A member of the international media almost got away with stealing Tom Brady’s game jerseys after Super Bowl XLIX and Super Bowl LI. It won’t happen again — hopefully.
NFL upgrades Super Bowl security to keep Tom Brady’s jersey safe
Brady’s game jerseys were stolen after Super Bowl XLIX and Super Bowl LI. The league needs it to not happen again.
Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
The NFL is implementing new postgame security measures to ensure that no memorabilia is stolen from players after the Super Bowl, according to ESPN’s Dan Graziano.
All media entering the locker rooms after the Patriots and Eagles face off in Super Bowl LII on Sunday will have their credentials scanned with a radio-frequency identification reader. Media members will have to “tap out” with their credential and the RFID reader when they leave to allow security to keep track of who is in the locker room area at all times.
The NFL’s chief security officer, Cathy Lanier, said the league has been working since last year to tighten up security procedures.
“The way we like to look at this is, we are doing every possible thing with cameras and technology to keep things secure all the way up to that locker room door,” Lanier said, via Graziano. “Then we rely on our partners from our clubs, and that would be the Patriots and the Eagles that are here, to make sure with everything that goes on inside that locker room, they keep safe.”
C. Martin Mauricio Ortega, who was credentialed media for Super Bowls XLIX, 50, and LI, was able to make off with Brady’s jerseys from XLIX and LI. He took Von Miller’s helmet after Miller’s MVP performance in the Broncos’ win over the Panthers in Super Bowl 50.
The FBI got involved and was able to track down the stolen memorabilia in Mexico. The stolen items were returned to Brady and Miller.
Obviously, the league wants to keep this from happening again. But there’s no guarantee that it can.
“It has been an extensive review and extensive changes that we made, but as you know, even with credentialed people in a really tight security operation, there can be incidents. We’re hoping that that does not happen this year,” Lanier said.
But something had to be done, and these changes should help.
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