The return of Tom Brady will not be easy for Patriots fans. The night an entire region has secretly dreaded for over a year is almost upon us.

Seeing Tom Brady playing for someone else was unthinkable a few years ago. To a man or woman, any Patriots fans would have told you that it’s never going to happen and Brady is going to finish his career with the Patriots. There is no way Bob Kraft would let him leave us regardless of Brady’s relationship with Bill Belichick.

Yet, here we are. Tom Brady is coming back to Foxboro as a seven time Super Bowl champion with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is on the visiting sideline this time.

The one thing Patriots fans did not want to see has happened. “Tommy” left us, went somewhere else and won a Super Bowl.

Boston reveres it’s great athletes. If you listen to some Boston sports fans, they make it sound as if Ted Williams, Bobby Orr, Larry Bird and Bill Russell recently retired. If you were a great athlete in Boston, you will be immortalized forever.

When it comes to Boston sports athletes, Brady is in that exclusive company. He will forever be linked to Williams, Orr, Russell and Bird. Some will tell you he is the greatest athlete in Boston sports history and they might be right. He doesn’t have as many rings as Russell, but he had a far greater impact in many ways when it comes to the Boston sports scene.

Brady will forever be remembered as a Patriot but he is not just “our guy” anymore. We have to come to grips with that now. We have to share him now with another fanbase. We have been doing it from a distance up until now, but on Sunday, we will see him playing for someone else up up close and personal and it’s going to hurt.

Pack your tissues. it’s going to be an emotional night at Gillette Stadium.