Tuck Rule!

Posted on , updated on by Jack Healey

Yes yesterday was the 14th anniversary of the “Tuck Rule”. Yes Patriot and Oakland Raider fans remember that fateful day in different ways.

I’ve mentioned this stuff before , but in honor of the anniversary let me repeat a few things:

  1. If it happened to the Patriots I would’ve been upset. Of course!  I happened to be listening to the national broadcast of the game on the radio and  remember exactly where I was as I was driving between Burlington and  Rutland in that very same snowstorm they had in Foxboro. I was just north of Vergennes when the “fumble” occurred. I don’t remember the play by play guy, but the color man was Bob Trumpy and I heard him whine about the call all the way to Rutland.
  2. I saw the clips later and of course it looked like a fumble to me as well and I had never heard of the “Tuck Rule” myself. The one thing some people don’t admit though is that  the call was correct when the rule was applied. It was. Take it or leave it, the call was correct. What the “Tuck Rule” was is exactly what happened. Terrible rule of course, but the right call! There actually was a ” Tuck Rule” call in favor of the Jets’ Vinny Testaverde earlier in that season and I had seen it called once or twice since and all of them look exactly the same.
  3. The play didn’t define Tom Brady’s career any more than the Jeffrey Maier incident in the 1996 playoffs defined Derek Jeter’s career. Come on! You mean to tell me everything that happened in the playoffs that year and ensuing years doesn’t count? That’s absurd!
  4. Another fallacy is that the Oakland Raiders franchise has never been the same! Really? I could’ve somewhat bought that one, but the Oakland Raiders got to the Super Bowl the next year and the Patriots didn’t even make the playoffs. The Raiders by the way lost to Tampa Bay in that Super Bowl and if they weren’t so busy still bitching about the “Tuck Rule” the year before, maybe they would’ve won!
  5. I could go on and on, but I’m still obsessed by the phantom roughing the passer call against the Patriots’ Sugar Bear Hamilton in the playoff game against the you guessed it….The Oakland Raiders in 1976. A terrible call that in my opinion cost the Patriots the Super Bowl that year.I will always believe the Patriots got robbed!

I guess what goes around comes around!!!