The “Tuck Rule” playoff game between the Patriots and Raiders is considered a seminal moment in NFL history.
The game is famous for a late fourth-quarter play where the Raiders’ Charles Woodson hit a young Tom Brady and forced a fumble. Instead of giving then-Oakland possession on a recovery, letting them coast to victory, the officials leaned on an obscure statute in the rulebook: The Tuck Rule. It stipulated that since Brady was moving his arm forward while Woodson hit him, he technically (weirdly) threw the ball, and it wasn’t a fumble.
Sparked by new life, New England went on to win the game and six Super Bowls over the next approximate two decades. Meanwhile, Woodson and the Raiders have never quite let the perceived unfairness of that unfortunate moment fade.
