The Miami Dolphins visit the New York Jets on Black Friday for an AFC East showdown, but why is the NFL playing on this holiday?
The NFL is always open to expanding the reach of the league and is now playing a game on Black Friday. Football is already ingrained into the holiday weekend with a three-game slate on Thanksgiving, and the NFL is looking to further bolster the amount of football consumed by adding a stand-alone game.
The Black Friday game will be the first start for QB Tim Boyle after Jets head coach Robert Saleh announced that Zach Wilson is being benched. The Jets’ offense has been nonexistent in recent weeks, and many knew the benching was long overdue.
Is This the First Black Friday Game?
The Dolphins-Jets game will be the first NFL game in history to be played on Black Friday, which is the day following Thanksgiving and is traditionally associated with retail sales — but not this year.
The game will be broadcast by Amazon, who hope to create a new NFL tradition. Jay Marine, the Global Head of Sports for Prime Video, said, “We’re thrilled to create a new holiday tradition on the national sports calendar with the NFL’s first-ever Black Friday Football game.”
Marine also said, “We’ve worked tirelessly to create an unparalleled gameday experience for fans, with elements ranging from the family-driven alternate stream with Dude Perfect, contributions from award-winning chef David Chang, exclusive retail deals revealed throughout the game, and a postgame concert with Garth Brooks.
“This Black Friday game is a perfect fit for us, and it’s rewarding to see so many parts of Amazon rising up to do what we do best: delight customers.”
MORE: NFL Prime-Time Games 2023
The matchup of the Dolphins and Jets was seen as the perfect Black Friday game for Amazon.
Mike North, the NFL’s Vice President of Broadcast Planning, shared on Mad Dog Sports Radio about why this game was chosen, saying, “We had a lot of options,” continuing, “[Amazon] reached out to us and thought, ‘hey can we think about playing a game in New York?’”
Will There Be Black Friday Games in the Future?
The NFL already has a tradition of playing on Thanksgiving.
But, it seems some teams are keen on creating a new tradition of playing yearly on Black Friday.
The NFL’s Vice President of Broadcast Planning also shared that the Cincinnati Bengals were keen on playing on Black Friday. “The Cincinnati Bengals raised their hand. They put their hand up and said, ‘We’re interested in Black Friday.’ Not just in 2023, but how about as a tradition? We play in Dallas and Detroit on Thanksgiving every year, how about playing in Cincinnati on Black Friday every year?”
North also shared with ESPN that the Jets are interested in making an annual tradition of the Black Friday game, saying, “The Jets, once they found out they were the host team, then started to think about ‘Hey is this something we could make a permanent fixture as part of the NFL schedule?'”
He continued in his chat with ESPN to say that the NFL isn’t looking to make a team a permanent host on Black Friday right away, but they are considering it: “I don’t think we were looking for this season to commit to a permanent home for Black Friday. Let’s play one first, and let’s see what we learn.” He added, “It’s certainly something we should talk about.”
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