- Messages
- 79,281
- Reaction score
- 45,651
BY RALPH VACCHIANO
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Thursday, February 7th 2008, 4:00 AM
Antonelli/News
Eli Manning barely avoids getting sacked on Sunday before completing his game-turning 32-yard pass to David Tyree. For more pictures of the play, click above pic.
The referee stood just few feet from Eli Manning when he pulled off The Great Escape and ignited the play that changed Super Bowl XLII still can't believe that the Giants quarterback got out of the Patriots' grasp.
Mike Carey, the Super Bowl referee, told the Daily News on Wednesday that his "radar was definitely up" when Manning was clutched by two Patriots defenders with just over a minute left on Sunday night "because I knew a sack, or at least grasp and control, was imminent," he said.
But the sack never came. And when Patriots linemen Richard Seymour and Jarvis Green failed to stop Manning's forward momentum, Carey said "grasp and control" was never achieved either. That allowed the ref to patiently watch Manning throw the 32-yard pass that ended with David Tyree's miraculous catch - the signature play of the Giants' 17-14 win.
Carey said he was never close to whistling the play dead. But if either Patriot had pulled Manning backwards, he might have had no choice.
"It didn't quite happen," Carey said. "But boy it was close."
"I anticipated a sack," said Carey, a veteran of 18 NFL seasons who became the first black Super Bowl referee. "I didn't assume that was going to happen, but rarely do you see a quarterback escape when he's got that much weight on his back and being dragged by two or three guys who had a hold of him. I could see his head was just straight ahead. He was trying to break free with desperation. Then all of a sudden he spun out and then he started to come right back at me."
Carey actually was partially blocked out on the play. He started out standing to Manning's right on the third-and-5 play from the Giants' 44, about 17 yards behind the line of scrimmage and 12 yards behind Manning, who was lined up in the shotgun. Almost immediately, as linebacker Adalius Thomas got the first hand on Manning, the pocket began to collapse.
Carey could see Manning "somehow squirted up to the front a little bit," but when Seymour and Green got close enough to grab Manning's jersey, they were positioned directly in Carey's line of sight. So he came sprinting in to get a better look at the play, and just as he got there, Manning stumbled out towards Carey, who now was just a couple of yards before him, still running straight ahead.
Carey saw enough to be convinced that Manning's forward momentum never stopped. If it had, he would've had to blow the whistle and declare Manning "in the grasp and control" of the Patriots defense, which would've ended the play and resulted in a drive-crippling sack.
"Luckily for him, he was driving forward instead of them pulling him backwards," Carey said. "And I was just waiting for that little pendulum swing where, right as they grab him the quarterback usually gets a little bit forward and then they yank him back. Once he starts to be yanked back, that's when it's really imminent that it's grasp and control, or just a sack."
Actually, replays show that Seymour and Green were able to pull Manning backwards about a step and a half. But that was a brief redirection before Manning regained control and broke away.
"It was like a scene out of 'The Planet Earth' or National Geographic, where it's a lion jumping on the back of a wild horse," Carey said. "You could see him just desperately trying to pull out and somehow he did. Usually a quarterback goes straight ahead when that happens and just tries to get yardage. For some reason he turned around and ran back deeper in the pocket. Lucky for him that he did. He had a little safe haven."
That was important because safety is what the "grasp and control" rule is all about.
"Player safety in that situation is really the ultimate, but there's nobody closing down from in front of him so I didn't feel that" Manning was in jeopardy, Carey said. "For some reason everybody was behind him, so it gave me a little more latitude. And because he was going forward it gave me a little more latitude. So I could wait it out."
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Thursday, February 7th 2008, 4:00 AM
Antonelli/News
Eli Manning barely avoids getting sacked on Sunday before completing his game-turning 32-yard pass to David Tyree. For more pictures of the play, click above pic.
The referee stood just few feet from Eli Manning when he pulled off The Great Escape and ignited the play that changed Super Bowl XLII still can't believe that the Giants quarterback got out of the Patriots' grasp.
Mike Carey, the Super Bowl referee, told the Daily News on Wednesday that his "radar was definitely up" when Manning was clutched by two Patriots defenders with just over a minute left on Sunday night "because I knew a sack, or at least grasp and control, was imminent," he said.
But the sack never came. And when Patriots linemen Richard Seymour and Jarvis Green failed to stop Manning's forward momentum, Carey said "grasp and control" was never achieved either. That allowed the ref to patiently watch Manning throw the 32-yard pass that ended with David Tyree's miraculous catch - the signature play of the Giants' 17-14 win.
Carey said he was never close to whistling the play dead. But if either Patriot had pulled Manning backwards, he might have had no choice.
"It didn't quite happen," Carey said. "But boy it was close."
"I anticipated a sack," said Carey, a veteran of 18 NFL seasons who became the first black Super Bowl referee. "I didn't assume that was going to happen, but rarely do you see a quarterback escape when he's got that much weight on his back and being dragged by two or three guys who had a hold of him. I could see his head was just straight ahead. He was trying to break free with desperation. Then all of a sudden he spun out and then he started to come right back at me."
Carey actually was partially blocked out on the play. He started out standing to Manning's right on the third-and-5 play from the Giants' 44, about 17 yards behind the line of scrimmage and 12 yards behind Manning, who was lined up in the shotgun. Almost immediately, as linebacker Adalius Thomas got the first hand on Manning, the pocket began to collapse.
Carey could see Manning "somehow squirted up to the front a little bit," but when Seymour and Green got close enough to grab Manning's jersey, they were positioned directly in Carey's line of sight. So he came sprinting in to get a better look at the play, and just as he got there, Manning stumbled out towards Carey, who now was just a couple of yards before him, still running straight ahead.
Carey saw enough to be convinced that Manning's forward momentum never stopped. If it had, he would've had to blow the whistle and declare Manning "in the grasp and control" of the Patriots defense, which would've ended the play and resulted in a drive-crippling sack.
"Luckily for him, he was driving forward instead of them pulling him backwards," Carey said. "And I was just waiting for that little pendulum swing where, right as they grab him the quarterback usually gets a little bit forward and then they yank him back. Once he starts to be yanked back, that's when it's really imminent that it's grasp and control, or just a sack."
Actually, replays show that Seymour and Green were able to pull Manning backwards about a step and a half. But that was a brief redirection before Manning regained control and broke away.
"It was like a scene out of 'The Planet Earth' or National Geographic, where it's a lion jumping on the back of a wild horse," Carey said. "You could see him just desperately trying to pull out and somehow he did. Usually a quarterback goes straight ahead when that happens and just tries to get yardage. For some reason he turned around and ran back deeper in the pocket. Lucky for him that he did. He had a little safe haven."
That was important because safety is what the "grasp and control" rule is all about.
"Player safety in that situation is really the ultimate, but there's nobody closing down from in front of him so I didn't feel that" Manning was in jeopardy, Carey said. "For some reason everybody was behind him, so it gave me a little more latitude. And because he was going forward it gave me a little more latitude. So I could wait it out."
