Security measures in place to prevent another Tom Brady jersey theft
This story first appeared in Sunday Football Notes
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Last year’s Super Bowl was defined by the Patriots’ incredible comeback win, but also by the audacious theft of Tom Brady’s jersey by a Mexican newspaper executive.
The NFL is taking additional measures this year to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, placing more restrictions on who is allowed in the postgame locker room for interviews.
The league will now only allow “individuals assigned a working press credential’’ to enter the locker room, but media assigned to the auxiliary box will only be allowed in the secondary interview area, not the locker room.
And reporters must “tap in’’ and “tap out’’ of the locker room via an electronic chip that has been implanted in each media (and non-media) credential for the game, so the NFL can track who is coming and going.
“There have been credentialing changes and background checks implemented across the board — everybody gets a particular level of check,’’ said Cathy Lanier, the NFL’s chief security officer. “We are doing every possible thing with cameras and technology to keep things secure all the way up to that locker room door. 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, that they keep safe.
“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 that happen. We’re hoping that does not happen this year.’’
