The biggest mystery of Super Bowl LI was not how the Atlanta Falcons managed to blow a 28-3 lead and allow the New England Patriots to pull off a historic comeback win, but how someone then managed to steal Tom Brady’s game-winning jersey.
Fox Sports Films dives deep into the events surrounding the theft following the game on Feb. 5, 2017, at Houston’s NRG Stadium in a new documentary titled “The Great Brady Heist.”
The film, which is the latest in Fox Sports’ “Magnify” series, is produced by NFL Films in association with Gotham Chopra’s Religion of Sports.
Premiering on Fox on Feb. 1, 2020, at 7 p.m. ET (the night before Super Bowl LIV), “The Great Brady Heist” features exclusive conversations with Brady, behind-the-scenes footage from the investigation, and the first-ever on-camera interview with the man who stole the jersey.
“Did anyone see my jersey? I put it in my bag,” Brady can be heard asking in the opening scene while rummaging through his clothes in the Patriots’ locker room post-game.
Following an international investigation, Martín Mauricio Ortega, director of a Mexican tabloid called La Prensa who had been a credentialed media member for Super Bowl LI, was proven to be the thief.
“The NFL is the greatest reality show on the planet — forget the Kardashians or anyone else,” Fox Sports analyst Jay Glazer says in the film’s teaser, released Monday. “You have the greatest comeback in NFL history, you have the greatest caper in NFL history.” Glazer was one of Fox’s NFL insiders who broke an early exclusive follow-up story on FS1, laying the path for the film.
“As the game’s broadcaster, FOX Sports played a role in so many elements of this story, so it made sense for us, with the help of NFL Films and Religion of Sports, to take a closer look and see it through,” Charlie Dixon, executive vice president of Content, Fox Sports, said in a statement. “‘The Great Brady Heist’ is the fulfillment of a three-year journey that’s captivated us from the beginning, and the film’s Super Bowl weekend debut makes it particularly special.”
Gotham Chopra, co-founder of Religion of Sports, and creator of the Sports Emmy-winning series, “Tom vs. Time,” said: “Sports are mythic. We invest so much of ourselves as fans in our favorite teams and players. This is a tale about that — what a singular jersey means beyond the threads it’s made of and the number on the back.
“Why did multiple federal agencies and countless high-powered individuals all become a part of this hunt for Tom’s jersey? Because sports matter and are about so much more than wins and losses,” he added.
Religion of Sports was co-founded by Brady, Michael Strahan and Chopra and also guided by Ameeth Sankaran. The company produces content ranging from short form video to podcast to feature films that answer the core question “Why Sports Matter.”
“The Great Brady Heist” is the sixth installment in Fox Sports Films’ “Magnify” series, which aims to bring a deep focus to untold sports stories.
Watch the trailer above.