January 19, 2002. Second round of the playoffs. 1 min 50 from the end, Tom Brady loses the ball while his team is trailing by 3 points.
Ball lost? No. His arm was going forward. It’s the Tuck Rule. The Patriots keep the ball.
ESPN devoted a report to this legendary action, event of a match finally won by the Patriots on the road to their first title. And Brady isn’t afraid to admit he didn’t know the rule.
“Obviously, I think: we lost the game. At the time, I didn’t know the Tuck Rule. “
In the trailer posted by the channel, several players admit the same thing.
Except… Bill Belichick.
“I knew this action. It was the rule, ”explains the coach.
Adopted in 1999, abandoned in 2013, the Tuck Rule is one of the founding events of the Patriots dynasty.
At what point ?
“(Without this action) I’m probably a substitute in 2002,” Brady explains in the documentary. “I’m not a starter if we lose this game. “
Not sure all the same that history would have proven Brady right. With an 86.0 rating, Brady finished the 2001 season ranked sixth in the league among quarterbacks. Not sure Belichick abandoned him so quickly. Of course, it’s impossible to know.
Apparently nobody knew about the Tuck Rule except for Belichick 🧠 @30for30
📺: ESPN pic.twitter.com/Pp3hpZ2G1J
—ESPN (@espn) February 7, 2022
