Walt Coleman hasn’t refereed a single Raiders game since making the “tuck rule” call 17 years ago, a ruling that still reverberates throughout the league on occasion. And since he’ll retire after calling half the Pro Bowl later this month, he’ll never get the chance.

The final tally for Walt Coleman is 261 consecutive games without being assigned to a Raiders game, dating back to the Tuck Rule game in the 2001 playoffs. Our story last year on the streak with an interesting infographic: https://t.co/dpiSiW7AJG https://t.co/pNiNAJRxWt — Fᴏᴏᴛʙᴀʟʟ Zᴇʙʀᴀs (@footballzebras) January 16, 2019

While the consensus around the league is that former Raiders defensive back Charles Woodson did in fact cause quarterback Tom Brady to fumble in the 2001 AFC divisional playoffs, Coleman correctly dived deep into the NFL rulebook and gave the ball back to the Patriots, invoking the “tuck rule.” New England went on to defeat Jon Gruden’s Raiders at snowy Gillette Stadium on an Adam Vinatieri field goal in overtime.

In last weekend’s divisional round, Vinatieri missed a bad-weather field goal for the Colts. Woodson, now an analyst for ESPN, was quick to chime in on Twitter.

Now he misses in the snow — Charles Woodson (@CharlesWoodson) January 12, 2019

Here’s footage of what started the horrific turn of events for Raiders fans, courtesy of Twitter user Dakota Fuqua. Oakland was on the ropes and needed one big play to get out of town with a win, and this should have been the one.

Hopefully this game is as good as the tuck rule game #INDvsKC #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/j38K4PJbso — Dakota Fuqua (@DakotaFuqua97) January 12, 2019

The play helped to start the Patriots dynasty that, remarkably, continues today. Brady and coach Bill Belichick will be at the AFC championship game this weekend to take on the Chiefs.

As for the Raiders, they traded Gruden that offseason and ended up losing to their former coach in Super Bowl XXXVII the next year. That loss started a run of futility in Oakland that’s still alive.

Coleman should have called a Raiders game years ago. It’s ridiculous that he hasn’t. It’s been 17 years. A decade would have been a sufficient wait if that’s what the league wanted to do. But the NFL operates in mysterious ways at times, and they successfully avoided whatever it is they were afraid of.