So what will making the biggest catch in Super Bowl history this side of Lynn Swann mean to receiver David Tyree?

Financially, not much.

Beyond the $78,000 paycheck that he’ll get for being a member of the winning team (which is nearly nine percent of his full-year salary of $875,000), Tyree won’t be the next Larry Brown or Dexter Jackson or Desmond Howard.

Each of those men parlayed big performances on the biggest stage in sports into big-money deals, because each became unrestricted free agents weeks after coming up big in the Super Bowl.  But Tyree is already under contract through 2010, at salaries of $925,000, $1.1 million, and $1.3 million over each of the next three years.

As far as history is concerned, the money is irrelevant.  Tyree’s third-down catch will be remembered for as long as the Super Bowl is played as one of the great moments in NFL history.  He first pinned the ball against his helmet with his right hand after Pats safety Rodney Harrison pushed it out of Tyree’s hands.  Then, as he was falling backward to the ground, Tyree got his left hand back onto the ball and, most importantly, kept it from touching the ground.

And if the ball had touched the ground, the replay review would have been intriguing, to say the least.  Under the so-called Bert Emanuel rule, the ball can touch the ground if the receiver otherwise has (and maintains) control of it.  Given the way that Tyree was holding the ball, it’s hard to think that it wouldn’t have at least moved a little if it had struck the turf.

But strike the ground it didn’t, and it really was one of the best plays in the 42-year history of the Super Bowl.