Bill wanted to get younger and more mobile at QB, without paying his aging GOAT money he can use to keep leadership in place during the transition. Tom has had enough of Bill's curmudgeonly ways, wanted to be treated differently than Bill was going to treat him. Like it or not, what has made Bill a successful coach is the fact that he does what he does regardless of who it is. I see Tom's point of view as well. He's done everything, and in his mind, he's earned the right to be treated differently. He has more in common with Belichick than he does with a N'keal Harry or some other 4th round draft pick coming out of school. Tom has the right to think that after all he's done, he should be treated as peer, as a partner in the process. Bill also has a right to think that you're the player, I am the coach, and that's all there is to talk about.
They could sign Tom and not be as good, in their book, as they would if they went with a younger guy. You guys can be up in arms pissed off at the organization, but this is what they do. They look at player X and say player X costs us ____ amount of money. We can get player Z to give 80% of the production of player X and pay player Z 30% of the money player X gets. (in this case, it's more like 3%) That then allows them to go get the middle of the road free agents that they've built this dynasty on. Once it became clear to them that Tom was on the decline, this was a forgone conclusion. The fact that Tom no longer wanted to be here made it easy for them.
From my arm chair, Tom's best days are indeed behind him. I would've been ok signing him and not being as good and saying thanks for the memories. Or, we can move forward and see what happens, and see if they can keep it going with a younger, less expensive QB. If you're a fan of the player, you'll buy a #12 bucs jersey and hate what they did. If you're a fan of the team, you'll tune in Sunday at 1pm and see how the new kid does.
