe Montana-Dwight Clark connection to beat the Cowboys and propel the 49ers to their first championship. And now New York has its own version of "The Catch."

Call it Manning-to-Tyree, with David Tyree, a backup's backup, leaping as high as he could to catch a pass Manning thrown in desperation after escaping a sack on third-and-5 at his own 44. Safety Rodney Harrison, one of the greatest defensive backs in the game, also went up for the ball, and got his hands on it. He clawed desperately to wrench if from Tyree's grasp, but the little-used special teamer refused to let go, coming down at the 24 with the game in his hands and 59 seconds left on the clock, which was 24 seconds more than the Giants would need to complete their incredible journey.

Before Manning-to-Tyree, the Giants were on the wrong side of midfield and using time way too rapidly and gaining ground far too slowly to get as far as they needed to go in the time remaining. After the catch, the game was all but won.

That Tyree caught it and not one of the Giants' primary receivers, Plaxico Burress or Amani Toomer, just added to the magic of the moment. He was like the banjo-hitting infielder who wins the big game. So now Boston has another name to go with Bucky Bleeping Dent and Aaron Bleeping Boone - David Bleeping Tyree.

And just to add to the pain, Tyree caught the pass that scored the Giants' first touchdown of the game –- it was his first touchdown catch of the season.

Had Giants coach Tom Coughlin ever seen a bigger catch in such a desperate situation?

"No, I have not," he said, and he's been involved in football for 45 years or more. "I don't know that there's ever been a bigger play in the Super Bowl," he added. "At least not in my opinion."

"That catch won us a Super Bowl trophy," said Giants tackle Guy Whimper. "That catch is going down as No. 1 in my book."

It was an upset, but not nearly as stunning as the 12-point spread would lead you to think. Anyone who knew the game could and did tell you that the Giants weren't going to play the Washington Generals to the unbeaten - but not unbeatable - Patriots. My take was that a Giants win shouldn't have been taken as anything more than mildly surprising.

Just the same, there was an awful lot of history riding on this game. The Patriots were 18-0 and looking to do what only the 1972 Dolphins had done - finish the season as undefeated champions. They were also looking to join the Cowboys, 49ers and Steelers as the only teams with at least four Super Bowl trophies. Tom Brady was looking to join Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterbacks to win four trophies, and his coach, Bill Belichick, was in line to join the Steelers' Chuck Noll as the only coach to win four.

The Giants, meanwhile, were riding an NFL record 10-game road winning streak, the longest in league history. That string included playoff victories in Tampa, Dallas and Green Bay, the last two against two of the game's most storied franchises, and the last one over its greatest living legend, quarterback Brett Favre.

If there was a true upset involved, it was the way perception was overturned. Belichick and Brady in New England were already immortals when the season began, and their glory only grew as the season went on. But the Giants' coach, Tom Coughlin, came into the season known as a shrill and picayune old shrew who shouldn't even have a job in the NFL. And halfway through the season, a lot of Giants fans had written off Manning as a kid who would be a decent quarterback, but never a great one, not one whose name would ever be spoken in the same breath with those of Charlie Connerly, Y.A. Tittle and Phil Simms. They'd never win a Super Bowl with him, more than a few fans told me; he didn't have the magic, the charisma, the toughness. He didn't have "it."

And then as the games got bigger, so did he. Manning went through four games in the postseason throwing just one interception, and that was off a deflection in the first half Sunday. He was battered and harassed, but he never lost his cool. In the end, he out-Bradyed Brady, leading a drive that even Joe Montana could envy.

Then there was the little bit of intrigue the Giants' voluble wide receiver Plaxico Burress had added during the week, when he told the media that the Giants would win the game and the score would be 23-17.

Turns out Burress gave the Patriots too much credit - and three more points than they actually scored. Tom Brady had scoffed at that prediction, suggesting that 40 points would be more like it.

After spending much of his work day being pounded into the University of Phoenix Stadium turf by the Giants' implacable pass rush, Brady was turned into a fairly ordinary quarterback. Still, he did what he's paid to do, driving his team the length of the field late in the second half to take a 14-10 lead. With 2:42 on the clock and the oft-criticized Manning huddling up his team for its final drive, it seemed as if New England would win as they've done all season.

And then Manning did what all his critics said he couldn't do. He drove his team the length of the field, scrambled out of a sack on third-and-5 and found Tyree. Capped it off with 35 seconds left with a touchdown pass to Burress - No. 17 - to make the score 17-14 and turn back the Patriots at the very gates of immortality.

"You can't write a better script," said the second quarterback named Manning to be named the Super Bowl MVP in as many years. "And then to go out and do it?

"What a thrill."