No. 85, 17 | |||||||||
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Position: | Wide receiver | ||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||
Born: | Livingston, New Jersey, U.S. | January 3, 1980||||||||
Height: | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||
Weight: | 206 lb (93 kg) | ||||||||
Career information | |||||||||
High school: | Montclair (Montclair, New Jersey) | ||||||||
College: | Syracuse | ||||||||
NFL draft: | 2003 / round: 6 / pick: 211 | ||||||||
Career history | |||||||||
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As an executive: | |||||||||
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Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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David Mikel Tyree (born January 3, 1980) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons, primarily with the New York Giants. He played college football for the Syracuse Orange and was selected by the Giants in the sixth round of the 2003 NFL draft. Tyree is best known for the Helmet Catch, a late-game reception in Super Bowl XLII that helped New York secure one of the greatest sports upsets of all time.
Tyree earned Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro honors in 2005 as a special teams player, but was utilized as a backup for most of his career. Nevertheless, Tyree earned recognition during the Giants' last drive in Super Bowl XLII when he caught a third down pass by pressing the ball against his helmet. Through his reception, the Giants were able to take the lead during the game's final minutes and defeat a New England Patriots team that was the first to win all 16 regular season games. The catch would also be his last and he retired in 2009 after one season with the Baltimore Ravens. Following the conclusion of his playing career, Tyree rejoined the Giants as their director of player development, holding the position from 2014 to 2017.
Born in Livingston, New Jersey, Tyree grew up in a one-bedroom house in Montclair, New Jersey with his mother and two older sisters after his parents divorced. [1] He played high school football and was a three-year varsity letterman at Montclair High School, where he was selected as a Blue Chip Illustrated All-American. [2]
Over Tyree's career at Syracuse, he ranked 13th on the career receiving record list with 1,214 yards, including 229 yards against Virginia Tech in 2002. He also developed a reputation for being an excellent special teams player, amassing six blocked punts. [3]
Tyree was selected in the sixth round (211th overall) of the 2003 NFL draft by the New York Giants. [4] While with the Giants, he was primarily a backup, never catching more than 19 passes in a single season. However, he was best known for his special teams play, earning a Pro Bowl selection in 2005 as a special teams player.
In 2008, Tyree was placed on injured reserve for a knee injury suffered during training camp after being on the physically-unable-to-perform list most of the season. He was released during the final cuts on September 5, 2009. [5]
During the 2007 regular season, Tyree had four receptions for 35 yards with no touchdowns. [6]
Tyree made two key plays in Super Bowl XLII. First, he caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Eli Manning, which was his only touchdown reception of the season and also the final of his career. The score gave the Giants a 10–7 lead late in the game. [7] Later, on a third-and-five with 1:15 remaining and trailing 14–10, Manning eluded a sack and threw 32 yards downfield toward Tyree. In Manning's words, the ball "floated" high. [8]
Tyree leaped and caught the ball fully extended, bringing it down against his helmet with his right hand, while the New England Patriots' Rodney Harrison pulled violently downward on that arm, simultaneously wrenching Tyree arching backwards towards the turf. Tyree, who got a second hand on the ball during the descent, seemingly kept the ball only inches from the turf, thereafter struggling successfully for possession while Harrison tried to steal the ball away from him on the ground. The play became known as the "Helmet Catch". [7] [9] "I told you. He's a gamer," Manning commented to his brother, Peyton, regarding Tyree, after the game. [10] ESPN SportsCenter named it the greatest play in Super Bowl history the following day. It was later voted for the 2008 ESPY Award for Play of the Year. The pass moved the Giants to the Patriots' 24-yard line with 59 seconds left. Four plays and 24 seconds later, Manning threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress for the winning touchdown. The final score of Super Bowl XLII was Giants 17, Patriots 14. [11] Tyree dedicated this catch, the last one he ever made in an NFL game, to his mother, Thelma, who died of a heart attack that year. [12]
Tyree was signed by the Baltimore Ravens on October 13, 2009, after working out with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He appeared in ten games with the Ravens, but had no receptions.
Tyree signed a one-day contract with the Giants to announce his retirement from the NFL as a Giant on July 29, 2010. [13] On February 5, 2012, he watched from the Giants sideline as his former team beat the Patriots again in Super Bowl XLVI. [14] On July 22, 2014, he was named Director of Player Development for the Giants. [15]
Tyree battled with alcohol addiction beginning in middle school, and in March 2004, he was arrested by the Fort Lee Police Department [16] for possession of marijuana. [17] His then-girlfriend Leilah told him she was pregnant with their second child the day he was released from jail. Later that month, Leilah "presented Tyree with an ultimatum — her lifestyle or his." [17] He began reading a Bible on her bed, and "for the first time, the words on the page made sense" to him. Tyree said from that day he never drank again. [17] He and Leilah were married in June 2004. [18] Tyree and his wife Leilah have seven children. [19]
He is a born-again Christian [18] and has made appearances at the 2008 and 2009 Christian concert "BattleCry". [20] In 2006, he and his wife started Next In Line, a project that counsels teenagers in his hometown. [17]
In 2011, Tyree became an advocate against legalization of same-sex marriage in New York with the National Organization for Marriage. [21] Tyree said in an interview that the passage of the Marriage Equality Act would "be the beginning of our country sliding toward...anarchy". [22] He said he would trade his famous catch and the team's Super Bowl title to keep marriage between a man and a woman. [23] In 2014, he said he was no longer in support of gay conversion therapy and "would absolutely support any player on the Giants who identified as gay." [24]
He is a cousin of former basketball player and current television analyst Jay Williams. [25]
Elisha Nelson Manning is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons with the New York Giants. A member of the Manning family, he is the youngest son of Archie and younger brother of Peyton. Manning played college football for the Ole Miss Rebels, where he won the Maxwell and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm awards as a senior. He was selected first overall in the 2004 NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers and traded to the Giants during the draft.
Super Bowl XXXIX was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2004 season. The Patriots defeated the Eagles by the score of 24–21. The game was played on February 6, 2005, at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, the first time the Super Bowl was played in that city.
Rodney Scott Harrison is an American former football safety who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons with the San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots. He was selected in the fifth round of the 1994 NFL draft by the Chargers, where he spent his first nine seasons, and was a member of the Patriots in his following six. Since leaving the NFL in 2009, he has served as a commentator for NBC's Football Night in America.
Super Bowl XLII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2007 season. The game was played on February 3, 2008, at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Despite New England being heavily favored heading into the game, the Giants defeated the Patriots by the score of 17–14. The game is regarded as one of the biggest upsets in the history of professional North American sports, as well as one of the greatest Super Bowl games ever.
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John David Thomas is an American former professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the New England Patriots in the third round of the 2006 NFL draft, and also played for the New Orleans Saints. He played college football for the Texas Longhorns.
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The New York Giants, an American football team which currently plays in the NFL's National Football Conference, have qualified for the postseason ten times since 1994. With the retirement of Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor—two of the most important figures in franchise history—after the 1993 season, the Giants entered a new era.
NFL Classics is a series of videotaped rebroadcasts of National Football League games that air on the NFL Network. The show airs weekly during the offseason and also occasionally during the NFL season. As of the 2010, the series airs on Monday night while Super Bowl Classics airs on Friday night.
On December 29, 2007, during the final week of the 2007 season, the New England Patriots defeated the New York Giants, 38–35, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In what became a preview of Super Bowl XLII, the game was a close comeback win for the Patriots, giving them the first undefeated regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only undefeated regular season since the league expanded to 16 games, and the only undefeated 16 game season as the NFL season was expanded to 17 games in 2021.
The Helmet Catch was an American football play involving New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and wide receiver David Tyree in the final two minutes of Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008. It featured Manning escaping from the grasp of three New England Patriots defensive players and throwing a forward pass, followed by Tyree making a leaping catch by pressing the ball against his helmet. The play, a 32-yard gain during a drive on which the Giants scored the game-winning touchdown, was instrumental in the Giants' 17–14 upset victory over the Patriots, who were on the verge of becoming the first National Football League (NFL) team to finish a season undefeated and untied since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and the first since the NFL adopted a 16-game regular season in 1978. NFL Films' Steve Sabol called it "the greatest play the Super Bowl has ever produced". The play was also named by NFL Films as "The Play of the Decade (2000s)". It was also the final catch of Tyree's NFL career.
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