Tuesday's Sports in Brief
BRADY JERSEY HEIST
MEXICO CITY (AP) The Mexican media executive suspected of stealing Tom Brady's jersey went to the Super Bowl as a working journalist but spent the week collecting selfies and autographs from football greats and boasting to colleagues that he was there as a fan.
Mexican journalists who were in Houston for the game and interacted with Martin Mauricio Ortega, former director of the tabloid La Prensa, told The Associated Press that he brought multiple NFL memorabilia items, including a Kurt Warner jersey he hoped to sell to the former quarterback for thousands of dollars.
Brady's jersey went missing from the Patriots' locker room after the game, and set off an investigation that stretched from Boston to the border. Working with U.S. investigators, Mexican authorities obtained a search warrant and recovered the jersey March 12, along with another Brady jersey that disappeared after the 2015 Super Bowl. A helmet belonging to a Denver Broncos player was also discovered, according to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy.
PRO BASKETBALL
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - As the godfather of the NBA's modern player rest movement, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has long championed the importance of limiting the wear and tear on players' bodies in order to prolong their careers and increase the chances of deep runs in the postseason.
Commissioner Adam Silver has long been sympathetic to Popovich's point of view, acknowledging the science that proves what a difference rest can make.
But now that Silver is ramping up the pressure to consider more than just X's and O's when deciding when to rest players en masse, Popovich and other coaches around the league say they are eager to have dialogue with the league and its television partners to address an approach that is drawing the ire of fans and business partners.
The issue was thrust to the forefront in the past two weeks when the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers each sat their stars for national television games on consecutive Saturdays.
After ABC/ESPN and Turner paid a combined $24 billion for the broadcast rights, the practice made several stakeholders uneasy.
The 2017-18 regular season will begin early to help the league reduce the number of back-to-backs and stretches of four games in five nights.
And Popovich said they should also look at tailoring the national television schedule to avoid games that have one team at the tail end of a grueling part of the schedule.
CHICAGO (AP) - Respected and reviled in his hometown, this much can't be argued when it comes to Jerry Krause: He helped take the Chicago Bulls to heights few teams have reached.
Krause, the general manager of the Bulls during a 1990s dynasty that included six NBA championships with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen leading the way, has died. He was 77.
The Bulls confirmed his death.
A Chicago native, Krause spent 18 seasons leading the Bulls' front office and was a two-time NBA executive of the year. He helped put together a run that ranks among the most successful in NBA history and made the franchise a worldwide brand.
OLYMPICS
LONDON (AP) - The Paris bid team issued an ultimatum to the IOC: It's the 2024 Olympics or nothing.
With only Paris and Los Angeles left as 2024 bidders after rivals dropped out, IOC President Thomas Bach has raised the prospect of one city being awarded 2024 and the other taking 2028 to avoid there being a loser.
But with less than six months until the vote, the International Olympic Committee is still hesitating over whether to go through with a sudden bidding change.
And Bach's vision to lock up Summer Games hosts for the next 11 years could be derailed by the insistence of both LA and Paris that they are only focused on 2024.
''We can't accept `28,'' Paris bid co-chairman Tony Estanguet said during a visit to London. ''It's not possible.''
BASEBALL
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Pharmacies and beauty stores across Puerto Rico are running out of hair dye as a growing number of men go blond in support of the island's baseball players who bleached their hair as a bonding ritual ahead of the World Baseball Classic.
What began as a joke among team members playing in California has spread across the island in a trend that spiked just hours after Puerto Rico beat the Netherlands in 11 innings to reach the championship game undefeated in the tournament, which is held every four years. Puerto Rico will play Wednesday night in the final against the United States, which defeated Japan.
Copper blond, platinum blond, golden blond - all shades of blond (even burnt orange) are turning heads in a U.S. territory where the majority of men have thick, dark hair and are now getting teased about looking like Ken dolls. Those who are bald have opted to dye their beards or goatees in a nod to Puerto Rico coach Carlos Delgado.
Men ranging from news anchors to university students to professionals have embraced a trend that has sparked the rallying cry of ''Team Rubio!'' or ''Team Blond'' in Spanish.
PENN STATE ABUSE
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The criminal trial of Penn State's former president on felony child endangerment charges is set to resume, with two of his former top lieutenants among those who could take the stand.
Seven people are on the prosecution's witness list and could testify Wednesday, as Graham Spanier's trial in Harrisburg continues.
They include former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley. They had faced the same charges before pleading guilty last week to a misdemeanor child endangerment count.
The charges stem from the three men's response to a 2001 complaint by a graduate assistant coach that Jerry Sandusky had abused a boy in a team shower.
Eight people testified Tuesday including the former director of a charity for children, where Sandusky met many of his victims.