Former Raider Tim Brown says Tuck Rule is the reason Tom Brady has a starting QB job, but Jim Harbaugh calls him the best ever

Brian Snyder/Reuters

FIRE UP THE HOT TAKE MACHINE!

Former Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown, who, like many of his former Raiders teammates, are still incredibly salty over the Tuck Rule game, said that Tom Brady has a starting quarterback job because of that very game.

I'm not sure if he's joking or if he's being serious, but either way, this is just dumb.

NFL.com:

"I tell people all the time, if Tom Brady would just start out every interview saying 'I wanna thank the Oakland Raiders,' I'd be happy and I'd let it go," legendary wide receiver Tim Brown said on Good Morning Football on Wednesday. "But until that day happens, I'm not gonna let it go. Because think about this -- if he loses that game, he's a kid who lost a home game to a West Coast team in the snow. So he's not starting the next year. Because we were the Raiders, any other team, that game is over. Because it was the Raiders, it took them 12 minutes to come up with an answer."

Let's have some fun with this and pretend he's serious, because why not?

Prior to the 2001 season, Drew Bledsoe, then the franchise quarterback had just signed a 10-year extension that would have kept him in New England until 2011. So it would have been reasonable for anyone to think back then that Brady was just keeping Bledsoe's seat warm.

But given that Bledsoe was hurt in Week 2 of the 2001 season and was healthy enough to take back his job as the starter toward the end of the year and didn't, the obvious observation here is that the Pats thought enough of Brady to let him keep playing.

The Patriots had another chance to go back to Bledsoe as the starter in the Super Bowl against the Rams after he came in for an injured Brady during the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh.

They still stuck with Brady. So really, that tells you all you need to know.

Sixteen years later, Brady is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL. Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh recently praised Brady for being consistent, but also said he doesn't think Brady gets enough credit.

ESPN:

"He's already got it. That's the point. Tom Brady is the greatest football player to ever play," Harbaugh said after his Michigan Signing with the Stars event Wednesday. "If you can play that good, that consistently great year-after-year-after-year-after-year, game-after-game-after-game-after-game, nobody's ever done that.

"I don't think he gets the credit that's due to him," Harbaugh said. "People compare him to other people. He is the greatest football player of all time and he's not getting that [credit]. That's his due, and he doesn't quite get it the way he should.

Harbaugh went on to say that he thinks Brady should be a coach in some capacity someday, and he'd always have a spot on his staff, whether that's in Michigan or somewhere else.

Harbaugh was asked, though, if he felt Brady could one day be his quarterbacks coach. Harbaugh said "that would be phenomenal" before taking it a step further.

"Head coach here someday," Harbaugh said. "Quarterback coach, coordinator, head coach."

Brady has said previously that he doesn't think he could coach, but who wouldn't want to take a chance on him in that kind of role...?

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