Bucs’ dreams come true with Brady, Bowl berth
GM still in awe team landed Brady in ‘Operation Shoeless Joe Jackson’
The prospects of landing Tom Brady seemed like the longest of long-shots.
In GM Jason Licht’s view, getting the GOAT to join the losingest franchise in major sports was initially a pipe dream.
No wonder the Bucs had a secret code name for the mission. Back in April, the pursuit of Brady was tagged: Operation Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Getting Brady to agree to play for Tampa was about as unlikely as the legendary White Sox slugger walking out of a cornfield in Iowa.
At least, that’s how John Spytek, the Bucs’ director of player personnel and former teammate of Brady’s for one season at Michigan, saw it.
As a fan of the movie, “Field of Dreams,” Spytek thought it was an appropriate handle for the task.
“If we build it, he will come,” Spytek used to tell Licht, appropriating the famous line from the 1989 movie.
With an offense that featured a wealth of offensive weapons (Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, O. J. Howard, Cameron Brate), Brady did come, signing a guaranteed two-year, $50 million deal.
What seemed like the impossible, happened. Brady, a free agent, walked away from the Patriots, and joined a perennial loser that had some promise for better days.
At times, Licht, speaking on a Zoom call Wednesday, still can’t believe the Bucs were able to pull it off, but they did, and they’re set to host the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium.
Licht said conversations with Brady, listening to the confidence he exuded from the moment he signed, had everyone believing
the Bucs would become a Super Bowl-worthy team.
And nine months after signing on the dotted line, Brady has Tampa in position to win it all.
“When you sign a guy like Tom, it makes it a little more realistic. Just talking to him the days after we signed him, you could just hear and feel the confidence he had. It made it a little more real,” said Licht, the team’s GM since 2014. “Now, you never take anything for granted. We had some highs and lows of the season where things at times looked a little grim. We needed to pull together, but we never lost our confidence.
“But looking back on some of the things we talked about, you do kinda want to pinch yourself a little bit, saying, ‘Wow, this really did happen.’ “
Licht, of course, had been with the Patriots several times during Brady’s 20-year run. He was with the Patriots during the early years (1999-2002) of the dynasty, first serving as a scout for Pete Carroll, and later an assistant director of player personnel. He left, and ultimately returned, serving as the director of player personnel, from 2009-11.
Even though he was with the Patriots, Licht didn’t take any credit for drafting Brady in the sixth round in 2000. He applauded coach Bill Belichick for that move.
“Did I scout Tom? I was the southeast area scout at the time. I listened to the conversations about (Brady). We watched tape together, but I can’t take any credit for Tom being drafted,” said Licht. “I do know coach Belichick really had his eye on him for a long time.
“We took him in the sixth, we really didn’t need a quarterback at the time,” he went on. “He and Scott Pioli had him much higher than that on the board. The conversations started, if I recall correctly, in the third round, and he was still sitting there in the sixth and they took him.
“I wish I could take credit for it, but I got to know Tom a little bit in my years there.”
That familiarity probably also helped the process of snagging Brady, although Licht said the two weren’t exactly pen pals.
“Never really kept in touch other than if we happened to play each other,” said Licht. “So when we signed him here, and talked on the phone, it was really the first time I’ve talked to him since 2011 when I was with the Patriots.”
After signing Brady on March 20, Licht added even more to the arsenal to make his quarterback comfortable. A month later, he added Rob Gronkowski.
After Gronk agreed to come out of retirement, Licht sent a fourth-round pick to the Patriots for the tight end.
Then in October, he signed Antonio Brown to a one-year deal.
Until this year, Licht has had little success as the GM the past eight seasons. The Glazer family, who own the Buccaneers, have exhibited patience, giving Licht time to build a championship team.
Jameis Winston, the first overall pick in the 2015 draft, wasn’t the answer. In one year, Brady has given life to a losing franchise.
And, according to Licht, the Bucs are not done.
“Tom is 43 years old, and we have some other elder statesmen on our roster, but we have a young, young team,” said Licht. “We have a young defense, a young secondary, young receivers, we have a fairly young offensive line. We’re still looking long-term, and we still have to plan long-term … but we’re not finished yet. We want to win this thing.”