The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will meet in the 59th Super Bowl on Sunday. Counting down to the NFL title game, AL.com is spotlighting a Super Bowl hero with Alabama football roots daily through Sunday. The series started Monday with Bart Starr, looked at Joe Namath on Tuesday and John Stallworth on Wednesday and continues with Central-Coosa alumnus Justin Tuck:
Defensive end Justin Tuck played in a parallel pair of Super Bowls with the New York Giants. In each NFL championship game, the Giants defeated the New England Patriots and Tuck sacked quarterback Tom Brady twice.
When New York and New England squared off in Super Bowl XLII on Feb. 3, 2008, the Patriots were one win away from becoming the NFL’s second unbeaten team. New England had won all 18 of its games in the 2007 season, including the playoffs, and on the verge of posting the best record in league history.
New York had a 10-6 regular-season record and reached the Super Bowl by edging the Green Bay Packers 23-20 in overtime in the NFC Championship Game.
But the Patriots didn’t beat the Giants, who took a 17-14 victory.
Tuck got his first sack of Brady on a third-and-17 snap at the New England 23-yard line with 6:54 left in the first half.
His second came in the second quarter, too. With New England snapping on first-and-10 at the Giants 44, Tuck’s strip-sack allowed New York defensive end Osi Umenyiora, a former Auburn High School and Troy standout, to recover the football at the Patriots 49 with 10 seconds left in the first half.
Tuck got after Brady from the very start of the teams’ next meeting in the NFL championship game. On New England’s first snap of Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5, 2012, Brady was flagged for intentional grounding while under pressure from Tuck in the end zone, resulting in a safety for the opening points in the Giants’ 21-17 victory.
Tuck registered his first sack of Super Bowl XLVI with 6:12 left in the third quarter, when he took down Brady for a 4-yard loss on a third-and-8 snap at the New England 19-yard line.
Tuck’s next sack crippled the Patriots’ comeback chances. Tuck sacked Brady for a 6-yard loss on third-and-10 at the New England 20. After the sack, the Patriots used their final timeout with 36 seconds to play. While Brady converted the fourth down with a 19-yard pass to wide receiver Deion Branch, New England ran out of time as its 10-game winning streak ended.
