Officials in Texas have been doing whatever they can to show Tom Brady, the New England Patriots, and the NFL that they are taking the theft of Tom Brady’s #Super Bowl LI jersey very serious. In a way, that is a good thing. State officials should not be happy about a crime being committed during an event like the Super Bowl. But they may have taken things a little further than they should have.
It was one thing when the Lt. Governor for the State Of Texas, Dan Patrick, said he would be calling upon the Texas Rangers, the famous law enforcement unit, to get to the bottom of the crime it was one thing.
But it appears that the Houston police department has put a high enough value on the jersey that the thief—should he/she ever be caught—would be facing #first-degree felony charges.
According to police reports obtained by TMZ, the Jersey has been valued at $500,000. In the state of Texas, theft of an item valued at $200,000 or more qualifies as a first-degree and is punishable with a prison sentence ranging from a minimum of five years to a maximum of 99. The criminal can also be hit with a $10,000 fine—for stealing a football jersey.
They’re taking this a little far—right?
Surely, they can’t be serious. But then again, this is the football crazy state of Texas. Texas is a state where millions of dollars are spent on high school football stadiums.
On Friday nights, many small towns turn into literal ghost towns because everyone is at the local high school football game. High school players are idolized by thousands, college players by millions, and NFL superstars—by everyone.
Okay—so folks are serious about their football. But so much that they put a half million dollar valuation on a jersey?
That would make it the most valuable NFL jersey ever sold at auction. The current record holder is a Johnny Unitas jersey that was sold in 2015 for $118,230. Game-worn Tom Brady jerseys have gone for around $50,000 in the past, but they were from the regular season.
So--the half million price tag is crazy—right? Not necessarily.
Collectors have paid over $200,000 for Sandy Koufax jerseys. Someone even paid $4.4 million for a Babe Ruth jersey. Another went for $940,000.
#Tom Brady's Super Bowl jersey valued at $500,000!
To be fair, there is a lot of significance attached to the jersey. It was worn by the quarterback of the team that won the first Super Bowl to go to overtime, it was Brady’s fifth Super Bowl win, and Tom Brady will likely be remembered as the greatest quarterback ever to play the game. But is that enough to make it worth $500,000 now? Eh—you can never tell what some people are willing to pay for things. But one thing is for certain. By turning the crime into a first-degree felony, they probably guaranteed the culprit would never voluntarily turn it in.
“Whoever took it has to be scared as [expletive],” one NFL source involved with the investigation told Yahoo! Sports. “They had no idea what they were getting into. Now it’s everywhere. If that thing is worth $500,000 like some people are saying, that’s prison time. It might not even be easy to give it back at this point.” #Tom Brady's Super Bowl Jersey
