Say the name Brandon Moore to most sports fans and one image comes to mind: Mark Sanchez’s facemask meeting Moore’s backside in the most infamous play in Jets history: the Buttfumble.
It is the worst part of the crazy life that play has taken on. Wednesday is the five-year anniversary of the blooper that came in the second quarter of a Jets loss to the Patriots on Thanksgiving night. It has been shown thousands of time since then and become another sad chapter in Jets history.
The fact that Moore is Sanchez’s co-star in the play is awful.
“It’s totally unfair,” Damien Woody, who played next to Moore from 2008-10, said this week.
Moore had a very good career with the Jets, one that is easy to overlook because he played guard. The fact that Moore started one game — let alone 142 — for the Jets is remarkable.
Moore was an undrafted defensive lineman out of Illinois. The Jets signed him in 2002 and moved him to offense. On his first play at guard in practice, Moore pulled and drove an outside linebacker off the ball. Jets coach Herm Edwards showed the play to the rest of the team in a meeting later that day.
The Jets ended up waiving Moore and he returned to his hometown Gary, Ind., to become a substitute teacher before returning on the practice squad.
Moore spent time that winter in NFL Europe, learning to play guard. He returned in 2003 and started the final game of the year. He would start 13 games in 2004 and then all 16 for the next eight years, making the Pro Bowl in 2011.
Along the way, he became one of the most respected guys in the locker room.
“Brandon Moore was an unheralded guy because he was so quiet,” Woody said. “He was smart. He was tough, strong as an ox. He was everything you could possibly want as a lineman.”
Moore was nicknamed “Meat” by his offensive linemates. In 2008 and 2009 he was a key piece of a line that was the best in the NFL. The line was comprised of Moore, who had to go to NFL Europe, and four first-round picks — Nick Mangold, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Alan Faneca and Woody.
In 2009, the Jets led the league in rushing with 2,756 yards, a total that has only been matched by the 2014 Seahawks since. The line provided cover for Sanchez, then a rookie learning his way, and, along with an outstanding defense, pushed the Jets to the AFC Championship game.
On that Thanksgiving night in 2012, Sanchez turned the wrong way on a play that was supposed to be a handoff to fullback Lex Hilliard. Sanchez, looking for a place to run, ran into Moore’s backside and fumbled the ball. Patriots defensive back Steve Gregory recovered the ball and scored a touchdown, giving birth to a legend.
The play bothered Moore immediately. The following week he was upset with NBC announcer Cris Collinsworth.
“Vince Wilfork just threw Brandon Moore into Mark Sanchez,” Collinsworth said that night. “I have never seen this before in my life.”
It was the wrong call. Moore and Wilfork were at a stalemate when Sanchez ran into Moore at a high speed, causing Moore to fall backwards and make it appear Wilfork threw him.
Moore was not brought back after that season and retired the next summer.
“He was definitely the best person I ever played next to,” Woody said. “It’s just a shame that they keep playing this Buttfumble over and over. Mark just ran into the guy. Brandon Moore is collateral damage in the whole thing.”
About 2 ½ years before the Buttfumble, the Jets defeated the Chargers in a playoff game in San Diego. The Jets had a 17-14 lead with just over a minute left in the game. The Jets faced fourth-and-1 at the Chargers’ 29. Get a first down and the Jets move on in the playoffs.
They called Blast 40, a handoff to Thomas Jones, who took the ball and went right through a hole Moore created for the first down. With a playoff game on the line, the Jets coaches trusted Moore to get the push needed for the short-yardage pickup.
That is the play I’ll always think of when I hear Brandon Moore’s name.