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CONCLUSION:

#28 & 29

Two conspiracy theories in one! Did the New England Patriots, with an assist from the NFL, cheat their way to a dynasty?

With their three Super Bowl titles, four conference championships, six division titles, and .718 winning percentage (102-41) this millennium, it’s hard to argue against the New England Patriots being the team of the decade in the National Football League (though fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers might disagree). But in 2000, Bill Belichick’s first season as the Patriots’ head coach, they were just another middle-of-the-road NFL team struggling their way through a miserable 5-11 season. Their sixth-round pick that year, a young quarterback out of the University of Michigan named Tom Brady, began the season fourth on their depth chart behind the entrenched starter, Drew Bledsoe, and backups John Friesz and Michael Bishop. Not one player from the Patriots’ 2000 squad was selected for the Pro Bowl, and when they began the 2001 season with consecutive defeats and lost Bledsoe to injury, it looked like the Patriots were in for another losing season. Nobody could have predicted that this was a team on the verge of a dynasty.

So what happened?

For starters, Brady happened. Subbing for Bledsoe, a former three-time Pro Bowl selection, the unheralded and untested Brady seized the opportunity given to him and led the Patriots to victories in eleven of the team’s final fourteen games in 2001, including seven out of eight to end the regular season.

Next, the defense improved vastly under Belichick and Defensive Coordinator Romeo Crennel. The same unit that had surrendered 338 points in 2000, reduced that total to 272 in 2001, holding their opponents to seventeen points or less in fourteen of the nineteen games they played—the playoffs included.

Speaking of the 2001 playoffs, it was there that the Patriots received a little, um, help from the refs.

And there’s also that minor detail about their coaches illegally spying on their opponents.

Oh, and did I mention that the NFL rigged the whole thing to boost national morale?

I didn’t? Well, then I guess I’ll need to explain myself. And the only way to do that is to start with the night the Patriot Dynasty was born.

#28: THE TUCK RULE GAME

On the evening of January 19, 2002, I was sitting with my then girlfriend (now wife) in Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark’s Place in New York City, drinking beer and casually watching the football game being shown on the television above the bar. It had only been a week since my beloved New York Giants let a twenty-four-point second-half lead slip away out in San Francisco, and I didn’t have much of a stomach for football. But the game, which was being contested in a blinding snowstorm at Foxboro Stadium outside of Boston, was compelling. There’s just something about football in the snow that gets me every time, and considering how this was the playoffs, and a close game, I was drawn in despite my lack of rooting interest.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Oakland Raiders clung to a 13-10 lead over New England. With 1:50 left on the clock, and having just crossed midfield, Brady dropped back to pass. He pump-faked, then pulled the ball down. As he did so, he was crushed by cornerback Charles Woodson, who had blitzed untouched off left end. The impact of Woodson’s blow knocked the ball out of Brady’s hands and to the ground, where it was recovered by Raiders linebacker Greg Biekert.

Both teams reacted as if it were a fumble. The Raiders were celebrating, knowing that the Patriots had no timeouts left, and therefore couldn’t stop them from running out the clock. The Patriots players, including Brady, walked off the field dejectedly. None of them seemed to be petitioning for a video review.

“Game over,” I said to my girlfriend. “Let’s go.”

We exited the bar and headed out into the cold New York night.

“Attaboy, Charlie Woodson,” I said to myself. It had been a career-defining moment, and I felt happy for Woodson who, like Brady, was a former classmate of mine at Michigan. It wasn’t until I got home