What would Tom Brady be without the “Tuck Rule?” Apparently nothing, according to Ray Lewis.
The former Baltimore Ravens linebacker and current ESPN analyst made an appearance Tuesday on Stephen A. Smith’s show on Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Radio, where he made some head-scratching comments. While the conversation started off about Dez Bryant’s overturned catch against the Green Bay Packers, it led the two personalities to dive into other controversial calls the NFL has made in recent years.
Lewis brought up the infamous “Tuck Rule” play that occurred in the final seconds of a 2001 AFC divisional round playoff game between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders. The game-changing call led to a Patriots win and an eventual Super Bowl win. And that’s where Lewis lost everyone.
“The only reason we know who Tom Brady is, because of a tuck rule,” Lewis said. “There’s no such thing as a tuck rule! If the ball is in your hand, and I knock it out your hand, whether it’s going backwards, forwards, lateral, sideways, however it’s coming out, that’s a freaking fumble.
“But guess what we created? We created a freaking tuck rule!”
Sure, the three-time Super Bowl champion, two-time NFL MVP, five-time AFC champion and 10-time Pro Bowler is widely considered one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, but that’s clearly only because of a new rule he had a part in making.
Check out Lewis’ full hot take in all its glory in the player below.
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/185939065" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]We’ll just be here pretending he didn’t once call Brady the best player in football.
