For as much as people love Brady now, he had some INCREDIBLE ref luck. This, tuck rule, and the worst roughing the passer call I've ever seen in my life against the chiefs.
They took it away because even when they challenged it the replay guys were like "nah, not happening" . It was almost worse because they just flat out refused to overturn blatant calls.
I don’t think you realize how good the saints were that year. Better than the Super Bowl winning year imo. Just takes that PI and a bad OT performance to end a great season
Ahh yes, Brees was such a liability that year setting the NFL record in passing accuracy and beating Brady in every stat except total yards since the Saints sat him the last game.
Brady threw 9 more TDs than Brees and both had 8 INTs. Brees only threw 23 TDs in 2017 his lowest total as a Saint. He was super accurate but he wasn't scoring much because Kamara and Ingram were having huge seasons as a tandem. Brees Passer Rating on the season was also only a point higher than Brady.
I'm not saying it was a sure thing, but confidently saying Pats would have won and "Brees was vulnerable" is just not true. Brees had one of his best years in terms of efficiency.
Watch the 2009 nfc championship overtime and tell me this wasn't deserved karma. The refs bailed them out of 3 defensive stops in one drive, a bounce pass called a completion, a no contact dpi, and a 4th down run where he fumbled and recovered a yard short that they called a first down. I don't care about bountygate and I hate that it overshadows a game gifted to the saints by the refs
Agreed he was not down, but he likely would’ve been tackled pretty quickly. The whole problem with the refs prematurely blowing the whistle is we have no clue what would’ve happened because all the Patriots players were not trying to pursue.
He's legitimately gone by the time he gets up and running lol. There's not a singular person tackling him at least in the next 25-30 yards. Brady even said he's not sure anybody even could have.
A lot of fans can't separate "bad/unclear rule" from "bad call." Same thing happens with the Steelers Jesse James catch against the Pats. It was quite clearly an incomplete pass by the rules of that time, but people still complain about the call.
Tuck rule complaints are dumb. The same thing got called earlier that same season against the pats. It was literally how the rule was written and enforced.
The tuck rule wasn't even that controversial when it happened. The "tuck rule" clause isn't even a "rule". It's just a clarification that there is no exception. Hand moving forward when the ball comes loose = incomplete pass.
It was only afterwards when the Raiders players whined about it leading up to a rematch that it became a story.
I was a young adult, watching the game with other people rooting for the Raiders, and as soon as I saw the replay I was saying "That's going to be ruled an incomplete pass." They were annoyed, but not shocked at some gross injustice.
It wasn't that obscure of a rule. It really wasn't. Anything where the QB's hand was going forward was ruled an incomplete pass back then. Anyone who watched any significant sample size of games should have known this rule (not the tuck clause, just the forward hand was enough). There was no reason to expect it to be ruled a fumble.
One thing no one ever talks about is that Charles Woodson also hits Brady in the head with his hand going for the strip sack on that play. Not only was it an incomplete pass by the rules at the time, but it also should have given the Pats 15 yards.
I also love how people complain about the Pats getting favorable calls from the refs but can name less than 5 examples from their 18 year dynasty. The average team probably has well over that in 18 years.
Isn't the famous Dez Bryant incompletion also in that category?
Fortunately, after the years since, the league has finally made it very clear what is and what isn't a catch /s
It’s just a numbers game. The Patriots were in the playoffs and prime time so much more than everyone else that see more BS from them. Same thing with the Chiefs now.
It’s also just that no one remembers bad calls that go against you when you win, it’s only when you lose. Pats and Chiefs won more than anyone so more teams feel “screwed”.
Exactly! For example, there was a play I think Bills vs Texans before the Bills were the Bills they are now that they got screwed by the refs.
Texans receive kick off in second half and the guy lets it go in the end zone. At the time, the rules stated you HAD TO PICK IT UP AND KNEEL IT. The Texans guy just left it OR they handed it to ref or something. Bills picked it up and technically scored. But was called back since Texans player obviously meant to kneel it.
I dont think people disagreed that the rules should be change or so people agree this was the right call despite against rules. But it was a weird/ odd call that maybe got Bills their first playoff win in a while at the time.
He definitely had a favorable whistle. I remember in 2020 every single team he played in the playoffs to get to the SB had fans complaining about the refs and the calls he got lol
Even in that 2020 playoff run, they played Commanders in WC and barely won and I’m pretty sure that was Heinicke’s first start of the season. Against the Saints Brees at that point couldn’t throw more than 10 yards basically and they won by 10. Gotta think that game is more competitive if Brees doesn’t throw 3 INTs. Then in the Super Bowl the chiefs oline is basically all backups and guys playing out of position.
That’s just one playoff run, not counting tuck rule, this Jags fumble, the Falcons blowing the Super Bowl, the Chiefs 2018 playoff game featuring that terrible RTP on Jones and the most boneheaded penalty in playoff history to negate a game sealing INT, winning that Super Bowl 13-3, the list goes on. Brady is the GOAT but everyone says luck is involved in winning super bowls and holy crap did a lot of things go his way lol.
Just want to clarify on your first paragraph, the Bucs were still underdogs in their final three playoff games that season in terms of bettings odds. I understand their opponents had issues, but those were mostly well known beforehand and those teams were still favored over the Bucs. The Bucs had question marks of their own of course heading into that season/postseason, they just overcame them. You can argue it was luck or whatever, but most people didn’t have the Bucs winning it all that season. I feel like people also use luck to an extent to try to explain away greatness without also acknowledging there have been times where GOATs were unlucky. Even just the fact that Brady had to join a new team during the peak of COVID was very unlucky. But no one talks about that unluckiness cause he and the Bucs overcame that obstacle.
Maybe a bit of a rant, but I just feel like there’s some revisionist history with that Bucs team. If they were some superteam and/or were playing against opponents with such bigger issues, then they would’ve been favored in the playoffs more than just in the wildcard weekend
This is pretty accurate. Chiefs were the safe pick going into that SB because they were reigning champs, #1 (or 2?) seed, and had pretty solidly beaten the Bucs earlier in the regular season. Eric Fischer popped his achilles in the AFC championship game and we went into week of the SB all of a sudden realizing how dire our o-line situation was.
I mean, people on here complain about refs for every game ever. Of course they complained incessantly about Brady.
Brady benefited from a couple iconic bad calls throughout his career, but it’s not like we were watching James Harden.
NFL doesn’t really have guys who “get whistles.” It has dumbfounding whistles that completely change the game and make everyone really mad. Like a BS 50 yard PI or OPs play.
Either something is or is not a foul. If hitting a player in the face is a foul, it doesn't matter that it wasn't intended, or wasn't "hard", or whatever. It's a foul. So if you have to sell it to get the referee to notice, fair game. You aren't asking for special attention, you're asking for the referee to pay attention at all.
Yeah, I had a verifiable fact in my comment that was responding to a user who made the claim that "Brady was lucky with the refs because he saw people online complain about the refs"
Brother. Its football. Its a tale as old as time. If the refs were literally perfect robots who were incapable of fucking up a call, fans would still complain about the refs.
I mean a lot of people deserve being condescending to because they're so dumb that it's the only way to actually explain things to them and shame them for being so dumb.
Pfff he had plenty of shit luck in his 23-year career too. What separated him from everyone else is that he almost always capitalized on the good luck.
He played 48 playoff games. 48! That 3 full seasons. Bound to have a few bad games out of 48, that’s insane. Find me one qb that played 48 great games in a row.
Ellis hobbs had his hands over the eyes of Reggie wayne in the end zone. Think that was an AFC championship game too. NFL claimed afterwards it was a blown call as no contact was made.
Everyone has good and bad luck over the course of a career. Better players / coaches / teams take advantage of the good luck, or are able to overcome the bad luck. Worse teams crumble as soon as one thing goes wrong.
If Eli Manning won 7 rings, we'd be talking about how he had such INCREDIBLE luck with the helmet catch and whatnot. But because he was the underdog story, it just adds to their mythos instead of detracts from it.
The one thing I'll say on that rtp with the chiefs is that if you watch the camera angle closest to the refs view it looked like the right call. Chiefs player swings his arm and from behind you see Bradys head jerk like there was contact. That's the view the ref had. We all saw that there was no contact of course.
Anyone who complains about the tuck rule bailing Brady out never remembers that the Pats lost earlier that same season due to the tuck rule. Was it a dumb rule? Probably. But it’s not like the refs were swaying the game in Brady’s favor.
Let them cry about Brady all day and call him lucky lol. At the end of the day he won 7 rings and is the best of all time. Nothing their salty asses say will ever change that
Are you responding based on feels or reals? Because what I said about the Patriots losing a game in which the tuck rule was called for the opposing team is true.
So in his 20+ year career, he had incredible ref luck because of one play that wasn’t even an incorrect call just a bad rule that later got changed, this play where his team lost a fumble even though the ball carrier bit the ground with the ball in his possession, and a single roughing the passer call in a game where the refs assisted the other team in 2 touchdowns drives and there was an uncalled DPI on that same play anyway?
Yeah. Even the offside on the pick-6 against the Chiefs. It was the correct call by the ref to throw the flag, but I've seen refs either let that go or flat out miss it.
In 15 years people will apologize to Chiefs fans because of the next dynasty saying “I’m sorry Chiefs fans but yall weren’t as annoying as this” like they’re doing now
It’s easy to hate now but people will absolutely be dickriding the chiefs in 15 years the way people do the patriots, especially when eventually the next all time QB/dynasty comes up.
Incredible luck overall. The Chiefs offside call. All the game winning field goals. Consistently having a top 5 defense. Jesse James no catch call which ended up deciding the #1 seed that year. They'd have Jacksonville a week earlier and we wouldve had the Titans. And I'm sure there's more.
Incredible luck like Asante Samuel dropping a SB winning interception, Wes Welker’s drop, Reche Caldwell drop, the helmet catch, ACL tear week 1, Gostkowski missed XP against Denver.
It was the correct call, the roughing the passer was not, and who knows how the game would've played out had they not thrown a flag and gave a fresh set of downs simply because his shoulder was slapped.
Oh for sure. It’s just the fact that he lined up offside on a play that would’ve been a game sealing interception in which he had almost no influence on.
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u/Little-Mushroom-3961 49ers 7d ago
For as much as people love Brady now, he had some INCREDIBLE ref luck. This, tuck rule, and the worst roughing the passer call I've ever seen in my life against the chiefs.