Inside The Huskies

Ex-Husky Drew Sample Looking for Ways to Extract Ukraine Relatives

The Cincinnati Bengals tight end turns his attention to serious family concerns.
Dan Raley|
Ex-Husky Drew Sample Looking for Ways to Extract Ukraine Relatives
Ex-Husky Drew Sample Looking for Ways to Extract Ukraine Relatives

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Washington Huskies

Three weeks ago, Drew Sample, the former University of Washington tight end, played in Super Bowl LVI and enjoyed a sporting highlight unlike any other, even though his Cincinnati Bengals came up a 23-20 loser to the Los Angeles Rams.

Today, Sample is hardly focused on his pro football career — he's seeking ways to extract Ukraine relatives from their war-torn country now under siege by a Russian military invasion.

Sample's wife, Angelina, was born in the Ukraine before moving to the U.S. and has an aunt and both sets of grandparents in rural areas of Ukraine, attempting to stay out of harm's way. She has kept in contact with her family members.

"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," Angelina Sample said in a Fox TV interview. "I call them up on the phone and they answer it, and they're sitting in the dark in the basement."

The Samples met while they attended the UW and were married while still in school, according to the Seattle Times.

Russia began its assault on the Ukraine on Feb. 24, just 11 days after Sample played in the Super Bowl held in the Los Angeles area. That seems so long ago now.

"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 said in the TV interview.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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