The New England Patriots have bought two airplanes, becoming the first NFL team to own its own jets, ESPN reports. The red, white, and blue 767s will shuttle the team, support staff, and the team's equipment to the 10 road games they play a season.
While buying two 767s seems, perhaps, a little excessive for getting to just 10 away-games a year, chartering airplanes has gotten increasingly expensive for NFL teams, especially as major airlines have decided to retire bigger charters rather than fork over the money to give the older jets updates required by the Federal Aviation Administration. NFL teams reportedly pay charters around $4 million a season.
The Patriots will use one plane as their primary transportation and the other will be backup.
The 767s cost in the ballpark of $10 million each, although if the Patriots plan to keep updating the Lombardi trophies painted on the tails, that cost could potentially go up. Jeva Lange