They each have their own memory of the moment. Where they were. What they were doing. Whether they watched or not. Whether they prayed. How they felt. How they reacted.
Each player that witnessed or was a part of the Giants’ riveting 20-17 NFC Championship Game victory over the 49ers at Candlestick Park in January will carry those memories with them into tomorrow’s rematch with the 49ers in their rickety, outdated stadium by the bay.
The memory most seared into their minds from last Jan. 22 was Lawrence Tynes’ 31-yard field goal slicing through the damp San Francisco air, tumbling through the uprights and sending the Giants to their second Super Bowl in five years.
“The first thing that I remember was I knew my wife was sitting right behind our bench and Peter John-Baptiste [the Giants director of media relations] grabbed her right after we made the field goal and brought her to me,’’ Tynes said this week. “So to celebrate it with her on the field at the 50-yard line, that was pretty special. That’s what I remember most.’’
If you were watching on TV, you probably remember the image of Giants punter and holder Steve Weatherford running wildly around the field with an incredulous look on his face screaming, “We’re going to the [bleeping] Super Bowl!’’
“I actually blacked out,’’ Weatherford recalled. “The last thing I remember before the kick was putting my finger down on the spot and telling Lawrence, ‘This is the Super Bowl spot.’ I don’t really remember much after that.’’
What Giants fans will always remember about Tynes, though, is his clutch gene. Remember, in the 2008 NFC Championship Game in Green Bay where his right foot kicked the Giants all the way to the Super Bowl in Arizona. Last January in San Francisco was not Tynes’ first rodeo.
Kicks like that forge legacies. They attach instant street cred to your name.
Matt Bahr knows that as well as anyone. His five field goals — including the 42-yard game-winner as time expired — gave the Giants a 15-13 NFC Championship win in San Francisco and sent them to the Super Bowl in January 1991.
Even though he was watching on TV in his Pittsburgh-area home, Bahr recalled Tynes’ kick on that same field where he had played the hero 21 years earlier.
“Everyone’s career is reduced to two sentences on a three-by-five card, and you hope both of them are positive,’’ Bahr told The Post this week. “I was happy that Lawrence made it for the team, that it’s a positive memory. It was déjà vu all over again for me. It brought back a lot of fond memories.’’
Bahr said he loved that the 49ers called a timeout to “ice’’ Tynes before the kick, because he believes it actually helps the kicker get settled and go over the details instead of being rushed.
“I said, ‘Fantastic,’ because from a sheer practical standpoint, you get a chance to prepare the spot, make sure of the right distance, then you can just take a deep breath,’’ Bahr said.
Bahr recalled the 49ers calling a timeout before his game winner in ’91 and Steve DeOssie, the Giants long snapper back then and father of Tynes’ current long snapper, Zak, told him, “They can’t ice you.’’
“I told him, ‘They’re not trying to ice me, they’re trying to ice you,’ ’’ Bahr recalled. “Then he went, ‘Ahhhhhhhh,’ and got really nervous.’’
Disruptive nerves do not appear to be a part of the laid-back Tynes’ DNA. And that should create a level of comfort and confidence around Tynes from his coaches and teammates should a clutch kick be needed tomorrow.
“That’s something you would like to be associated with — being clutch, having that attached to your name,’’ Tynes said. “Granted, for that kick in San Francisco last year, the conditions were bad. But I definitely felt more comfortable having said to myself, ‘I’ve done this before.’
“Every year it’s gotten a little bit easier. You just feel more prepared as an older player. Nothing really surprises me anymore,’’