The NEW YORK TIMES highlights just how David Tyree’s life has changed, not because of a memorable Super Bowl catch, but from his time in jail on drug charges.

The New York Giants receiver was arrested in 2004 after police found half a pound of marijuana in his car. The arrest was the culmination of a childhood spent getting high & drunk - often with his own family.

Tyree said his mother would often be smoking pot right along with him: “She would rather us be at home, acting the complete fool under her watch, than out on the streets, doing the same things and finding trouble that was definitely waiting for us. My house was a free-for-all.”

As the NYT stated about Tyree, “By his junior year at Montclair High School, he celebrated the same way after every football game — drinking a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor and a half-pint of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, and smoking a blunt.”

And the fun didn’t stop when he played for Syracuse: “Tyree often drank until he blacked out. One morning, he woke up naked. Another morning, he woke up covered in mud. Each time, he could not remember why.”

It wasn’t until his 2004 arrest & subsequent release that Tyree finally changed his ways: “What looked to be the lowest point in my life ended up being the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”

He says he no longer drinks, and he & his wife have started a counseling service for troubled teens. And Tyree has been busy hitting the talk show circuit and getting numerous gifts - whether it be personalized underwear from Ellen DeGeneres, or a big hug from Flavor Flav on Jimmy Kimmel’s show.

And no one would have known about David’s escape from a drug-fueled existence if Eli Manning didn’t escape from his own trapped situation.