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Thu 11 Nov 2002Patriots have 'tuck' on their sideBASEBALL: As the eminent baseball philosopher Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra once observed in another connection, "it was like déjà vu all over again." As hard-bitten followers of the National Football League are painfully aware, the New England Patriots' unlikely march to victory in Super Bowl XXXVI last season was made possible in no small part by an even more improbable sequence of officiating decisions in the waning moments of their snow-blown January play-off game against the Oakland Raiders.Citing an obscure "tuck rule", referee Walt Coleman and his seven-man crew of zebras overturned what appeared to have been a certain interception of a Tom Brady pass in the closing moments of the contest. Taking advantage of this reprieve, the Patriots went on to deadlock the game on a last-second Adam Vinatieri field goal, and then win it in overtime, paving the way for their AFC Championship win in Pittsburgh a week later, which set the stage for their eventual heroics against the St Louis Rams in New Orleans.