You have to give it to Charles Woodson, he had to ask.
The Raiders legend recently sat down with his former Michigan teammate and current New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for a wide-ranging interview on EPIX's show "The Grind."
Woodson and Brady lockered a few stalls away from each other during their time in Ann Arbor, but their most famous meeting came not when donning the Maize and Blue, but during the 2001 AFC Divisional Round game when Woodson's Raiders traveled to Foxboro to play Brady and the Patriots.
With the Patriots trailing 13-10 with under two minutes to go, Brady dropped back to pass and was hit on his right side by Woodson. Brady fumbled the ball and the Raiders recovered, appearing to seal the Patriots' fate. But the officials reviewed the play, and based on a rule that had been instituted in 1990, deemed that Brady had started the forward pass motion, and had not completely tucked the ball away, making it an incomplete pass.
The Patriots maintained possession and Brady drove them into field-goal range for the game-tying kick. The Patriots won in overtime and went on to win the first of six Super Bowls.
So, it was only natural that Woodson's first question to Brady was about whether or not it was a fumble.
2001. Tuck Rule play.@CharlesWoodson asks @TomBrady straight up: "Was it a fumble?"
📺: #NFLTheGrind on @EPIXHD pic.twitter.com/xbjngEwAPy— NFL (@NFL) September 18, 2019
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Had to do it.
The "Tuck Rule" was abolished in 2013.
That 2001 Divisional Round game also was the final one for Raiders head coach Jon Gruden's first stint with the Silver and Black. When Gruden returned to Oakland in January of 2018, Gruden showed he still hadn't let the Tuck Rule go.
"Brady fumbled that football," Gruden said with a smile.
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Whether he did or didn't, Brady never will say.
