Nine years later, Charles Woodson gets another shot at Tom Brady

The best cornerbacks have a short memory, meaning they don’t let a bad play linger and instead reboot for the next one.

But Charles Woodson can be forgiven.

The star Green Bay corner can’t erase the memory of that snowy night nine years ago, when he was playing for Oakland in an AFC playoff game and apparently stripped New England’s Tom Brady. The Raiders recovered the loose ball to apparently clinch the victory.

Then, in what might have been the NFL’s most controversial on-field decision in the past decade, officials reviewed the play and determined Brady’s arm was moving forward, making what looked to be a turnover merely an incomplete pass.

The Patriots wound up winning that “Tuck Rule” game and went on to win their first of three Lombardi Trophies.

“I’ve had that flashback more times than I would like,” Woodson, last season’s NFL defensive player of the year, told reporters in New England this week in advance of Sunday’s Packers-Patriots game. “I catch that game on the classic football channel sometimes. That’s a bad memory for me, but you know, it is what it is.”

Sunday’s game isn’t do-or-die for the Packers, but it’s close. And Woodson and his teammates will have their hands full with Brady, the favorite to claim his second most-valuable-player award.

The Patriots’ quarterback has gone without an interception in his last 268 pass attempts, and New England — which has gone four games without a turnover of any kind — has won 26 consecutive regular-season home games with him starting.

The Patriots also are well aware of what a dangerous and versatile defensive player Woodson is.

“I think he’s as good and as complete a player in that position that you will find in the league,” Patriots Coach Bill Belichick said.

And, much as he might like to, Woodson doesn’t forget.