In November, the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins will play in the NFL’s first-ever Black Friday game. The historic game will be played at MetLife Stadium.
This is a game that the Jets would love to do again over the next couple of years.
A league executive told ESPN that the Jets were one of multiple teams that “raised their hand” to host the game on an annual basis. The Jets were not the only team, according to league executive Mike North.
“North discussed several schedule-related topics during a recent interview on “The Adam Schefter Podcast,” including this year’s inaugural Black Friday game when the Jets will host the Miami Dolphins on Amazon.
North told reporters last week that the Cincinnati Bengals lobbied to host the Black Friday game as an annual fixture. During his interview with Schefter, he mentioned the Jets as another team interested in being an annual host of the holiday game, similar to the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys traditionally hosting nationally televised games on Thanksgiving.
“I hope I’m not speaking out of turn when I mentioned to people that the Bengals volunteered,” said North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning. “There were others that kind of raised their hands for Black Friday as well.”
The Jets will be busy on prime time this year as they will be featured in five additional prime-time games in 2023 with Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback. If that trade with the Green Bay Packers never went down, the team would likely not be featured in any of them if Zach Wilson was slated to start. A harsh reality, but you cannot ignore how badly he plays when he is on the field.
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Amazon, which has the rights to the game, will provide free access for all fans, streaming exclusively on Prime Video. They even reached out to the league about having one of the NFL’s New York teams involved in the inaugural Black Friday game.
The retail giant said having a game in the top retail market in the country could be a “fun way” to introduce the concept.
North further informed Schefter that the league also considered Black Friday rivalry matchups featuring the Bengals hosting either the Pittsburgh Steelers or Baltimore Ravens. He stressed that he does not have the final say on whether the league would install a permanent host for the Black Friday game, and that the decision will be made by ownership and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“I don’t think we were looking for this season to commit to a permanent home for Black Friday,” North said. “Let’s play one first and let’s see what we learn and let’s see what makes sense and let’s see if it works for our fans, I don’t think we were looking on day one to deploy this with a permanent home.
“But it’s certainly something we should talk about. Let’s see what happens this year, let’s see what the fan reaction is to that day, and I’m sure we’ll go back to ownership, we’ll go back to membership and we’ll talk about would we be interested in it. Is that a good idea for the NFL? I’m sure there’s pros and cons to both.”
A few weeks ago, the Jets acquired Rodgers in a blockbuster trade with the Green Bay Packers that came before the draft as well as the scheduled release. It gave the league just enough time to get things sorted out.
As for as the first Black Friday game this season, the Jets and Dolphins have a storied rivalry dating to 1966. The Dolphins have a slight edge in the regular-season series, 57-56-1, and the AFC East rivals split last season, with each team winning on its home field.
Other holiday games announced include the New York Giants at the Philadelphia Eagles on Christmas Day and the Cincinnati Bengals at the Kansas City Chiefs on New Year’s Eve.
