TB wants 12 back
Texas Rangers on case of stolen jersey
HOUSTON — When Mike Napoli went shirtless after winning the World Series with the Red Sox, it was voluntary.
The NFL and the Patriots can keep track of what footballs weigh now, apparently, just not the location of a Super Bowl MVP’s jersey.
Inside what you would think is the most guarded area of a highly secure event, the locker room, Tom Brady’s jersey from the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history went missing Sunday night at NRG Stadium.
“I put it in my bag and then I came out and it wasn’t there anymore,” Brady said yesterday morning. “It’s unfortunate, because that’s a nice piece of memorabilia. If it shows up on eBay somewhere, someone let me know, try to track that down.” Oh, they’re trying. “In Texas we place a very high value on hospitality and football,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a press release. “Tom Brady’s jersey has great historical value and is already being called ‘the most valuable NFL collectable ever.’ It will likely go into the Hall of Fame one day. It is important that history does not record that it was stolen in Texas. I’ve called Col. Steve McCraw to ask that the Texas Rangers work with the Houston Police Department on this case.
“I’m a Texans and Cowboys fan first, but the unquestionable success of the Super Bowl in Houston last night was a big win for our entire state and I don’t want anything to mar that victory. Whoever took this jersey should turn it in. The Texas Rangers are on the trail.”
It’s unclear who is heading up the investigation, the NFL or a government agency.
“We have been looking into this disappointing matter and will continue to assist law-enforcement authorities,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said by email.
Patrick instructed the Rangers to assist the Houston Police. But HPD’s own involvement was hard to decipher. The department said in an afternoon statement that its major-offenders unit was working with NFL security as well as state and local law-enforcement officials in the investigation.
But about an hour before that statement, HPD public information officer Victor Senties told the Herald that no police report had been filed, and indicated the department was therefore limited.
“We’re in contact with NFL security but we don’t have a report,” Senties said. “We need a report to be able to investigate something. So unless there’s a report filed, there’s nothing for us to investigate.”
The Patriots declined comment.
Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers, meanwhile, jokingly offered their assistance via Twitter.
White goes to Disney
While he’s not technically the Super Bowl MVP, running back James White got to meet Mickey Mouse on parade. White took the Disney World honors, waving to the crowd in Orlando, Fla., and continuing a tradition.
Brady said yesterday he thought White, who scored the game-winning touchdown Sunday in the first-ever overtime Super Bowl, should have been the game’s MVP.
“You couldn’t even write this script,” White said. “You could never imagine it.”
McCourty: No Trump
Safety Devin McCourty has joined tight end Martellus Bennett in saying that he would not go to the White House if and when the Patriots are invited by President Donald Trump to celebrate their championship.
“Basic reason for me is I don’t feel accepted in the White House,” McCourty told Time magazine yesterday. “With the president having so many strong opinions and prejudices I believe certain people might feel accepted there while others won’t.”
Following the Super Bowl, Bennett reiterated his statement that he wouldn’t go either.
“I can elaborate later on in life, right now I am just trying to enjoy this,” Bennett said. “I haven’t really thought about it. Like I said, it is what it is. People know how I feel about it, just follow me on Twitter.”
Bennett said he was not concerned about upsetting team owner Bob Kraft, a Trump supporter.
“I am not worried about it at all,” Bennett said. “I think they believe in whatever I want to do.”
Judge weighs in
The Patriots have friends in the legal system outside the top dog in the executive branch. The judge who voided Brady’s four-game suspension in September 2015, a ruling later reversed, congratulated the Pats on the Super Bowl win in an email to the Associated Press.
“Last night, they showed us all never to quit, everything is possible, and the importance of teamwork,” U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman wrote yesterday, and he joked, “Beyond congratulations, I’ll say no more about football — until Coach Belichick is ready to discuss Supreme Court cases about mandatory arbitration clauses.”
One of the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit who ruled in favor of the NFL, Denny Chin, offered his congratulations to both teams, and said of Brady, “he showed once again why is one of the alltime best.”