The tuck rule lasted 14 years and died 29 to 1

The tuck rule is the rare regulation famous enough that people who cannot name a single other rule can describe it, usually with feeling.

What it said

Once a quarterback began a forward throwing motion, the ball remained a pass even if he was bringing it back toward his body. Lose the ball in that window and it was an incomplete pass, not a fumble. It was written into the rulebook in 1999 and attracted no attention at all.

19 January 2002

In a divisional playoff game, Charles Woodson knocked the ball out of Tom Brady's hands and Oakland recovered. On review, referee Walt Coleman ruled that Brady's arm was moving forward — incompletion. New England kept the ball, tied the game with a field goal, won in overtime, and went on to its first Super Bowl.

A rule nobody had noticed for three years decided a dynasty's first step.

The end

On 20 March 2013 the owners struck it from the rulebook by a vote of 29-1. Pittsburgh cast the only vote to keep it; Washington and New England abstained.

What makes it worth remembering is not the controversy but the timeline. The rule sat inert for three seasons, decided one enormous game, and then took another eleven years to remove. Rulebooks are not audited. They are edited when something embarrassing happens.