Bengals Wanted to Host Black Friday Game in Hopes of Making It An Annual Tradition

CINCINNATI — The Bengals were hoping to start an annual tradition this season.

With the NFL having their first every "Black Friday" game, the organization volunteered to host it annually starting this year according to NFL Vice President of Broadcast Planning Mike North.

The Dolphins will play the Jets on "Black Friday," but the Bengals at least made a pitch to the NFL about making it a tradition in Cincinnati.

"As far as Black Friday goes, we considered a lot of different options. It wasn't that we locked in on Miami-Jets early in the process or after Aaron Rodgers signed. This will be a first for us as well, this afternoon game on Black Friday. Amazon did reach out to us and suggested maybe as you know, were the you know, retail leader in this space and New York is the you know, biggest market and the number one retail market in the country, maybe a game in New York might be a fun way to kind of introduce this concept," North said on Friday. "We did look at Eagles-Giants, obviously looked at a Jets home game, but we looked at other games as well. We looked at a Kansas City game. The Cincinnati Bengals actually raised their hand and volunteered and said we'd be happy to host the first Black Friday game. In fact, we'd be happy to make this a tradition. How about Black Friday in Cincinnati every year? I'm sure that'll be something we explore going forward. Some of us liked the idea of maybe like a Kansas City-Raiders game, Black Friday in the black hole. There were a lot of different options. There was nothing that was locked in. Truly nothing that was locked in on really this whole schedule. And we get down to the end and we start seeing some finalists and some contenders and maybe start to narrow the field of options, seeing a Dolphins-Jets on the heels of three division games on Thanksgiving Thursday. You just kind of continue that Thanksgiving is family feel the the John Madden celebration division games just feel right kind of in those windows."

The Bengals play the Steelers on Sunday, Nov. 26 at Paycor Stadium. Check out their compete 2023 schedule here.

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