It was fourth down and five at the Green Bay Packers 31 yard line.
After undergoing what I have seen the last 30 minutes, there was no way I wanted to see what was about to take place.
Tom Coughlin, face frozen as a red cherry, trotted kicker Lawrence Tynes back on the field for what would be a 47-yard field goal attempt.
With the game tied at 20 and 6:49 left, Tynes hooked a field goal to the left.
At the end of regulation, long snapper Jay Alford’s snap was high, but holder Jeff Feagles got the ball in good kicking position. Unfortunately, Tynes completely hooked it about ten yards left of the uprights.
Bob Papa on the radio described it best:
“Tynes completely whiffed on it.”
Here they were again; with a kicker whose confidence perhaps was clearly shaken at this point was coming onto the field again for a third chance.
As Giants fans, we had seen this situation play out three years earlier. In a game at Seattle in 2005, Jay Feely missed three goals (once at the end of regulation and twice in overtime) and the Giants went on to lose to the Seahawks, thus ruining any chance for home field advantage that season.
Last year, Tynes was the goat of the Kansas City Chiefs playoff loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Three times in the first half, he was given a chance to put points on the board as they tried to pull the upset.
All three times, he missed.
Eventually, the Colts went on to win and Tynes was released.
The percentages were clearly not in his favor as they lined up for this third attempt.
On the road, in extreme subzero temperatures where kicking a football was tantamount to a block of ice, and having already missed two field goals, it was not looking good.
As I was with friends watching this drama play out that had reached Academy Award worthy, all I did was throw up my hands in disgust wondering why they were going this route again. He had already missed two shorter kicks. Why in the world do you think this mental case would make a longer kick now?
Like one of those horror movies, I chose to watch with one open and the other covered up.
The snap from Alford was perfect. Feagles placed the ball perfectly and Tynes boomed it into the air. As it carried, all you could hear was silence both where I was and in Lambeau Field.
Slowly, the ball was making its descent and it appeared to have the distance. The cynic in me was waiting for it to hit the crossbar. Instead, it cleared through to send the Giants to the Super Bowl.
It was the unlikeliest of outcomes.
The team stormed the field and Tynes sprinted in celebration to the Giants tunnel with his right hand in the air to signify victory.
It was redemption for everyone, but most of all, for Tynes. He had just made the greatest kick in his career to send the Giants to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.
Where does Tynes’ kick rank in the history of football?
If you consider all of the circumstances going into that kick; the fact that he had already missed two a short time ago, one of those being at the end of regulation. Also, considering that this was on the road and in temperatures reaching minus 25, how could you not rank this as the greatest field goal in the history of football?
There have been a few memorable kicks in playoff games and Super Bowls. Jimmy O’Brien won Super Bowl V for the Baltimore Colts against the Dallas Cowboys. Adam Vinatieri had the field goal in the “Snow Bowl” for the New England Patriots against the Oakland Raiders and then again two weeks later to win the Super Bowl against the heavily favored St. Louis Rams.
None of these was done under the same circumstances that faced Tynes. Had he missed that kick, he would have been right back on the unemployment line. Ask Doug Brien (who missed two potential game winning field goals in an eventual 2004 AFC Divisional playoff game for the New York Jets against the Pittsburgh Steelers) how that feels.
Scott Norwood of the Buffalo Bills was never able to show his face after hooking his field goal “wide right” in Super Bowl XXV.
Tynes would have been cut by the Giants. Based off his performance in the playoffs the previous season, he may very easily have been out of the NFL completely.
There will never be another kick another these same conditions ever again. While game winning kicks will still be around in the future, none will have more impact and long lasting effect than Tynes’ game winner will have in Green Bay on dark, freezing cold night in January.
It was where redemption became history.
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