To me its really good news, his play will decline and he will continue to hold the team hostage. The same thing that has helped keep the Patriots great (moving on from players before their decline). Is the thing that is setting their franchise back. They should have never let Jimmy G go, they should have moved on from Tom at the end of this season. They would have been set up for another 10 years at the QB position and Belichick might have stuck around for several of those years. They had the next Montana/Young, Farve/Rodgers situation and they took a pass to not hurt Toms Feelings.
They had the draft capital to move up this year and they did nothing except try to build a team around him.
The Patriots owe Tom nothing.