In front of the home crowd of over 79,000 fans at MetLife Stadium and a primetime television audience of over 20 million, Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez collided with the buttocks of his teammate, offensive lineman Brandon Moore, causing a fumble, which was then recovered by the Patriots' safety Steve Gregory and returned for a touchdown.

NBC Sunday Night Football is the most important time slot for the NFL, which schedules the most attractive teams and games in it.

NBC's Sunday night staff worked on the game,[2] including Al Michaels for play-by-play and Cris Collinsworth as color analyst.

Bob Wischusen and Marty Lyons called the matchup for the Jets while Gil Santos and Scott Zolak were at the microphone for the Patriots.

Head coach Rex Ryan and young quarterback Mark Sanchez had led the Jets to the AFC Championship Game in 2009 and 2010, however, including a rare playoff defeat of the Patriots in New England in January 2011.

The Jets were tied with the other two teams in the division, the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, at 4-6 following a victory over the St. Louis Rams one week earlier.

Halfback Shane Vereen ran a wheel route out of the backfield to the left, beating Jets linebacker Bart Scott in man-to-man coverage.

[10] While this was going on, right guard Brandon Moore was attempting to block defensive tackle Vince Wilfork so the play could develop and the two were locked together at the 32-yard line.

As such, when he started the slide, Sanchez hit Moore in his rear end, immediately losing his balance and possession of the football.

Gregory collected the ball with his fingertips and ran untouched into the Jets' end zone for a scoop-and-score touchdown.

Patriots receiver Julian Edelman caught the fumble in mid-air and returned it 22 yards for New England's third touchdown in 52 seconds of play, giving them a 28–0 lead.

Many turned their ire on Sanchez and began chanting for Ryan to insert backup Tim Tebow into the game.

"[13] Nick Folk put the Jets on the board before the half ended with a field goal and the Jets managed to get within 35-12 after a Patriots safety and a Bilal Powell run, but Brady and Stevan Ridley rushed for fourth quarter touchdowns and Dustin Keller caught a late touchdown to close out the scoring.

In 2013, the Jets' new quarterbacks coach, David Lee, instituted a program to cut down on the fumbles by teaching Sanchez to hold the ball with both hands.

In what Lee calls "The Sanchez Drill," the quarterback runs a gauntlet of people trying to knock the ball out of his hands with foam bats.

Shonn Greene, whose fumble set the series of miscues in motion, was not retained by the Jets following the season and instead signed with Tennessee.

Bart Scott, whose missed pickup caused the first touchdown to be scored, was released after the season and elected to retire to start a broadcasting career.

Tim Tebow was released and never played in a regular season game again, and offensive coordinator Tony Sparano was fired.

Then in the NFL draft, the Jets elected to take Geno Smith, a quarterback from West Virginia, in the second round and have Sanchez compete with him for the job.

The Patriots won four of their last five games to finish 12–4, winning the AFC East title and clinching the conference's #2 playoff seed.

Producer Fred Gaudelli and other NBC staff immediately recognized the humor of the butt fumble, and repeatedly replayed it during the game.

[2]It was not the first butt fumble of 2012; a month earlier, Felix Jones of the Dallas Cowboys similarly lost the ball after hitting teammate Ryan Cook, causing some on Twitter to use the hashtag #buttfumble.

The large Thanksgiving audience for the Patriots-Jets matchup, without another NFL game to watch, caused the term's association with the Sanchez-Moore play.

[24] In August 2013, New York Post sports reporter Justin Terranova wrote that the butt fumble "has come to define Sanchez's downfall with the Jets".

[36] Terranova wrote that the play had unfairly overshadowed Sanchez's AFC Championship campaigns in the previous two seasons, as well as Moore's "ten years manning a generally-solid Jets offensive line".

ESPN's SportsCenter's "Not Top 10" blooper reel segment aired every Friday morning during the daytime edition of the program.

[40][36] Anchor Jay Crawford compared the lowlight with the Stanford Band's involvement in The Play during the 1982 Cal–Stanford Big Game, and with Jean van de Velde's meltdown at the 1999 Open Championship.

"[36] Sanchez addressed the coverage in an August 2013 interview: "People ask me about the butt fumble and say, 'Gosh, doesn't that really bum you out?'

[41] The Ringer wrote in 2022 that "the Butt Fumble effectively ended the Mark Sanchez era", and the Jets' hopes of countering Belichick and the Patriots' dominance.

The winning bidder, Jake Hendrickson, a life long Jets fan, said that friends had often ridiculed him about the play, and he bought the jersey to prevent an "anti-fan" from doing so.