Tom Brady does not believe Myles Jack was down on recovered fumble in 2017 AFC Championship

One of the most controversial calls by referees in recent NFL history is the decision to rule Myles Jack down after he recovered a fumble during the 2017 AFC Championship Game. Now, Tom Brady has weighed in on that call.

On the play, the Patriots ran a trick play that ended with Jaguars linebacker Myles Jack stripping and recovering the fumble from Dion Lewis. He got up and began returning the fumble but the whistles were quick on the play, blowing it dead. The end result was that it was Jacksonville football, but the return didn’t count.

That quick whistle became a point of major controversy. After all, it appeared like Jack was going to return for a touchdown that would all but seal the win for Jacksonville. Instead, it stayed a two-score game and after the New England defense got a stop, Tom Brady was able to pull off the comeback win.

While making an appearance on The Pivot Podcast, Brady was asked about the play and he actually admitted that he agrees with the general consensus that Myles Jack wasn’t down on the play.

“The knee? Oh no, I don’t think he was down,” Tom Brady said. “Oh God, I don’t think we were catching him either. I sure as hell wasn’t gonna tackle him.”

This single bad call isn’t the reason why the Jaguars lost to the Patriots. At the time, Jacksonville had a two-score lead and there were less than 14 minutes left in the game. Getting the ball back at that point, Jacksonville was still in a good position to win the AFC Championship Game.

“They’re [refs] trying to get it right, but,” Brady said, letting his thought trail off without finishing it.

Ultimately, the New England Patriots won the game 24-20 and moved onto the Super Bowl. There, the Patriots ran into the Philadelphia Eagles and lost 41-33. In that game, the Patriots would go on to blow their own lead. It was also the only loss in the Super Bowl that the Patriots suffered during the stretch from 2014 through 2018, when the team went to four of five Super Bowls, winning three of them.

As for Jacksonville, the Jaguars haven’t gotten that close to a Super Bowl since then. In fact, in the six complete seasons since then, Jacksonville has been to the playoffs only once. They have four losing seasons in that time.

At the very least, Jaguars fans now know that Tom Brady agrees, Myles Jack wasn’t down.