The New York Giants are signing veteran kicker Josh Brown on Wednesday, according to a report in The Star-Ledger, which almost certainly means the end of the Giants' tenure of kicker Lawrence Tynes. Tynes is a free agent who told the team he was looking to test the market. And as the Giants so often do when a player tells them that, they wished him good luck and moved on to another option.

Is it a good move? Who knows? Brown's a kicker. He's been great at times, disappointing at times. Has a big leg. All kickers have good years and bad years, and if 2013 is a good one for Brown, it'll be looked at as a good move. If it's not, they'll replace him, maybe even before the end of the season. We don't have a crystal ball here, and if we did it wouldn't work on kickers.

I did this post because it's worth saying something about Tynes. If this is the end for his run with the Giants, it was a pretty special run as kickers go.

Tynes spent six seasons with the Giants, and during that time he kicked the game-winning field goal, in overtime, in the NFC Championship Game, twice. The Giants would, of course, go on to win the Super Bowl in each of those two seasons, defeating the Patriots both times and authoring one of the standout chapters in franchise history. And while those Giants Super Bowl teams will always be remembered for Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning and the fearsome defensive linemen, Tynes will occupy a place in fans' memories at which few kickers ever get to arrive. He'll appear on historical highlight videos. He'll get to come back on anniversaries and be introduced as a two-time Super Bowl champion, and everybody will remember the kicks in Green Bay and in San Francisco that put the team in the Super Bowl.

There aren't too many kickers who get to go out as heroes, but Tynes is a guy who managed to pull that off in New York. Whatever awaits him in free agency, his time with the Giants will be remembered well.