Tom Brady has played in 10 Super Bowls and won seven rings between the Patriots and Buccaneers since he entered the NFL as a nobody in 2000. Another season opens this week in a familiar position: Brady quarterbacking the defending champions, who have the second-best odds for a repeat. With the paramount figure towering over the league showing no signs of slowing down, The Post asked smart people in football, “What would the NFL look like today if Brady were never born?” This season preview is written in that alternate reality — and one change created quite a butterfly effect.

The greatest quarterback of all time looked out at the sea of faces reunited for his Hall of Fame enshrinement speech and started making wisecracks as only Peyton Manning can do.

“To my greatest rival, Drew Brees, it’s a good thing you got married so that one Super Bowl ring isn’t lonely on your fingers! If not for us dinosaurs, the pocket passer would’ve been extinct a long time ago.

“To all my Colts teammates, thank you. I think back fondly to the early days alongside Marvin Harrison, Marshall Faulk and Edgerrin James — and the later years when Darrelle Revis, Randy Moss and so many others hopped on board our five-championship train … but bought tickets for Omaha without realizing Indianapolis is 600 miles away!