From the Vault: Rod Woodson helped jumpstart a Super Bowl run with 98-yard pick six against Denver Broncos

It's difficult to label one play or moment that leads to a Super Bowl run.

Damn near impossible.

Yet, it seems quite easy looking at Week 9 of the Raiders' 2002 season when Hall of Fame safety Rod Woodson was backed up against his own end zone at Mile High Stadium.

With the Denver Broncos down 3-0, Pro Bowl quarterback Brian Griese dropped back in the pocket, making a read to rookie running back Clinton Portis in the middle of the end zone. Woodson, who made the transition from cornerback to safety with the Raiders, was playing in the middle.

"I think they were in 11-personnel with three receivers, one tight end and the back offset to the right side," Woodson said, reflecting on the Broncos offense pre-snap.

"I was acting like I was going over to help Wood double [team]," his nickname for teammate Charles Woodson, jokingly referring to each other as cousins for their shared last name.

"As the ball was getting ready to snap, [Griese] got into his cadence. So then I'm working my way back inside. He wanted the running back, who kind of did an F-angle, a little shallow cross, he wanted him."

As Griese kept going through his pre-snap cadence, he didn't account for Rod Woodson moving back inside to the middle of the field.

The Broncos quarterback eyed down Portis, making it easy pickings for a player who had already totaled 64 interceptions up to that point in his career.

"He thew it right to my chest, he didn't even see me," Woodson said.

The 37-year-old sprinted as fast as he could 98 yards down the sideline with Griese lunging forward and missing him on the tackle. The only thing in the way of Woodson on his way to the end zone was Denver's high altitude.

"Once I got to the end zone, I realized I couldn't breathe because there was no oxygen up that far in Denver," he joked. "Mile High really means Mile High.

"I was looking at who was trying to chase me down and see how close he was, how far he was. And I was doing pretty good until I got down to about the other 50 [yard line] and then I was like, 'OK, I'm getting a little tired.'"

It was arguably Woodson's biggest play made during his tenure with the Oakland Raiders, a team he admired since he was a child. In fact, the name of the first Pop Warner team he ever played for in Fort Wayne, Indiana was the PAL Raiders, translating into an early fandom for the team that had stars like Ken Stabler, Willie Brown and Jack Tatum.

"Growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Raiders at that time were a pretty good football team," Rod on his memories of the Raiders. "We didn't have DIRECTV and all of that, 25,000 channels. We had three channels and I got to see the Raiders play quite a bit.

"Our uniforms when I was on the PAL Raider wasn't silver and black, it was white and black because we couldn't afford the silver," he continued. "But nevertheless, it was good to kind of come full circle in my lifetime."

Woodson had already punched in his gold jacket bid before he stepped foot into the Raiders locker room. He had just won Super Bowl XXXV with the Baltimore Ravens, and had five First-Team All-Pro selections, 10 Pro Bowl appearances and an NFL Defensive Player of the Year award to his name.

With the Ravens trying to create space in salary cap, they released him at the end of the 2001 season. Shortly before the move was made, Woodson played on the AFC roster in the 2001 Pro Bow. Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon was named MVP for the all-star contest, and Woodson sent a clear message about where he wanted to land next.

"I remember Willie Brown and Al Davis were at the practice field at the Pro Bowl and they talking in the middle of the field," he said. "I knew was going to leave Baltimore more than likely after that second year after the Super Bowl in 2001. I knew I was going to leave.

"They were sitting there talking in the middle of the field and said really loudly, 'Going to be a free agent!' and kept on walking. And several weeks later when free agency started, I get a phone call from Al Davis asking me if I wanted to be a Raider."

Woodson arrived to a promising roster that was coming off a 10-6 record and AFC West title the previous year. This also gave him a great opportunity to be paired alongside a future Hall of Fame who just recorded his fourth consecutive Pro Bowl season – Charles Woodson.

"Just a big influence in terms of his mentality of being a playmaker," Charles Woodson said of Rod. "We would sit in meeting rooms man, and we'd be watching film a lot of the times. And of course, he'd study on his own, but we'd be in that film room and he'd see certain things and he would just let guys know, 'Hey man, when I'm back there and I see certain formations, and certain splits and a certain down and distance, I'm just letting you guys know in this meeting room I'm going to make that play.'

"I just always loved that about him and it's something that I probably wouldn't have verbalized before that moment but as my career went on, it's something that I would do," Charles Woodson added. "I think those kinds of things rub off on guys so him being that way definitely rubbed off on me in a very positive way just in terms of believing in it. Believing what you see, believing your practice habits, believing in your ability and don't hesitant when it's time to go make your play."

There certainly wasn't any hesitation from the Raiders in opening up the 2002 season. The team rattled off four straight wins, outscoring their opponents by 72 points, and the defense came away with 12 turnovers. Rod Woodson notched three interceptions, three pass deflections and a pick-six in their Week 3 victory against the Tennessee Titans.

However, the team's momentum was suddenly halted. After winning their first four games, they dropped four straight – falling in overtime in two of those contests to the San Diego Chargers and San Francisco 49ers.

Week 10 against the Denver Broncos was looking to be a get-right game. Woodson and his teammates were gasping for any bit of momentum they could obtain before the season fell off the tracks.

"We know we have a good team, we're just trying to get everything to click," said Rod Woodson. "Sometimes you just need something to happen. We were just trying to figure that out, like what did we do right in the first four games and what did we do wrong in the last four games? And we just needed something to click to get us going back in the right direction."

Within the flash of a second that the Woodson jumped in front of Portis to nab his fourth interception of the season, everything truly seemed to click.

The pick-six gave the Raiders a 10-0 lead while ultimately turned into a 34-10 routing of the Broncos.

Charles Woodson, on the opposite side of the field watching "that old man make it down the field," still laughs at how tired Rod was after the score.

"If you never played in Denver, then you don't really understand the altitude – it's a real thing," Charles Woodson said. "Rod started out real smooth down that field, but around that 20-yard line or so, it jumped on him and he broke form. But he made it all the way. That was just a great pick up for the team because you know you needed that spark. And how better to give you that spark than a true legend of the game."

"At 37 years old, he just continued to make play after play," Charles added. "It didn't really matter how old he was, how long he had already been in the league, what he had been through injury wise. What we needed was a steady hand, a veteran in our backfield, and we got it. One of the biggest moments of our year was the old man coming from Baltimore and making a huge play."

The Raiders went on to win six of their seven regular season games to finish 11-5 and earn another AFC West title. They reached Super Bowl XXXVII, unfortunately coming up shorthanded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Rod Woodson led the league in interceptions (eight) in 2002 and was named First-Team All-Pro for the last time in his career before retiring at the end of the following season. When it was all said and done, he cherishes being able to end his illustrious career in the Silver and Black.

"[I was] living a childhood dream playing for the Raiders," he said. "I played for the Raiders when I was in Pop Warner football, and I got to finish my career playing for the Raiders again – for an iconic team for a lot of great players.

"I've been on a lot of a great teams but knowing that I wasn't going to play for that much longer, finishing my football life – it did come full circle."