Sen. Elizabeth Warren may be exploring a 2020 presidential campaign on a platform of economic fairness and getting rid of corruption in government, but the prolific gossip website TMZ appears chiefly concerned with her opinion on one subject: The New England Patriots.

Perhaps hoping to induce a memorable sports gaffe (which Massachusetts politicians know all too well), the Trump-friendly tabloid outlet has made a recent habit of asking Warren about her home state’s favorite football team.

In a video posted Wednesday morning and promoted as “Elizabeth Warren Rubs Patriots’ Win in Haters’ Faces,” a TMZ reporter caught up to the senator at Reagan national airport outside Washington, D.C., and breathlessly asked the Massachusetts Democrat for her thoughts about the Patriots’ playoff win Sunday and whether other NFL fans might be jealous.


Warren ascribed the Patriots’ success to “talent, talent, talent.”

“Nobody’s jealous,” she said, somewhat knowingly, of the notoriously disliked team. “Everybody loves the Patriots. At least that’s what I heard. And they should.”

Asked if the Patriots, who play the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday in the AFC Championship Game, would return to the Super Bowl this year, Warren said “we’re going all way.”

When TMZ last spoke to Warren this past September, the outlet also led with questions about the latest Patriots news, asking for her reaction to the team’s trade for wide receiver Josh Gordon.

“The Pats are a great team, but they always get better,” Warren said. “So watch for him this week.”

Asked about Gordon’s history of substance abuse, Warren agreed with the reporter’s leading question that Patriots coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady could have a positive impact (facing an indefinite suspension for another violation of the league’s substance abuse policy, Gordon announced last month that he was stepping away from the team to focus on his mental health).

“We think everybody does better when they’ve got Belichick and Brady on their side,” she said. “That’s how it works in New England.”


Warren also said she was “with labor” in the health benefits dispute between former NFL players and the league.

In Belichick and Brady, TMZ has identified one of the few things on which the progressive senator and President Donald Trump — who made his Patriots fandom increasingly well known during the 2016 presidential campaign — actually agree. Despite her Oklahoma roots, Warren has also adopted the Patriots as her team.

On Friday, the Senate unanimously passed my resolution congratulating the @Patriots on their Super Bowl victory. Go Pats! pic.twitter.com/2SXsI0ZvDl — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 13, 2017

But perhaps, as the 2020 campaign wears on, the outlet might return to more important matters when it comes to Warren — such as her favorite TV shows.