New Orleans, 3 February 2002. The Louisiana Superdome clock read zero as Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard kick split the uprights. Tom Brady had just delivered the New England Patriots their first championship. The final score: 20-17 over the St. Louis Rams.
The Rams arrived as the era's dominant offence. The heavily favored St. Louis Rams boasted five Hall of Famers on their roster and came into the game as 14-point favorites. New England answered with defence and discipline. Ty Law returned an interception 47 yards for a touchdown , setting a tone the Rams could not shake. The Patriots defense forced 3 St. Louis turnovers and converted them into 2 touchdowns and a field goal.
The final eighty-one seconds
New England led 17-3 entering the fourth quarter. Then the favourites stirred. The Rams mounted a late comeback, with Warner connecting on a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Ricky Proehl that tied the game at 17-17. Ninety seconds remained. Convention pointed toward caution. With 1:21 and no timeouts left, at their own 21-yard line, conventional wisdom, and broadcaster John Madden, suggested the Patriots take a knee and try to win it in overtime.
Brady declined. He moved the ball in measured strokes, short and precise. After an incompletion, Brady completed 23- and 16-yard passes to Troy Brown and Jermaine Wiggins to reach the Rams' 30, and then spiked the ball with 7 seconds remaining. Vinatieri did the rest. Vinatieri drilled the 48-yard field-goal attempt, marking the first time in Super Bowl history the game had been won on the final play. His own numbers were quiet. Brady was named MVP, finishing 16-27 for 145 passing yards and a touchdown.
A career, begun
He was a second-year man, unproven and unheralded. A sixth-round draft pick in 2000, he started the 2001 season as a backup quarterback. The victory rewrote his standing overnight. On February 3, 2002, 24-year-old Tom Brady became the youngest quarterback to ever win the Super Bowl, clipping the record held by Joe Montana by a year. A teammate captured the room.
"Maybe he doesn't have the most impressive statistics, but it doesn't matter. The kid knows how to win," said David Patten, a fifth-year receiver who joined the Patriots in 2001.
What followed is now history. This was the first of what became a record haul of titles across two decades and two franchises, the last a seventh with Tampa Bay in 2021. There were greater comebacks, larger numbers, longer nights. There would be five Super Bowl MVP awards in all. But the pattern held from this first drive: composure when the game narrowed to seconds. With the Rams being 14-point favorites, it was the biggest upset in a Super Bowl since Super Bowl III.
Before the records, before the dynasty, there was a young quarterback who chose not to kneel.
