OAKLAND – Want to know why Raiders fans want to make like an Iraqi journalist and throw their shoes at Bill Belichick and Tom Brady? Come with me, then, on a magical, almost mystical ride to snowcapped Jan. 19, 2002, and utter three little words that send shivers down the spine of Raider Nation.

The Tuck Rule.

It launched a dynasty in New England and hastened the Raiders' slip into oblivion, and the flashpoint's far-reaching effect manifested itself Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum in a driving rain, Al Davis' tears, if you will.

The Patriots' 49-26 smoking of the Raiders showed just how far each franchise has gone in opposite directions since Brady's fumble – yes, it was a fumble, despite what the rule says – was overturned in the playoffs.

Since that infamous night, the Patriots have won three Super Bowls, authored the NFL's first 16-0 regular season and became what former 49ers general manager John McVay said might be the league's "flagship franchise."

The Raiders? They lost their coach, Jon Gruden, a month after the Tuck Rule game, lost a Super Bowl in humiliating fashion to Gruden and Tampa Bay and lost their way shortly thereafter as the first team ever to lose at least 11 games in six consecutive seasons.

No wonder bringing up the Tuck Rule game, won 16-13 in overtime on Adam Vinatieri's 23-yard field goal, is like picking at scabs for some Raiders.

"I don't think you ever get over it," former Oakland offensive tackle Lincoln Kennedy said.

The Patriots showed their famously insufferable sense of entitlement.

"It happened six years ago … we're trying to win games right now," running back Kevin Faulk said. "We can't focus on something that happened six years ago."

But won't that game in general, that play in particular, go down in NFL lore?

"I don't know," Faulk sniffed. "I'm not worried about it."

In 25 degrees, five inches of snow and with 1:50 remaining, Oakland clung to a 13-10 lead as it approached midnight in Massachusetts. The Patriots had the ball on the Raiders' 42-yard line when Brady was blindsided by a blitzing Charles Woodson.

Brady lost the ball. Greg Biekert recovered. The Raiders were headed to their second consecutive AFC title game.

Until the replay booth got involved and invoked the horrid Tuck Rule, which overturned the call to make it an incomplete pass because Brady's arm was moving forward, despite Brady having no intention of passing.

"You ask Brady to this day," Kennedy said, "he'll tell you it's a fumble."

More likely, you'll get his Tom Cruise-esque smirk.

Five plays later, and with 32 seconds left in regulation, Vinatieri's 45-yarder tied the score. The Raiders never touched the ball in overtime.

So what happens if the call is not overturned?

"That's an unanswerable question," said Patriots long snapper Lonie Paxton, a Sacramento State product whose celebratory end-zone snow angel made him a New England seminal figure.

In this corner of revisionist history, the Raiders lose the next week in Pittsburgh and the Steelers get run over by St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI, the Rams becoming a mini-dynasty with two titles in three years.

Or maybe the Raiders seize momentum.

"You can't say because you can't get into the mind of Jon Gruden," Kennedy said. "What if we had gone on to win the Super Bowl, would that have made him stay with all the problems that were out there?

"It all started with he wanted control. Then (Bill) Callahan came in and tried to do things his way after we went to the Super Bowl and the team revolted."

Four coaches later, the Raiders are still lost.

The Patriots?

"I don't think Brady makes the Hall of Fame," Kennedy said. "I don't think Belichick becomes a Hall of Fame coach."

The Tuck Rule. Enough to make Raider Nation reach for its shoes.

Call The Bee's Paul Gutierrez, (916) 326-5556.