Tom Brady Thinks Bill Belichick Benches Him For Drew Bledsoe If Not for Tuck Rule

Tom Brady is the most accomplished quarterback in NFL history, but even he thinks overturning the famous "tuck rule" would have significantly altered his career.

The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary "Tuck Rule" examined the 2002 playoff game between the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders, where an apparent fumble was ruled an incomplete pass. Brady thinks that might've saved his starting job.

"I'm probably the backup QB going into 2002," Brady said in the film, via Jake Levin of NBC Sports. "I'm not the starter if we lose that game."

Brady famously was a sixth-round draft pick who only took over for Drew Bledsoe when the Pro Bowler suffered an injury. After an 0-2 start, the Patriots turned around under Brady with an 11-5 finish before going onto win the franchise's first Super Bowl.

Bledsoe was traded in the offseason and Brady went onto win five more titles with New England before winning a seventh with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Without that tuck rule, however, it might have been a different story.

Brady had modest numbers in 2001, finishing with 18 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions in 15 games, good for an 86.5 quarterback rating. If the Patriots suffered a 13-10 loss in their only playoff game that year—the score at the time of the apparent fumble—the depth chart might have still been in question.

We'll never know if Bill Belichick would have gone back to Bledsoe in the offseason, but that one play might have changed the course of NFL history.