Jon Ritchie, the thoughtful former Oakland Raiders fullback -- no, it is not an oxymoron -- saunters into the television studio for an interview he has been dreading.

"I just found out I didn't have to do this," says Ritchie, an ESPN analyst. "I didn't know that. But I already said yes, so "

So, here he is, bracing for a cathartic 20-minute therapy session regarding the famous "Tuck Rule" divisional playoff game against the New England Patriots. It's hard to believe, but it happened 10 years ago, on Jan. 19, 2002.

"It was the worst loss I'd ever experienced," Ritchie says at one point. "You know, I'd just as soon never talk about it again."

But three days later, in a hallway at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., he feels compelled to talk some more. He was worried that he had come across as too bitter.

"I was conflicted," Ritchie says. "As a player, you want to tell it like it was. As an analyst, you want to be a little more detached. I really didn't know how to navigate those questions."

He isn't the only one. ESPN recently interviewed a number of the participants in the game. A decade has passed, but emotions remain remarkably close to the surface.

It was the last game at Foxboro Stadium. A fresh snowfall and the first prime-time NFL playoff kickoff made for a dramatic setting. But this wildly exceeded expectations. According to Patriots owner Robert Kraft, it was the best game in the stadium's 31-year history.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady famously fumbled -- or did he?

Here, in the words of those who were on the field that night, is a narrative of that historic game:

Tom Brady, Patriots quarterback: "I remember getting caught in traffic two and a half hours before the game and having to call our security guy to have a police escort to come get me to the game. I remember being out there in warm-ups and just watching these perfect snowflakes drop."

Tim Brown, Raiders wide receiver: "I think when we got the forecast everybody was saying, 'Oh, the weather was going to be too bad, the Raiders won't be able to go out there and play a decent game.' I think we sort of took umbrage to that, and you really wanted to go out and prove to people it didn't matter what the weather was."

Troy Brown, Patriots receiver: "It was a night playoff game in New England and we know the people here in New England can get a little bit rowdy. It was really a chance for us to kind of make a name for ourselves against a team with players like Jerry Rice and Tim Brown and Rich Gannon."

Trailing 13-3 with fewer than eight minutes to play, Brady scores the first rushing touchdown of his career, from 6 yards.

Troy Brown: "I saw [Brady] get up and spike the ball, then I saw him fall over. He looked [like] the young, clumsy quarterback that he was at that time."

The Raiders run a total of 13 plays in two possessions, but can't run out the clock. The Patriots, still trailing 13-10, take over on their own 46 with 2:06 left.

Eric Allen, Raiders cornerback: "I'm an older guy, so on breaks whenever there was some downtime I would never go to the huddle, I would basically hang out on the sideline. So here's this young quarterback that comes over and he's speaking with Charlie Weis, the offensive coordinator at the time, and he says, 'We're going to go 3 by 1, we're going to throw the slant backside.' So I dashed to the huddle myself and I set the play up. Basically I say, 'Hey, they're going to go 3 by 1, so linebacker make sure you're in that first window.'"

Tim Brown: "I was watching him the whole way, just because that's Charles Woodson and I'm a fan too. If he gets the chance to strip a ball, that's what he is going to do."

Charles Woodson looked as if he made a game-saving play; Tom Brady thought he had made a grave error. Matt Campbell/AFP/Getty Images

Eric Allen: "[Brady] runs a slant, he's going to throw it in the first window, he sees the linebacker and he pulls the ball back to pump it."

Troy Brown: "Watching the pressure come in on Tom, and you want to scream out, 'Watch out, Tom!'"

Walt Coleman, game referee: "I'm about 12 yards deep and probably 10 yards away from Brady. At some point during the process, the ball disappeared from me, and so I couldn't see exactly what happened and when the ball came out of Brady's hand."

Tom Brady: "When Charles hit me on that play and I dropped the ball, I thought, 'Oh, man this is not looking good.'"