Buccaneers Had A Corny Nickname For Tom Brady Pursuit
BOSTON (CBS) -- Outside of winning Super Bowl XXXVII, the Buccaneers' successful pursuit of Tom Brady stands as the greatest accomplishment in franchise history. And the folks in charge of landing the free agent clearly took it quite seriously.
So seriously, in fact, that they developed a code name for the pursuit.
That code name? It was ... Operation Shoeless Joe Jackson.
If that sounds a bit corny, well, that may be due to corn's actual influence in the name. As the Tampa Bay Times' Rick Stroud explained: "The greatest quarterback of all time leaving the Patriots to rescue the losingest franchise in major sports with a .387 winning percentage is as unlikely as the legendary White Sox slugger, Joe Jackson, walking out of a cornfield in Iowa."
Ah, yes. A timely Field Of Dreams reference, no doubt.
Stroud reported that the name was conceived by Buccaneers director of player personnel John Spytek (SPY, you say??!?!?!). With regard to Brady, Spytek apparently told GM Jason Licht several times, "If we build it, he will come. Go the distance."
Corny? Certainly. But regardless of what they called it, the pursuit of Tom Brady worked. In effect, they built it, and he came. And now he's going to have a catch with some players who are young enough to be his kids.