Closure for a Raiders fan --Pete Elman

I'm still bitter about it. --Jon Gruden

A lot of us Raider guys think that still, when the Patriots line up and play, even today, they have some of our magic. --Eric Allen

I love the tuck rule and forever will, and I know Al Davis, may he rest in peace, is probably smiling. --Patriots owner Robert Kraft, after cowardly abstaining from the March 2013 ruling that overwhelmingly repealed the rule


Try telling a diehard Raider fan that what happened on that snowy night in Foxboro was just a bad break, a quirk of the rulebook that went against the Raiders. Some pain never goes away. On Jan. 19, 2002, many things happened that reverberate to this day. And the only players from that playoff game still active besides Sebastian Janikowski -- Tom Brady and Charles Woodson -- are the principals of that memorable struggle, two great champions linked together for all eternity because of one play, aging stars in the twilight of their storied careers who have demonstrated time and time again that they belong on the big stage.

Brady and Woodson: Michigan teammates in 1997, rivals throughout their careers who have nothing but respect for each other. One a California golden boy who was nobody coming out of college, the other a hardscrabble Midwestern kid who was the can't-miss prospect. Both are first-ballot Hall of Famers. One has played his entire career in one city, for one coach. The other started out in Oakland, went back to the Midwest, and returned at the end of his career to play for the team that has his heart. You can't make this stuff up.

Brady, winner of three Super Bowls and two MVPs, saw his career launched when referee Walt Coleman overturned his own call on the field and ruled that fumble an incomplete pass. Brady's career postseason record is 18-8; his playoff win total is the highest in NFL history. He helped set the record for the longest consecutive win streak -- 21 -- in NFL history. He owns the record for most consecutive playoff wins with 10. In 2007 he led the Patriots to the first undefeated season since the institution of the 16-game schedule. And he has thrown for more passing yards than any other quarterback in NFL postseason history. There may never have been a more clutch quarterback.

Matinee idol Brady has gone on to fame and riches and married a supermodel, and, at the age of 37, is still an elite quarterback, leading his team to a possible sixth Super Bowl appearance. As his coach, the dour sourpuss in the hoody, paces the sidelines, planning payback for the whipping he endured at the hands of Peyton Manning in Denver last season -- 12 years to the day after the Tuck Rule Game -- Brady remains tall in the pocket, nary a hair out of place, always positive, running along the bench exhorting his teammates, fiercely competitive, sensing that this could be the last hurrah.

Woodson, "Mr. Ohio" player of the year in high school, two-way college legend at Michigan, the last defensive player to win a Heisman, who led the Wolverines to a national championship, is still, remarkably, a factor on the field at the age of 38. He had eight wonderful years with the Raiders and seven with the Packers. Woodson, 2009 AP Defensive Player of the Year and seven-time Pro Bowler, is one of the greatest defensive backs in NFL history.

In the 2011 Super Bowl against the Steelers, after breaking his collar bone while diving to defend a pass, an emotional Woodson gave a speech to his teammates in the second half and cheered Green Bay on to a 31-25 victory. What a lot of people don't know about Woodson is that he donated $2 million to his alma mater's hospital for pediatric research, and is active in the cause of breast cancer research.

Dec. 7, 2014. It is the 73rd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and I am with my neighbor Jack, a Vietnam vet and a lifetime Raider fan. We are sitting in Section 109, one section over from the Black Hole, eagerly awaiting the much anticipated showdown between the Raiders and the 49ers. Despite being a fan since their inception in 1960, it is, amazingly, my first-ever Raiders game. Emotions are running high for me. Growing up in Washington, D.C., I found it tough to be a Redskins fan. They were perennially bad, and this little boy needed another team to root for. So, here comes the AFL, and how cool were those first Raider teams, with their pirate logo and swashbuckling players? I never stopped rooting for the Silver and Black, even when Al took them to L.A., and even when I lived in San Francisco during the glory years of the '80s and '90s. I enjoyed watching the 49ers (who wouldn't?) and appreciated how great they were, but I never rooted for them. My choice has always been the team on the east side of the bay.

It is a slate-gray Sunday, a good day for football, and the old Coliseum, site of so many great Raider moments, is rocking and buzzing. Despite their 1-11 record and a dozen years of dysfunctional futility, the home team might be showing some signs of life. Coming off a two-game roller coaster ride, during which they nearly blew their only win of the season by celebrating too early and then laid the biggest egg in Raiders history at St. Louis, nobody in the stands is super optimistic. But Raiders fans are not quitters or bandwagoners, unlike some fans. It is the much reviled 49ers, and this game will be the Raiders' 2014 Super Bowl.

Rookie QB Derek Carr, a Bakersfield boy, has brought some hope to the faithful. Wearing No. 4, a tribute to his idol, Packer legend Brett Favre, Carr has had a rocky rookie campaign. But make no mistake, this kid can flat-out throw, and he has shown poise in the pocket and steely resilience in the face of his team's repeated failures. He could be the future. Fingers are crossed.

On the other side of the field a soap opera of historic proportion is playing out. The once-proud franchise of Montana, Lott, Rice and Young is teetering, stumbling under the weight of innumerable (31, by the San Francisco Chronicle's latest count) distractions, from rap sheets to quitting during a game. Their combative head coach, Jim Harbaugh, a Michigan alum, is by all accounts "outta here" after this season. This afternoon might be their last chance to stay alive in the playoff hunt. They are coming into Oakland pissed off, at the low point of their season, on the heels of a horrible home-field Thanksgiving loss to the rival Seahawks, a game that ended with the villain Richard Sherman -- who played for Harbaugh at Stanford -- chowing down on a turkey leg at the 50-yard line after the game. The common thinking is, "How can they lose to the Raiders? Never happen." But that is why they play the game.

Before the game I turn to Jack and say, "I'm afraid we might get shut out." He smiles back and says, "We can win this game -- those guys are on the ropes." I look out at the warmups and see a Raiders team that looks loose, as loose as a squad can look after getting blown out 52-0, with just one win under its belt. I turn to Jack before kickoff and say, "I hope Charles Woodson picks off Kaepernick to win the game. That is my dream scenario."

The game starts with an interception by the Raiders, and they never look back. What unfolds the next three hours is nothing short of magical. The underdogs play their best game in years. Carr is unflappable, while the defense swarms Kaepernick. With a few minutes remaining and Oakland up 24-13, I'm still nervous. After all, anything is possible with the Raiders. But then Woodson picks off Kaepernick to seal the deal, and a primal roar comes forth from the bowels of the old stadium that is heard as far as Santa Clara. Take that, Niner fans.

Sure, I was happy that I proved myself a prophet, but I was more happy for Woodson, who came back to the team he loved two years ago not to win a Super Bowl, but to help the younger players know how it felt to lay it all on the field, to play the game with class, the right way.

The connections have now come full circle: Brady, Woodson, Harbaugh and the University of Michigan, Carr, the 49ers, the Raiders and Northern California. Any day the Raiders win is a good day, and any day the Raiders beat the 49ers is a great day, especially at home. The cherry on top is that we probably knocked them out of the playoffs. And this win may have been the victory that turns things around for Raider Nation -- it certainly had that feel. I don't know what will happen the rest of the season: next year we might have a new GM, a new coach -- hell, it might even be Harbaugh.

But I do know that some of the pain that I've been carrying around since Jan. 19, 2002, has been mitigated. To see my team, in person, stand up and be accounted for, to play a truly great football game, against the 49ers, is something I will cherish forever. Thanks, Jack.

And for Woodson it was a great day. A career is not defined by a defeat, albeit one that was unfair. And when they enshrine you at Canton, in your home state, when those tears fall on the gold jacket, you will go in as a Raider. Thanks for the memories, No. 24.

I don't normally quote the bible, in this case Matthew 20:16, but after this game it feels right. 

"And so it came to pass, the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Pete Elman

Oakland, CA
December 12, 2014