If you’re a New England Patriots fan, you always have something to be thankful for at Thanksgiving.
You could be thankful for Tom Brady or Bill Belichick, sure, but you’re probably best suited to thank your lucky stars you’re not a New York Jets fan.
That was no more obvious than it was five years ago Wednesday, when the Patriots went to the Meadowlands and stomped out the Jets 49-19 at MetLife Stadium on Thanksgiving.
That final score was bad enough, but it’s a night Patriots fans won’t ever forget (as Jets fans try like hell to forget) because, of course, of the Butt “Fumble.”
That’s right: One of the most infamous plays in NFL history occurred five years ago on this very day when then-Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez ran directly into the hindquarters of teammate Brandon Moore. The impact with Moore’s caboose caused Sanchez to fumble the ball, which was scooped up by Steve Gregory and returned 32 yards for a touchdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82RIfy-gRa4
“It all went wrong when Sanchez turned the wrong way,” former Jets coach Rex Ryan recently told ESPN the Magazine. “That was the first indication that it was going to be a bad play. But we had no idea it was going to be a disaster.”
Uh, ya think?
At the time, an obviously embarrassed Sanchez lamented, “You screw up the play, and I’m trying to do the right thing. It’s not like I’m trying to force something. I start to slide, and I slide in the worst spot I possibly could — right into Brandon Moore. That sucked.”
In terms of the scoreboard, at least, things would only get worse from there for Sanchez, Ryan and the Jets. After a scoreless first quarter, the Butt Fumble scoop and score highlighted a miserable second frame in which the Patriots outscored the Jets 35-3.
“I’ve had my butt kicked several times, but that was the worst,” Ryan told ESPN the Magazine. “I coached for 30 years; that was the worst quarter in the history of my coaching career, and there’s been some bad ones. But not even close to that one. It was brutal.”
