I have to thank the NFL Network for some great programming on Saturday night. There we are at Rockafella’s in Salem and look up and what do we see, a very young Tom Brady in the midst of a game winning drive.
Three consecutive passes to JR Redmond had the Patriots driving on the Rams. John Madden said that the Patriots should take a knee and play for overtime. Sure he’s since said he was wrong, but we all knew he was at the time. This Patriots team was a team of destiny.
After the three passes to Redmond there were 33 seconds left on the game clock. After an incomplete Tom eyed his binky Troy Brown. Brown was the guy that Tom would throw to on every third down play when he knew Troy wouldn’t drop the ball. Sure enough this was no exception and Troy Brown caught the ball for a 23 yard gain. We all watched the clock very closely as they were now in Rams territory.
A six yard dump to East Boston’s Jermaine Wiggins put the ball on the Rams 30. Now Wiggins went to college. He actually went to a good football college, Georgia, but that’s not how we remember him. Nope, even Saturday night as we’re watching Tom complete the pass we all said to East Boston’s Jermaine Wiggins.
Tom quickly spiked the ball leaving just seven seconds on the clock. Now after the snow bowl against the Raiders the confidence in Adam Vinatieri is through the ceiling. There’s no way this guy misses the kick, right? Absolutely right. Adam and his Ray Bourque inspired playoff beard booted it through the uprights.
As the confetti started to fall all over the field Antowain Smith high stepped it from the sidelines to celebrate with his teammates. Like Bob Kraft said, that day we were all Patriots.
Thank You NFL Network for letting us relive that again on Saturday night. In case you missed it…
Just reading about the game makes me tear up. You know how you would always stop and watch the 86 World Series if they showed a clip. Like if you watch and hope hard enough that you can change what happened…but it always ends bad. The Superbowl…I will stop and watch anytime with that same feeling in the pit of my stomach. But it always ends good.