Tuck Rule
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Y FL ER
Everybody knows the Tuck Rule play: young Tom Brady trying to lead a drive down the field to tie the game against the Raiders in the divisional round of the 2002 playoffs. As soon as the play starts, cornerback Charles Woodson blitzes off the edge, hitting Brady as he tucks the ball in from a pump fake. After the collision, Brady loses the ball and the Raiders recover; however, due to the Tuck Rule, the play was ruled an incompletion. Brady then drives the ball down the field to force overtime, and eventually wins the game. After this game the Tuck Rule was abolished, but the damage to the Raiders franchise was done. This raises the question: what if the Tuck Rule was never established and the Patriots lost that game? First, the biggest part of this scenario is the future of the greatest player of all time, Tom Brady. Tom Brady probably never becomes the quarterback that we know now. After Brady is unable to lead his team to the Super Bowl it is very likely that they turn back to their previous quarterback Drew Bledsoe to lead the team and release Brady. This has a much greater effect on the NFL as a whole, opening up three MVPs, three All-Pros, 14 Pro Bowls, and nine Super Bowl trips. The most likely player to fill this role is Peyton Manning, who was in his prime throughout Brady’s dominance. If Brady was gone, Manning would now probably be known as the GOAT. The Steelers and Colts felt the greatest effect from Brady’s dominance – Brady beat both teams in the AFC Championship twice throughout his career. Most look at the Patriots as the evil empire of the NFL, but without the one play that kicked off the GOAT’s career and the team that dominated the 2000s, the NFL would no longer be the same league that we know it as today.
Miracle on Ice
The year is 1980. The dominant Soviet Union is playing the United States in the winter Olympic Games in ice hockey. At the end of the first period the score was 2-2, but after the second period, the Soviets took the lead 3-2 going into the final period. In the final period, the United States scored two unanswered goals to take their first lead, and they would hold out to the end of the game, winning 4-3. The reason this game is considered a miracle is the fact that there were only amateur players and four minor league players on the United States team, while the entire team of the Soviets were all pros. On paper it should have been a blowout, but the Americans powered through and won the game. This game was about far more than just hockey. But what if the Americans lost the Miracle on Ice? First, American morale would have remained low – despite rationally understanding that the US team was unmatched and would likely lose the game, the American people would not have liked the thought of losing to the Soviets in anything. A Soviet display of dominance over America would have had a ripple effect, especially on the arms race. Americans may have begun considering whether the conflict was worth it, since the Soviet Union appeared strong while America paled in comparison. The American people could have protested the government putting money into nuclear arms, seeing the arms race as a lost cause. Once the Soviets had the major upper hand in the nuclear race, this would have put the Soviet Union into the position of power. While it may be an overreaction to say that this would have led to a Soviet takeover of the United States, the effects that losing the Miracle on Ice would have had on the people and the country as a whole could have been catastrophic towards American society as we know it.