Where were these current Patriots during the 2001 Tuck Rule game against the Raiders?

FOXBOROUGH — Josh McDaniels nodded his head and rubbed his nose as he listened to a question about what he remembered about the Patriots’ first championship team in the 2001-2002 season.

Most of the players on the current team, including Drake Maye, Christian Gonzalez, Will Campbell, and TreVeyon Henderson, weren’t born yet. The oldest player on the team, 35-year-old right tackle Morgan Moses, was ten years old.

McDaniels, now the Patriots’ offensive coordinator, was a personnel assistant back then. It was his first season with the Patriots, and he said he has many fond memories.

“That makes me feel old,” McDaniels said as he reminisced. “Boy, I was young. I think that team embodied all the right things, kind of fought through some early season adversity with the Drew [Bledsoe injury] situation.”

“Had a lot of new players getting used to each other, getting familiar with how to play with one another in a system that I’m sure was new for a lot of those guys we brought in that year or drafted. We were, if I’m not mistaken, 5-5 after ten weeks and as happens often in this league figured out how to win.”

Tom Brady, who took over for Bledsoe at quarterback, is now a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders who will visit the Patriots on Sunday.

The Patriots’ win against the Raiders on a snowy Saturday in 2002 is now known as the “Tuck Rule” game because of a fumble call that was reversed. Charles Woodson knocked the ball out of Brady’s hands and an Oakland defender grabbed it, but the play was eventually ruled an incomplete pass, giving the Patriots another shot on offense.

New England eventually won the game on a go-ahead kick from Adam Vinatieri. They went on to beat the Rams in the Super Bowl for the first of the franchise’s six titles.

Patriots defensive lineman Milton Williams was too young to remember any of that. He was two years old at the time.

“I don’t know if I remember the Super Bowl in 2001, but when you win with a group of guys that organization is going to be tied together forever,” said Williams, who won a title with the Eagles in 2025. “I was blessed to be able to do that in Philly. Some of the guys over there are still my guys, I’m rooting for them to play well, but I’m also trying to get one in New England.”

Linebacker Christian Elliss was also a toddler at the time. The first memory of the dynasty-era Patriots that came to mind for him was the Patriots’ loss to the Giants in 2007. By then, New England had three titles and was no longer the underdogs they once were.

“I remember my dad (two-time Pro Bowler Luther Elliss) saying they won too much,” Christian Elliss said. “I don’t remember the first one.”

Offensive line coach Doug Marrone was a year away from his first NFL coaching job. He was coaching tight ends and offensive tackles at Tennessee, which finished fourth in both the AP and coaches’ poll that year.

He recalled the scene in Knoxville after the Volunteers beat Florida during the last game of the regular season.

“We were flying back to Knoxville, and I remember flying — you remember the movie Field of Dreams, right? Well, I didn’t know that they were taking all the fans that were coming to the stadium. So, Knoxville’s rural, obviously, country, so all you saw were these cars and these headlights as we were looking out the plane.”

“I think that’s the greatest thing — you put in all the work — everyone does,” Marrone said. “Players, coaches, and then you have these experiences that as you get older you probably take for granted. Now I look back and I’m like ‘God I wish I would have enjoyed it,’ but it’s in my memory so I know I’ll have it for the rest of my life.”

Tennessee lost to LSU in the SEC championship game that year, but beat Brady’s alma mater Michigan in the Citrus Bowl three weeks before the Patriots’ snow bowl triumph against the Raiders. Marrone would join the Jets the following year before a pair of head coaching stints with the Bills and Jaguars.

Coach Mike Vrabel played in the Tuck Rule game and made three tackles, including one for loss. He’s looking forward to seeing some of his old teammates while they’re in town. The 2001 team will be honored during halftime at Sunday’s game.

“I’ll see those guys on Saturday,” Vrabel said. “I’ll see those guys for a quick dinner. But it’s exciting that there are so many guys that want to come back, and it was a special year for everybody involved.”

Khari A. Thompson

Sports Reporter

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.