What Went Into the Dolphins' Black Friday and Germany Games
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Among the major questions involving the Miami Dolphins' 2023 regular season was how they came to be selected for the inaugural Black Friday game and why their road game against the Kansas City Chiefs was the one chosen to be played in Frankfurt, Germany.
Those responsible for putting together the NFL regular season schedule — a massively complex undertaking, to put it mildly — held a Zoom session Friday to explain how everything was put together and those two Dolphins-related issues were among the topics they discussed.
HOW THE DOLPHINS-CHIEFS GAME ENDED UP IN GERMANY
Tyreek Hill's return to Arrowhead Stadium figured to be a prominent storyline for the Dolphins-Chiefs matchup in 2023, but that homecoming is going to have to wait because of the decision to make that game the Germany matchup the Chiefs were scheduled to play all along.
There were a lot of choice matchups from which to choose, including the Eagles, Bengals, Bills, Chargers and even the Lions, who were selected as the kickoff game opponents.
"It's a testament and a real benefit to our international teams and to the NFL Network that a game like that, as meaningful and as competitive as we expect it to be can go and be that first game that we ever play in Frankfort," said Onnie Bose, the NFL's Director of Broadcasting. "It was part of just the opportunity to play that game that that will draw a good audience into that 9:30 a.m. window was there. We always have options.
"We still had a few other teams that could have fallen in there. And, sure, the Tyreek Hill is something and we get that, but I think the opportunity to play a meaningful competitive game internationally is really valuable to us."
THE DOLPHINS-JETS BLACK FRIDAY GAME
There were rumblings that the first Black Friday game would feature the NFC East matchup between the Eagles and Giants, but it ended being another intradivision matchup.
Mike North, the Director of Broadcast Planning, said that wasn't by accident, adding there were many options considered for the game, including an awfully interesting angle involving the Cincinnati Bengals.
"We considered a lot of different options," North said. "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 we're the retail leader in this space and New York is the biggest market and the No. 1 retail market in the country, maybe a game in New York might be a fun way to kind of introduce this concept.
"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 (game) on the heels of three division games on Thanksgiving Thursday. You just kind of continue that Thanksgiving-is-family feel, the John Madden celebration division games just feel right kind of in those windows."
For the record, the three Thanksgiving Day games are Green Bay at Detroit, Washington at Dallas, and San Francisco at Seattle.
