The original “Butt Fumble” happened on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2012 , during a New York Jets vs. New England Patriots game at MetLife Stadium.

Quick Scoop: What happened?

  • It was a prime-time Thanksgiving night game in the 2012 NFL season.
  • Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez ran into the backside of his own lineman Brandon Moore, lost the ball, and the Patriots returned the fumble for a touchdown.
  • The bizarre collision-plus-fumble sequence was instantly clipped, memed, and replayed, quickly becoming one of the most infamous bloopers in NFL history.

Why it became such a big deal

  • The play happened in front of more than 79,000 fans in the stadium and over 20 million TV viewers, amplifying the embarrassment.
  • Within minutes it went viral online, with “Butt Fumble” and related hashtags spreading across social media and being highlighted repeatedly on sports shows.
  • ESPN later marked its five-year anniversary with an oral history segment, cementing it as a kind of modern sports meme legend.

In forum discussions, “when was the Butt Fumble” is basically shorthand for that wild Thanksgiving 2012 Jets–Patriots disaster.

TL;DR: The Butt Fumble happened on November 22, 2012, in a Thanksgiving night game between the Jets and Patriots.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.