The New England Patriots arrived in style for tonight's Thursday Night Football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The team celebrated the inaugural flight of their custom Boeing 767, tricked out in team colors with five Lombardi Trophies painted on the tail.
The Patriots are the first NFL team to buy their own plane, and actually, they bought two. Hopefully the second came with a discount.
One plane will be used as the team's main mode of travel for away games, with the other plane acting as a backup -- a Brady plane and a Garoppolo plane, if you will.
The idea is that by owning their own aircraft, the Patriots can save money on the rising cost of air travel especially since several major airlines have retired the bigger planes that teams use during the season. 10 round-trip flights can cost around $4 million, so keeping those costs in-house makes sense.
Oh and the plane is hella comfy, too. The "AirKraft" features the widest and largest seats a plane can handle, with an extra five inches of legroom beyond what a typical first-class seat. I'm sure that will be appreciated since NFL players aren't the typical sizes of most travelers.
The Patriots also hope that a team-owned plane will help athletes with the recovery process, since they'll have easier access to equipment and trainers.
The planes will be available for rent when they're not being used by the team, but unfortunately for us regular people, the only way to fly coach is to actually be a coach.
