Butt Fumble
The Butt Fumble was a notorious American football play from a National Football League game played on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2012, between the New York Jets and New England Patriots.
In front of the home crowd of over 79,000 fans at MetLife Stadium and a primetime television audience of over 20 million, Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez collided with the buttocks of his teammate, offensive lineman Brandon Moore, causing a fumble, which was then recovered by the Patriots' safety Steve Gregory and returned for a touchdown. The play was the centerpiece of a disastrous sequence in the second quarter, wherein the Jets lost three fumbles and the Patriots scored three touchdowns in the span of 52 seconds of game time. In that second quarter, the Jets held the ball for over 12 minutes, but managed to be outscored 35–3.
The game and the infamous "butt fumble" in particular are remembered as the low point of the Jets' 2012 season as the embarrassing loss was the team's seventh of the 2012 season, all but eliminating them from earning a playoff berth. The butt fumble is often considered one of the most inept plays in NFL history and is also ranked as the most embarrassing moment in Jets history by ESPN.
Background
Broadcast information
Beginning in 2006, the NFL began airing a late-season Thursday series of games every season. This included a third game played on Thanksgiving Night which, unlike the two other games played earlier on the holiday, would be hosted on a rotating basis. Initially these games aired on NFL Network, with the broadcast being available over-the-air in the teams' local markets.NBC Sunday Night Football is the most important time slot for the NFL, which schedules the most attractive teams and games in it. For the 2012 season, NBC added the Thanksgiving evening broadcast to its lineup of games. This would be the first time that the Thanksgiving Night game would be broadcast on network television, and NBC expected a large portion of the available audience to tune in to the only NFL game nationwide. NBC's Sunday night staff worked on the game, including Al Michaels for play-by-play and Cris Collinsworth as color analyst.
The team's local radio broadcasts were carried on WEPN-FM in New York and WBZ-FM in Boston. Bob Wischusen and Marty Lyons called the matchup for the Jets while Gil Santos and Scott Zolak were at the microphone for the Patriots.
Teams
Head coach Bill Belichick's Patriots dominated the AFC East and the league during the previous decade. Head coach Rex Ryan and young quarterback Mark Sanchez had led the Jets to the AFC Championship Game in 2009 and 2010, however, including a rare playoff defeat of the Patriots in New England in January 2011. While the Jets did not make the playoffs in the 2011 season, fans thought that the team might in 2012 again challenge New England.Both the Jets and the Patriots entered the week coming off of victories in their previous games. The Patriots, by defeating the Indianapolis Colts the week before, stood at 7-3 and were three games ahead in first place in the AFC East. The Jets were tied with the other two teams in the division, the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, at 4-6 following a victory over the St. Louis Rams one week earlier.
Game summary
Before the butt fumble
A scoreless first quarter ended with the Patriots driving to the Jets' 3-yard line. The second quarter began with a touchdown pass from Tom Brady to Wes Welker. The Jets answered with a drive to New England's 31-yard line. On 4th down with inches to go, however, the first of a series of mistakes took place that eventually resulted in the game being put out of reach.Shonn Greene's fumble
Jets running back Shonn Greene was tackled short of the first-down marker by Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes, losing possession as he was being tackled. The ball was recovered by Patriots safety Steve Gregory at the Patriots' 19-yard line and tackled at the 17.The Patriots scored on the next play. Halfback Shane Vereen ran a wheel route out of the backfield to the left, beating Jets linebacker Bart Scott in man-to-man coverage. Scott was lined up too far inside, and a screen from Welker prevented Scott from reaching Vereen. Vereen caught Brady's pass around the Patriots' 25-yard line, and Vereen sprinted down the sideline for an 83-yard touchdown.
After a touchback, the Jets' next possession began with an 11-yard completion from Sanchez to Clyde Gates. With 9:10 remaining in the second quarter, the Jets had a 1st and 10 at their own 31-yard line. On the next play, the famous "butt fumble" ensued.
Butt fumble play
The Jets offense lined up in the I formation, with Sanchez immediately behind his center lineman, the snapper. Fullback Lex Hilliard was lined up behind Sanchez in the I, with Greene, the deep back, behind Hilliard. The play call was for Sanchez to fake a toss to Greene running left, while Hilliard, running a dive play to the right, would instead take the hand-off from Sanchez.When Sanchez took the snap, he mistakenly turned to the left, instead of handing off the ball in his right to Hilliard, and Hilliard ran past him. Trying to salvage the broken play, Sanchez scrambled forward towards the line of scrimmage. While this was going on, right guard Brandon Moore was attempting to block the Patriots' defensive tackle Vince Wilfork to protect the play and the two were locked together at the 32-yard line, next to the line of scrimmage. Sanchez decided to slide in order to protect himself and the ball, not realizing where he or the opposition's defensive tackle was.
As Sanchez began sliding, he collided with Moore's rear end, immediately losing both his balance and possession of the football.
Sanchez fell on to the turf and Moore fell on top of him; the football bounced out to the right side of the play, near the 32-yard line, directly in front of the Patriots' Gregory, the safety whose earlier recovery had resulted in Vereen's touchdown. Gregory collected the ball with his fingertips and ran untouched into the Jets' end zone for a scoop-and-score touchdown. With the extra point, the Patriots took a 21–0 lead.
Joe McKnight's fumble
The Jets then allowed another turnover and score on their next play. On the kickoff following the Butt Fumble touchdown, Jets return specialist Joe McKnight fumbled the ball into the air after he was hit by Devin McCourty. Patriots receiver Julian Edelman caught the fumble in mid-air and returned it 22 yards for New England's third touchdown in 52 seconds of play, giving them a 28–0 lead. The television cameras found Jets coach Ryan on the sideline exclaiming, "Un-fucking-believable!"Some Jets fans left and others voiced their displeasure with the way the team had played so far. Many turned their ire on Sanchez and began chanting for Ryan to insert backup Tim Tebow into the game. However, the Jets did not disclose until after the game that Tebow had been nursing an injury and, despite listing him as active, would not play him in the game.
Rest of the game
By the two-minute warning before half time, the score was 35–0 after Edelman caught a 56-yard touchdown from Brady. The stadium loudspeakers played "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over."Nick Folk put the Jets on the board before the half ended with a field goal and the Jets managed to get within 35-12 after a Patriots safety and a Bilal Powell run, but Brady and Stevan Ridley rushed for fourth quarter touchdowns and Dustin Keller caught a late touchdown to close out the scoring.
Aftermath
One of the fans who left the game at halftime was Ed "Fireman Ed" Anzalone, the Jets' de facto mascot. Anzalone had grown increasingly frustrated with the way some fans were treating him, especially considering at the time he wore a Mark Sanchez jersey to games on a regular basis and the fanbase was starting to sour on him as the team's starting quarterback. After the game, Anzalone announced he would no longer be wearing his firefighter's helmet to games or leading cheers but he would still remain a fan of the Jets and attend whatever games he could. Anzalone eventually brought the helmet back in 2015.NBC carried on the tradition of Thanksgiving games having a special award for the most valuable player of the game, which was selected by John Madden. Gregory, Wilfork, and Brady each received the award for their performances during the contest. Gregory finished the game with two fumble recoveries, one for a touchdown, another forced fumble, and an interception.
Brady completed 18 of 27 passes for 323 yards and 3 touchdowns and rushed for another touchdown, earning an NFL passer rating of 144.5 and an ESPN total quarterback rating of 82.4. Sanchez went 26 for 36 with 301 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and one fumble, for a passer rating of 94.8 and a QBR of 22.9.
The NBC broadcast began with over 24 million viewers, but viewers tuned out from the game as it turned into a blowout. The broadcast dropped below 15 million by 10 p.m., and it averaged a disappointing 19.2 million viewers—a distant third place to the two earlier games. The game was the second-highest-rated primetime show that week, behind the Sunday Night matchup between the Packers and the Giants.
Including the butt fumble, Sanchez lost the ball 24 times in the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In 2013, the Jets' new quarterbacks coach, David Lee, instituted a program to cut down on the fumbles by teaching Sanchez to hold the ball with both hands. In what Lee calls "The Sanchez Drill," the quarterback runs a gauntlet of people trying to knock the ball out of his hands with foam bats. Lee explained to the press, "Mark can win in this league. He has proven that. He's played for championships. I'm blatantly honest, brutally truthful at times. I told him, 'Hey, the best thing you can do to help our football team—the No.1 thing—is take care of the ball.'"