Super Bowl XLII Stars of the Game

3) Mike Carey

Who is he? The referee, and a great job he did, at least from what I could tell. There weren't any blatantly terrible calls, and it seemed he remained out of sight, which is always the sign of good officiating. But his best moment? Clearly, that had to be when Bill Belichick, so nauseated by the loss, tried to end the game one second early. Carey ushered him back off the field, then made the Giants take one final snap.

Anti-climatic? Sure. But just because you won 18 games in a row doesn't mean you get to say when the game is over, even when you lose. Obey the rules, something Belichick has had problems with in the past.

What else is crazy is that Belichick has won three Super Bowls before, and his one loss came to a former coaching mate, Tom Coughlin. Why turn your unbelievably classless self into one of the main talking points after the game? Maybe LaDainian Tomlinson had it right last year, calling out Belichick and the Patriots for not knowing how to act off the field. Congrats to Carey, for making Belichick look like the truly ungracious human being he really is.

2) Steve Spagnuolo

The first-year Giants defensive coordinator has reaped plenty of credit, but it was one call I found particularly brave. The Patriots were 1st-and-10 on their own 26 with 29 seconds remaining. Tom Brady would need to march his team about 42 yards to have a 50-yard game-tying field goal, and with all three timeouts, that was certainly not impossible.

The Giants could have played it safe, gone prevent, and given the Patriots a chance. Instead, Spagnuolo gambled again, and on first down, blitzed. Brady actually had Wes Welker in single coverage open down the middle, but his pass went wayward because of the pressure the Giants were able to generate for what seemed like the 1,000th time that evening.

That is a crucial indicator of what kind of coach Spagnuolo is — a guy who goes for the win instead of trying not to lose. It will probably come back to bite him at some point, like Sean Payton in New Orleans this season. Last year, Payton was the toast of the NFL. But after his late fourth quarter flea-flicker snatched defeat from the jaws of victory earlier this season against the Buccaneers, Payton was absolutely roasted.

We in the press are a reactionary bunch. If it worked, then it must be great. If it didn't, it's a terrible call. If one of the Giants slips, and Brady isn't pressured, and hits Welker, then Spagnuolo would be roasted much in the same vein as Payton, even if it was the right call, just unfortunate execution. But what Spagnuolo gets credit for even if they lost was that he was not going to let Brady sit comfortably in the pocket — not on the first play of the first quarter, and not on the last play in the fourth.

1) David Tyree

Hands down, the greatest catch ever, ever. That catch saved the game for the Giants. If he doesn't make it, the Giants don't score, and the Patriots officially cement themselves as the most hated team of all time. Eli Manning did have to scramble out of the pocket, but on the degree of difficulty scale, Manning's scramble is more like a swan glide, like Tyree pulled off a quintuple toe loop.

He didn't even have the ball initially, then managed to somehow trap it around the back of his helmet without letting it hit the ground. This, with Rodney Harrison, one of the game's strongest safeties, draped all over him.

I have never seen a catch as good as that – not one in the same league. If that was in the regular season, it would have been amazing. In the Super Bowl, it climbs to another level. Add on top of it that it was the one thing standing between the Patriots unblemished season and the Giants' enormous upset, and it is no contest as to why that is the greatest catch of all-time.