ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Al Davis was chastising reporters in a hotel lobby at the 2009 NFL owners meetings for not voting Jim Plunkett into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Davis wondered aloud which other quarterback with multiple Super Bowl titles had yet to be enshrined in Canton when some funny guy cracked, "Tom Brady."

An incredulous look crossed Davis' face -- Brady was an active player, after all, and not eligible for Hall consideration -- before an impish grin surfaced.

"He won the Tuck Game -- f--- him," Davis railed, as the room exploded in laughter. "He did win it, the son of a b----."

Nearly 11 years after the late Davis' proclamation, more than 18 years after the Tuck Rule became a part of NFL lore and launched Brady's campaign as the greatest quarterback in NFL history, should the rebranded Las Vegas Raiders do the heretofore unthinkable and make a run at Brady if he becomes a free agent?

On one hand, how do you pass on the opportunity to pick up a Hall of Famer, even with those Spygate and Deflategate scandals on his resume?

"I mean, Tom is the GOAT," Raiders right tackle Trent Brown said last training camp when asked to compare Brady and the Raiders starter, a few months after winning a Super Bowl with Brady and the New England Patriots for Brady's record sixth ring.

"Derek Carr is Derek Carr. If anybody gets the opportunity to be upright and healthy in this league ... you can make plays, and that's what we're trying to do up front."

While the Raiders should kick the tires on any and all players who can improve the roster, would Brady really be that much of an upgrade over Carr at the respective stages of each player's career, accounting for Brady's adjustment in joining a new team and new system?

Consider: Carr is coming off single-season career bests in passing yards (4,054) and completion percentage (70.4) and would be entering his third season in the same offensive system, so another leap under coach Jon Gruden is expected. Even if Carr frustrates with a seeming unwillingness to extend plays with his legs and a curious case of throwing the ball away on fourth down.

Meanwhile, Brady has known only the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick since coming into the league as a sixth-round draft pick, No. 199 overall, in 2000. His 24 touchdown passes last season were tied for his second fewest since he became a full-time starter in 2002, and his 60.8 completion percentage was the third lowest of his career.

And while Gruden loves his quarterbacks to be accurate, he also likes them mobile. Think Rich Gannon. So while Carr has the athletic ability to run, Brady is a virtual statue, and AFC West pass-rushers such as Joey Bosa, Chris Jones, Frank Clark, Von Miller, Melvin Ingram and Derek Wolfe would be licking their chops, no?

Then there's the inevitable fan backlash, sure to be more forceful from older followers (one such fan wrote to say he walked into a sliding glass door when he saw the report of the Raiders willing to offer a two-year, $60 million contract to Brady) than the millennials (a more, ahem, forgiving bunch who say the Tuck Rule was really not Brady's fault).

Look, this would not be Dan Pastorini replacing Ken Stabler, as Raiders fans cheered when Pastorini suffered a broken leg. It's not even Gannon coming to Oakland as a 34-year-old journeyman, even if he was a stinkin' Chief.

No, this would be closer to Joe Montana leaving the San Francisco 49ers for the Chiefs as a 37-year-old in 1993. Except ... have we mentioned that Brady will be (drum roll, please) 43 on Aug. 3.

One school of thought sees the Raiders moving on from Carr (his $2.8 million guarantee for 2020 is injury-only and the Raiders would absorb a relatively small $5 million dead-money hit against the salary cap by cutting him), going hard after Brady for those two years and using one of those two first-round picks (Nos. 12 and 19) on their quarterback of the future to learn at the knee of said GOAT (paging Justin Herbert?). Or what if the Raiders were able to package those picks to go up and get Tua Tagovailoa, so long as his hip checks out, to redshirt behind Brady?

The photo of Raiders owner Mark Davis chatting up Brady at the Conor McGregor-Donald Cerrone fight last month went viral -- "Oh, that was about Tom was going to fight [Manny] Pacquiao here to open [Allegiant] Stadium," Davis cracked -- and Carr told ESPN.com he gets it that a lot of offseason stories will focus on his future.

"C'mon, man, when's it going to end," Carr said with a laugh at the team's renaming ceremony in Las Vegas on Jan. 22.

The other, less hysterical take is that all the rumors around Carr are just thought fodder to set up the draft.

"I look forward to taking the first snap in that stadium," Carr added, "and I look forward to taking every snap from here on out -- until I'm done.'

So there.

Still, Carr caused a buzz last weekend by posting to social media a photo of him and Khalil Mack in a postgame embrace, leading many to wonder if Carr saw himself joining the traded Mack with the Chicago Bears.

"I think that Derek is an amazing quarterback," Raiders rookie running back Josh Jacobs told ESPN.com during Super Bowl week. "I think that he's actually one of the smartest guys I've ever met.

"I mean, whatever they decide to do, we'll be in good hands. You can't ever really compare another quarterback to Tom Brady. But, I think that whatever they decide to do, we'll be in good hands."

Keep in mind, the Raiders still have a glaring hole at WR1 and need to also address that, as well as middle linebacker, in the draft and free agency.

So simply adding Brady (cough, cough) is not a cure-all elixir for all that has troubled the Raiders since, well, the Tuck Game on Jan. 19, 2002.

Remember, it took Gruden all of 40 seconds to thunder, "Brady fumbled that ball," in his reintroductory news conference with the Raiders in 2018.

Then maybe that's it. Maybe if Brady admits, finally, that it was a fumble and he simply took advantage of the call and has been living his best life since -- to the Raiders' chagrin -- Raiders fans would fully welcome the prospect of Brady in Silver and Black.

Alas ...

"You're never," Brady said with a laugh on a conference call with Raiders beat reporters in 2011, "going to get the answer out of me you want."

Stay tuned, then. Maybe.