The Catch

The greatest catch in Super Bowl history! Obviously this statement is arguable to football fans but many football analysts have agreed to the fact that it is the greatest catch and nearly all agree that it at least ranks in the top four. Steve Sabol of NFL films said that David Tyree’s catch goes down as the best play in Super Bowl history. I personally think that it is truly the most amazing Super Bowl catch I have ever seen. When I looked it up on the internet, I found out that this photograph was taken by a professional photographer, Andrew Mills. He works for Star-Ledger Photography. This is a New Jersey based news, sports and entertainment photography company. Whenever I look at this picture, I think of the heart, courage and passion for the game that David Tyree had in order to make this catch.

The message of this photograph is incredible to me. It shows me that this man had a lot of passion for the game. He was willing to put his body in a injury vulnerable position because he wanted to help his team win the biggest game of their lives. This was not only an amazing catch but a catch that his teammates will never forget. Also, David Tyree’s courage should never be forgotten because he saw the challenge arise and because he took on the challenge, he was paid off with a marvelous result. Another message that this photograph shows me is that when an opportunity flashes itself in front of you, it’s important to take it because there might not be anymore like it. In this case, if he didn’t make that catch, the other team would have won because he made this catch in the final two minutes of the game and it set up the winning touchdown catch by his teammate Plaxico Burress, seconds later.

This picture is arguable for one reason. You can debate whether this is the greatest catch in history. Some might say that it’s not because the player didn’t really catch the ball. I see where one would think that way because if you look closely, the ball is on the helmet and he has only one hand on it. In this case, the ball is insecure and vulnerable to the defender or to falling out when the player eventually falls down. The result was that he managed to keep the ball secured on his helmet while landing without the ball touching the ground. If the ball touched the ground, it would have been an incomplete pass and football history would be different. Showing the different perspective, I would say that this is an amazing catch. Some reasons to back my view are that David Tyree has a defender all over him and that he is nearly parallel to the ground in mid-air. Even with both of these preventing factors, he manages to concentrate on holding on to the ball. It’s a great accomplishment and I acknowledge David Tyree for pulling it off.

I think that this picture was clearly not staged in any way. This is because it is impossible to stage a catch of that magnitude. For example, football receivers run particular routes that are designed for them to go a certain way with the quarterback knowing where they are going and where to throw the ball. Here the receiver was running his route but when he realized his quarterback was about to get tackled he came back and became a target for the quarterback who threw it to him and it resulted in the amazing catch. The photographer had to follow the play and focus on how it was unfolding. I think it's hard for the photographer to predict what a wide receiver might do and if the photogrpaher doesn’t react quickly, the play might be over and it would be too late to get any picture. Also, since this happened extremely fast, staging the play is nearly impossible. I think that the photographer was in the right place and at the right time to snap this picture.

In my opinion, this is an amazing picture taken by a professional photographer. This picture is more than just the catch. It has passion, courage, guts and athleticism all involved in one way or another. That's what makes this catch the greatest in Super Bowl history which is saying something because there were many great changes over the years. It changed the course of the biggest game in sports history and that is why I agree to the fact that it is truly the most incredible catch!