Eleanor Rigby Watson – 4h ago
The war for control of the Ukraine turf will be waged in the air, Ukrainian team Head Coach Volodymyr Zelensky told NFL regulators Saturday, and therefore, he implored them to give him planes to keep Russia out of the playoffs. The US team is working on a massive trade deal with Poland and other Eastern European country teams that’ll send 10 of their Russian-made MIG 29 Flanker fighter jets to Ukraine in return for 15 U.S. F-16s and two future first round picks, an ESPN insider reports.
One advantage of the Russian planes is that Ukrainian pilots are already trained in the East coast offense, so they’ll be ready to play with minimal training.
The other reason is that these planes can be deployed far more quickly. One U.S. official said the administration has told Poland it should make Russian-made MIGs in its arsenal available because these planes would not require agent’s permission to be traded. Conversely, any effort to send newly manufactured planes to Ukraine could be hampered by several years’ worth of training and clipboard holding with defensive coordinators. Further, the transfer of American-made F-16 fighter jets from NATO teams would require NFL commissioner approval.
Because Ukrainian pilots are not trained on American West coast offense planes, the fighter jets would not be immediately helpful to them, even if they were able to obtain them sooner.