TOM Brady was the victim of theft following the New England Patriots’ historic comeback Super Bowl 51 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
The legendary NFL quarterback had his $500,000 big game jersey stolen – and an FBI investigation uncovered major details about who did it, and how it happened.
Brady and the Patriots overcame a 28-3 Falcons lead and came away with the thrilling 34-28 Super Bowl overtime win on February 5, 2017 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
It was the fifth of Brady’s eventual seven Super Bowl titles, but, after the contest, the Patriots icon noticed something particularly unusual.
At the time, a video spotted Brady, who noticed his jersey had been taken from a bag he had put in the locker room.
“Hey did someone take my jersey? I put it in my bag. I absolutely 100 percent put it in my bag,” he said at his locker in the Patriots locker room.
The FBI got involved and led an investigation that pointed to international journalist Martin Ortega, who stole Brady’s jersey from that Super Bowl.
The same media member also stole the Super Bowl 49 jersey Brady wore after the Patriots’ 28-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
The FBI retrieved both items and they also retrieved a Denver Browns helmet that belonged to Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller, another big game object that was stolen by Ortega.
How did the authorities find out that Ortega had committed the crimes?
The FBI used footage from Fox, which showed Ortega entering the locker room and, with his back to the camera, reaching into Brady’s bag and putting the jersey into a plastic bag and leaving.
The authorities looked at over 20,000 media credentials at Super Bowl 51 and concluded that Ortega was the person of interest.
Ortega had also taken a selfie with Brady just minutes before stealing the jersey.
An agreement was reached for an unspecified victim in the US not to press charges on the former journalist in exchange for the jersey’s return.
It was revealed that the Super Bowl 51 jersey was valued at $500,00 – the same figure that sports auctioneer Ken Goldin, who has sold-game-used Brady jerseys before, said he thought it was worth if it were to be auctioned off.
Game-used Brady jerseys from regular-season games have been in the $50,000 range.
The Tom Brady domino effect
Tom Brady will take his seat in Fox’s top NFL announce team alongside Kevin Burkhardt.
And his arrival at the network has set off a domino effect with every other announcer moving down one spot.
That means Fox’s NFL coverage in 2024 will feature entirely new broadcast pairings.
Greg Olsen, who previously worked alongside Burkhardt, will now be part of the No. 2 announce team with Joe Davis.
The other Fox pairings for 2024 are:
- Adam Amin-Mark Sanchez
- Kenny Albert-Jon Vilma
- Kevin Kugler-Daryl Johnston
- Chris Myers-Mark Schlereth
