After winning Super Bowl 51 in glorious fashion, the New England Patriots decided to buy not one but two team branded jets to transport the team around the US of A.
One plane will be used as the main plane for the season, while the other will be the backup, with flight operations being run out of Providence, Rhode Island, sources said. Patriots spokesman Stacey James said team officials would not be publicly commenting on the acquisitions.
NFL teams haven’t thought much about buying their own planes in the past, with only 10 games on the road. But charter travel has gotten more expensive over the past couple of years, due to the major carriers starting to retire the bigger planes that fly the teams around. (ESPN)
Although Patriots are the first NFL team to own a pair of jets, they were not the first to fly upon a team branded plane.
Believe it or not the Dallas Cowboys squandered an opportunity to fly upon their own branded jet out of a weird superstition.
In 1981, Putnam dedicated a Boeing 727-227 to “The Dallas Cowboys.” N457BN, A Blue “Ultra” Scheme 727 was painted with “Dallas Cowboys” on the nose, and the Cowboys helmet on the tail. The “Cowboys” had used Braniff all through the 70s to fly to “away” games.
Funny Story: The Dallas Cowboys considered their Dark Blue Jerseys as “bad luck.” The Cowboys plane was used for only two Cowboys away games. They lost both games, and so their was talk that Braniff would have to re-paint N457BN in another color because the Cowboys thought it was “jinxed.” The re-paint never happened because of the May shut-down. (Braniff Pages)
With New England flashing their team to the world, it would not be surprising to see more teams refurbish their own planes in the future—startinf with the Cowboys (as Jerry Jones does not like to be out done by anyone).
Discovered via: K19 on CowboysZone.