Tom Brady’s poignant homecoming may have been his most human game

On Sunday the 45-year-old had to watch a man half his age - and with an even more remarkable origin story - thoroughly outplay him in his native Bay Area

It was a surreal Bay Area homecoming for Tom Brady, to say the least. There was the most successful quarterback in history, on the field for the entirety of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 35-7 blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers, still competing long after the game had effectively been decided. Sunday will be remembered as the day one of the all-time greats was thoroughly outplayed by Mr Irrelevant.

As the meme puts it, you can never count out Touchdown Tom. We were all reminded of this just last week when Brady engineered his 44th fourth-quarter comeback win. That was a league record, one of the many that he owns, and maybe the most fitting. Brady is the football version of a superhero (or supervillain, depending on one's rooting interests) who always jumps back to life soon after being declared dead. Heck, despite the loss, the 6-7 Bucs are still on top of the NFC South and penciled in for another playoff appearance.