Tom Brady's time with Tampa Bay Bucs was lots of fun while it lasted

TAMPA, Fla. — A misty rain began to coat the field at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on a Sunday night in October. A chill set in — a reminder that, just like the fall months in New England, life's seasons are ephemeral and time stops for no one.

There were signs everywhere.

«Welcome to Goat's Borough»

«Thomas Edward Patrick Brady: The Ultimate Patriot»

«God, Family, Brady»

«We will always love you, Tom and Gronk»

One sign even had Brady's face superimposed on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Yet figuratively speaking, the one that everyone seemed to miss, or simply didn't want to believe, was this: When Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady ran out of the visiting tunnel for the first and only time at the place he called home for 20 years, it was the beginning of the end.

We just didn't know it at the time, and he might not have either, but this was the start of Brady's farewell — the one that he said he didn't want to spend a whole year doing after being knocked out of the divisional round of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Rams last weekend.

The pull of fatherhood and fulfilling his duties as a loving husband became too much and outweighed the lure of a game that once defined him and made him one of the greatest American Cinderella stories we'll ever know.

Brady is calling it a career at age 44, after 22 seasons, sources told ESPN. He is retiring from the NFL.

Brady leaves as the NFL's all-time winningest quarterback, with seven Super Bowl rings — the most won by a single player in NFL history — along with all-time records in touchdown passes (624) and passing yards (84,250), which he clinched in his Week 4 return to the New England Patriots.

A return to the Super Bowl wasn't in the cards for the