On Monday morning, moments before James Comey, the director of the F.B.I., confirmed the existence of one of his agency’s investigations—the one into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia—news broke about the results of another one. The F.B.I. had helped track down the jersey worn by the New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during last month's Super Bowl, in Houston, which had gone missing in the moments following the game and was valued at about half a million dollars. According to a statement by the N.F.L., the jersey had “been found in the possession of a credentialed member of the international media.” Houston's police chief, Art Acevedo, whose department had worked with the F.B.I. and other law-enforcement agencies on the case, announced that the jersey had been located in Mexico, and the credentialled media member in question was soon identified as Mauricio Ortega, who, until last week, had been the head of the Mexican newspaper La Prensa. He had been caught on video leaving the Patriots' locker room with what appeared to be Brady's jersey hidden beneath his shirt_. _In a further twist, Ortega, when confronted by authorities, reportedly turned over a number of items in addition to the jersey, including a helmet likely worn by the Broncos linebacker Von Miller in last year’s Super Bowl, and the jersey that Brady wore in the Super Bowl before that.
The theft, and then recovery, of Brady's jersey was like a tale of Trumpian fan fiction. Brady, the all-American superhero and longtime Trump ally, had been victimized by a media executive from Mexico. Acevedo touted the return of the jersey to its home soil as a minor patriotic coup. “You don't come to Texas and embarrass us in our home turf,” he said during a press conference.
Robert Kraft, the Patriots’ owner, had compared the stealing of the jersey to the theft of priceless art, but Brady, to his credit, had mostly made light of the whole affair. In February, in what may have been the most winning thing he has ever done off a football field, Brady posted a photograph on Instagram of a suspect board—a homespun version of the kind found on television police procedurals. Brady's chart of potential perps included the shark from “Jaws,” Lady Gaga, his teammate Julian Edelman, and someone Brady identified as “Creepy Me,” depicted by the infamous courtroom sketch of him that was drawn in 2015.
The case was closed, but it may have still been on Comey’s mind when he testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday. At one point in the hearing, Representative Chris Stewart, of Utah, asked Comey to assess whether Russia’s meddling in the election was motivated more by a desire to help Donald Trump than to undermine Hillary Clinton. “To put it in a homely metaphor, I hate the New England Patriots,” Comey replied. “And no matter who they play, I'd like them to lose. So I'm at the same time rooting against the Patriots and hoping their opponent beats them.” (Comey, for the record, roots for the Giants.) Elsewhere in the Capitol, Judge Neil Gorsuch was settling in for the start of his Supreme Court confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, backed by a letter of support from fellow-Coloradoan John Elway, the former Broncos quarterback and current general manager, written on stationery with the team's logo at the top. The political day closed in Kentucky, with Donald Trump holding another of what are being billed as campaign rallies, just a few months into his first term. There, riling up the crowd, Trump needled the former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who is currently a free agent after a season in which he made headlines by kneeling during the national anthem as an act of protest. “There was an article today, it was reported that N.F.L. owners don’t want to pick him up because they don’t want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump,” he said. It's only March, but, these days, football season, like election season, never ends.