REPORT: Tom Brady only returned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after plan to acquire NFL franchise fell through

There has been talk for the past few days about why Tom Brady decided to return to the NFL.

The Boston Globe reported that Tom Brady wanted to return to football as an owner.

Apparently, Tom Brady is friends with Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, and the plan was for Tom Brady to become a minority owner of the team, hire former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, and trade for Brady, so he could start for the team.

The plan didn't go through when former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores decided to file his discrimination lawsuit against the team. Had they gone through with this deal, the optics, which was already bad, would have made the team look worse and helped Flores' case.

So basically, if it wasn't for the Flores lawsuit, Tom Brady might have been a player/owner with the Dolphins. FOX Sports Colin Cowherd did call Brady "ruthless," and now we understand why.

He must have heard about Brady's plans to, not only become an owner, but to take over from quarterback Tua Tagavoiloa. Once again, the young quarterback is thrown into another controversy with this team that had nothing to do with him.

And if the reports are true, Brady isn't the guy a lot of people think he is.

Tom Brady's image is about to take a hit

Tampa Bay Buccaneers v New York Jets

Tom Brady is not exactly the most well-liked guy in the NFL, and this report, if true, sure won't help him.

It was a devious plan. Make your current team trade you to the Dolphins, become not only their owner, but their quarterback, and toss their current quarterback aside. Fans around the league were stunned to hear about Brady's plan, and most of the reaction was not good, to say the least.

Other fans agreed that this was a scheme to get Brady to Miami.

But former Bucs head coach Bruce Arians made it perfectly clear that, if Brady did return, he was not going to be traded. It sounds like whatever the Dolphins were planning to offer to Tampa wasn't going to matter because they weren't going to give up their rights to Brady.

This may also explain why Arians went to the front office. Brady may have said he'd only return if Arians retired, which he did. Either way, it doesn't look good for a guy who has built his image around being a nice guy and a winner.

This report, if true, makes Tom Brady look selfish and calculating. It makes him look like a guy whose only concern is himself, not his teammates or his coaches, and it takes a little bit of the shine off his legacy.