The Patriots had plenty of talent and were arguably the class of the AFC East even then. They made the Super Bowl just a few years before, losing to Brett Favre’s Packers, under Bill Parcells. Would the Patriots be a good team? Of course. Matt Ryan is, right now, a surefire Hall of Fame player if the Tuck Rule never happened. Any other schlub doesn’t come back against Matt Ryan’s Falcons, down 28-3. Some other jabroni wouldn’t have been there to upend the 2003 Panthers or the 2004 Donovan McNabb-led Eagles. Another guy wouldn’t have dismissed the 2006 Chargers, one of the most underrated and forgotten teams in NFL history. Just another guy wouldn’t have been good enough to outduel a team like the 2018 Chiefs. On any other team with any other coach, there’s a chance that Brady’s just another guy. Without that first Super Bowl, there is no guarantee Belichick stays as the long-term overlord of the Patriots. What I can tell you is, as good as Brady is, it’s his synergy with Belichick that makes him so dangerous. Maybe he gets shipped out, like Belichick did with Jimmy Garoppolo. Bledsoe played another five years after this for the Bills and Cowboys, so perhaps Brady never becomes the Patriots starter. Drew Bledsoe regains his job the next season instead of being shipped off to the Bills. If Tom Brady loses that game, he is just another shmuck, the Jeff Hostetler of his time. Now on to the more wide-ranging implications of the Tuck Rule never happening. Hell, the Titans almost did it, two years before. I can’t in good conscience tell you the Raiders would have beaten that Rams team, but maybe they would have. Had the Tuck Rule been ruled a fumble, the Raiders would have almost certainly beaten the Steelers the following week and the Super Bowl against the Rams might have been an all-time classic. The Raiders hired and fired eight different coaches between Gruden and Gruden 2: Electric Boogaloo. Oakland became the laughingstock of the NFL. For this once-proud franchise, the Tuck Rule’s impact led to a 14-year stretch of abject futility. And from that point until 2016, the Raiders did not make the playoffs once. Oakland traded him to the Buccaneers, hired Bill Callahan as coach, and made the Super Bowl the next year. This was, until last year, the last game Jon Gruden would coach in the Silver and Black. The Patriots advanced to take on the Steelers in the AFC title game, and though Bledsoe had to relieve Brady in the game due to an ankle injury, Brady was healthy enough to beat the ‘Greatest Show on Turf’ Rams for his first Super Bowl, and the first in Patriots history.īefore I get to the impact this one single play had on the rest of the league, I want to talk about how it affected the Raiders. The Patriots would later win the game as Adam Vinatieri kicked an absurd overtime field goal in the snow. This seemingly secured a road playoff win for Oakland. Near the end of this game, Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson smacked the ball out of Brady’s hands and the Raiders recovered. Even when the Jets do something right, they screw themselves and everyone else.īrady played exceptionally well for the Patriots and started a Divisional Playoff game against the Raiders, who were among the most dominant forces in the AFC at the time. Later on in that game, Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe suffered an injury at the hands of the Jets’ Mo Lewis, and wet-behind-the-ears backup Tom Brady entered the game. New York QB Vinny Testaverde was tackled and seemingly fumbled, leading to a recovery and touchdown by future Raider Richard Seymour. The tuck rule itself was not new in that particular game, and in fact had reared its ugly head earlier that same season, in a game between the Patriots and Jets. It was the date of what has become known as the “Tuck Rule Game”, which not only was one of the most controversial games of all time, but also led to one of the most dominant dynasties and long-term runs of success football has ever seen. Januis one of the most pivotal dates in NFL history. Today I’ll look at one of the darkest days in Raiders history, a moment which has become far, far more important than it seemed at the time. It’s Theme Week again here at SBNation, and the theme this time is “What If.”, examining what sort of alternate histories NFL fanbases might live in if one thing or another had gone the other way.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |