NFL Player and Wife Looking to Get Family Members out of Ukraine

By Brian Jones

Drew Sample, a tight end for the Cincinnati Bengals, is doing what he can to get family members out of Ukraine during Russia's invasion of the country. The 25-year-old and his wife, Angelina, appeared on Fox & Friends to draw attention to the events happening in Ukraine. Angelina, who goes by Ang, was born in Ukraine and revealed that her grandparents, aunt, and their families are stranded in the country. 

"For us, we've just been trying to see if there's anything we can do to set up a plan where we can get them to us so they feel comfortable leaving, because it's obviously dangerous for them," Drew Sample told Fox News, per ESPN. Drew and Ang are looking to extract her grandmother, who is living without electricity in a rural village. Currently, the weather has not been great in Ukraine as the country has been hit with below-freezing temperatures with occasional snowfall. 

"The conditions are pretty miserable for a 76-year-old woman to be hiding in a basement at her age. It's just dangerous for her to even get in and out, but to stay in her house is even more dangerous with air raid sirens going off," Ang said. The good news is Ang has remained in contact with family members during the invasion. "We watch it on the news, but for me to just be putting my [children] down for a nap in the afternoon and I want to call my grandma; I call them up on the phone and they answer it, and they're sitting in the dark in the basement," she said.

One of Ang's cousins just turned 18 and will be expected to pick up a gun and fight. Ang said "A lot of these young men who have never held a weapon in their hands now have to potentially go fight in the Army." Fox News reports that bringing a family member over from Ukraine to the United States can be challenging as the U.S. visa process could take several months just to schedule an interview with the embassy. Sample was selected in the second round by the Bengals in the 2019 NFL Draft out of Washington. He has played in 42 games in his career and has caught 56 passes for 460 yards and one touchdown. 

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