Four plays later, it was followed by the touchdown that made history (or prevented it, depending on your point of view).

Fast forward just 580 days, and it’s difficult to fathom that the two receivers who respectively made those plays to earn their Super Bowl XLII rings only a full season and a couple of off-seasons ago, find themselves no longer members of the New York Giants, and at the moment, absent from all NFL rosters.

Such is life in the NFL, with the Giants’ release of David Tyree on Saturday, five months after Plaxico Buress was let go by the Giants for much different reasons.

As head-scratching as it may initially seem, it can make sense when you look at the reverse situation. Take the case of last season’s 37-year-old quarterback leading an Arizona Cardinals team that went only 3-7 outside its own division to within to within a Santonio Holmes’ toedrag of another Super Bowl title for that quarterback. If Kurt Warner can go from bagging groceries in a supermarket to the star of a team named the Iowa Barnstormers in the now defunct Arena Football League, to Super Bowl MVP, and record the three highest passing yardage totals in Super Bowl history, why can’t it (unfortunately for the sakes of Tyree and Burress) work the other way, as well?

So yes, change can be fast and frequent in sports, especially in the NFL.

Still, in the case of Tyree and Burress, it’s pretty surprising to see where they are now, looking through the lens of early February, 2008. First, I’ll revise what I said at that top. Tyree’s well-known “helmet catch” on third-and-five from the Giants’ 44 with 1:15 left in Super Bowl XLII, setting up Burress’s game-winning catch with 35 seconds left wasn’t arguably the greatest play in sports history.

It was the greatest play in sports history, period, given several factors: the great degree of difficulty of Tyree’s remarkable grab, as the normally seldom-used New Jersey hometown hero somehow pinned the ball between one hand and his helmet, never allowing the ball to touch the ground, while falling on his back with a pro-bowl caliber defensive back in Rodney Harrison draped all over him –- oh, and all of that after the same play started with Giants’ Super Bowl XKII MVP quarterback Eli Manning did a Houdini act, in almost as equally amazing way, as he incredibly escaped two different holds of his jersey from New England Patriot rushers, before slinging the football downfield to ultimately cling to Tyree’s helmet like a magnet.

And, that just for starters.

Then, consider that without that play, the Giants’ valiant Cinderella run from an 0-2 start (during which they allowed a total of 80 points) — to barely qualifying for the playoffs with a 10-6 record, to winning three straight road games which included a win in the heat of Florida, another over the NFC’s top seed against a hated division rival, and finally clinching a Super Bowl berth in overtime, in snowy Green Bay — might have all merely resulted in the New England Patriots’ expected perfection at 19-0. Instead, with Tyree’s catch, the Giants, as 12-point Super Bowl underdogs to the Patriots, denied the Pats’ perfect season, while finishing off their own fairy-tale ending with one of sports’ greatest upsets, capped by Burress’s own heroics.

Throw in the added ingredients of the Patriots scoring the most points ever in an NFL season that year; their quarterback Tom Brady throwing for the most touchdowns in an NFL season; Brady’s favorite target, Randy Moss, catching the most touchdowns ever in that same NFL season; “19-0” merchandise and books being printed and sold prematurely; Brady laughing and mockingly dismissing Burress’ own pre-Super Bowl prediction of the Giants holding the Patriots to just 17 points in a Giants’ win (when the Giants actually held New England to 14 points); and the fact that Tyree had caught just four passes and no touchdowns all season, prior to Super Bowl XLII, before catching the Giants’ first touchdown earlier in Super Bowl XLII, and then making that now-famous catch.

If you were to send the script to Hollywood, it would have been rejected for not being plausible enough.

That’s exactly why although the NFL is a business and some unexpected off-the-field things can happen, it’s rather stunning to see the fates change so soon for two legendary Giants’ heroes.

Granted, despite Tyree’s Super Bowl accomplishments and a 2005 Pro Bowl selection for his special teams work, he hadn’t had a very productive NFL career (just 54 regular season receptions spanning 6 years as an NFL receiver), and the Giants, although still searching for a clear go-to guy in 2009, have numbers at the wide receiver position, with at least six other different young and all potentially talented receivers seeking to fill that void. Tyree, hampered by injuries, by his own admission, “didn’t have a great camp” this summer, and he simply became the odd man out. Nothing personal, just business, as they say.

Burress, of course, was a drastically different story, having shot the 2008 NFC East champion Giants in the figurative foot and all but killing their hopes of defending their 2007-08 championship when he literally shot himself in the leg last November, leading to his April release by the Giants in advance of Burress spending some upcoming prison time on weapons charges.

Whether it was Tyree’s performance landing him in the Giants’ doghouse or Burress going to the jailhouse, even the best prognosticators in February, 2008 couldn’t have predicted that by the beginning of the 2009 season, neither Tyree or Burress would remain with the franchise that pulled off one of football’s most memorable upsets and sport’s greatest play ever.

Thus, the two will always be linked in both Giants’ and Super Bowl lore, but now, they’re Giants no more.

The Giants got pushed around in the second pre-season game against the Bears. The game had an October feel to it as temperatures where in the low 60s at kickoff. Three things are clear early on for the Giants: First, third-year back Ahmad Bradshaw will see increased playing time in 2009. Second, LB Clint Sintim out of Virginia will be a factor in the Giants defense. Third, Super Bowl hero David Tyree is now an afterthought in the Giants offense.

If you thought things just couldn’t get any worse for the Mets, they did, ace pitcher Johan Santana will be sidelined the remainder of the season with surgery on his left elbow. Every time I hear or see a story about the Mets, I hear the “MASH” theme play in my subconscious. The Mets have no luck – just three years ago they were an inning away from the World Series. Sometimes, teams miss their window. Just look at the 1982 California Angels, the 1997 Orioles, the ’92 & 93 & ’96 Braves, the ’88 & ’90 A’s and of course the Red Sox in 1975, ’78 or ’86.

AJ Burnett and Jorge Posada’s blowout isn’t anything knew in the Bronx. Randy Johnson preferred to pitch to John Flaherty and one former reliever also admitted he didn’t like throwing to Posada.

Toomer was a 13 year veteran and the Giants all time leading receiver with 580 receptions. While never really a “#1″ receiver in the true sense, Toomer was the Giants “Go-To” player at the position for many years when the focus was the running game, first with Rodney Hampton and then with Tiki Barber. The Giants also got some help from now New Orleans Saints Tight End Jeremey Shockey while he was here in the pass catching department. The Burress Story has been told countless times already, so i won’t chronicle it here again. It does seem worth mentioning that Plaxico was one of the vocal leaders of the offense, even more so since Tiki Barber’s departure after the 2006 season.

Now the veterans in the receiving corps are David Tyree, going into his 7th season in the NFL, followed by Sinorice Moss and Dominik Hixon, each with 4 seasons in Pro Football. While the offensive game plan may not change too much, which receivers get called for which plays might change somewhat. Surely Tyree makes the team again after his injury absence simply because of his veteran status and what he does on the specials. Then Steve Smith, because of his inside game, and his big play contributions since the second half of the 2007 season. Assuming that both Nicks and Barden have spots on the squad already because of their draft status, that’s already four of the six active roster spots. So you have Moss, Manningham, and Hixon. Three players going for the last two active roster spots. Seemingly Moss seems to be on the bubble here, given his overall lack of production last year. Unless someone gets hurt this summer, it might be a wrap for Santana’s little brother in Giants Blue. You will continue to see the “Bigger Guys” stretch the field with deep routes (Hixon, Barden & and Kevin Boss from the TE spot), while Smith, Nicks, and whomever survives between Moss and Manningham running the underneath routes.

On the Defensive side of the ball, the difference here will be the new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan. Although he was promoted from within, Coach Sheridan has a long history as a college defensive position coach. This will be his 28th year in the coaching profession, but only his 4th in the NFL, and all 4 with New York. He was also promoted over defensive secondary coach Peter Giunta, who was the defensive coordinator for the Super Bowl XXXIV champion St. Louis Rams.

I was a bit surprised to see Coach Sheridan get the nod as “DC” but if you looked at the sidelines the last three seasons when former “DC”  Steve Spagnoulo ran the show, Sheridan was usually next to him.

Sheridan has said he won’t make too many changes to the defensive game plan, but the Giants have “reloaded” their defensive front 7 with free agent arrivals Rocky Bernard and Chris Canty at the defensive tackle spot and Mike Boley at Linebacker, plus draftee Clint Stintum also at the linebacker spot. This will allow the defense to continue with it’s “whole line rotational concept” weather veteran Fred Robbins remains a Giant or not.

How much of these slight changes will you really see? RB Brandon Jacobs told us at the EA Sports NFL Draft event that the “Giants are a team built to win and ready to win now, not in 2010 or 2011.” It could just be possible that the biggest changes for the Giants could only be in the actual players and coaches, and not the playbook as much.