Bucs Had Code Name for Offseason Pursuit of Tom Brady

See what Tampa Bay's decision-makers called their chase for the legendary QB in free agency.

If you build it, he will come.

That's exactly what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were hoping this offseason, having slowly but surely constructed one of the NFL's most promising rosters on both sides of the ball.

Their secret mission? Convince the greatest quarterback in NFL history to leave one of the sport's greatest dynasties and take over one of the league's least successful franchises.

Convince Tom Brady they did, completing a covert operation that even had its own code name: Operation Shoeless Joe Jackson (via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times):

Why? Because 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.

The name was hatched by John Spytek, the Bucs’ director of player personnel and a former teammate of Brady’s for one season at Michigan. Oh, and Spytek is also a huge fan of the movie Field of Dreams.

The Bucs haven't won a playoff game since hoisting the Lombardi Trophy after the 2002 season, while Tom Brady has won 27 postseason tilts over that same stretch. He also brings six Super Bowl rings, four Super Bowl MVP awards and three NFL MVP awards to town, following a legendary 20-year career with the New England Patriots.

Tampa Bay's brass will be hoping Brady can help them go the distance in 2020, hoping to ease the pain of long-suffering Bucs fans everywhere.