Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Could Jets Become America's Black Friday Team?
The New York Jets would apparently like to make it an annual holiday tradition.
Gang Green will host the first-ever NFL Black Friday game, welcoming the Miami Dolphins to MetLife Stadium for a 3:00 pm ET kickoff on November 24. Prime Video will carry the game live on the largest retail shopping day of the holiday season.
With the featured Amazon exclusive matchup still more than six months away, there's speculation that a team, such as the Jets, could become a Black Friday staple i.e. the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.
Should the NFL choose to feature a particular franchise annually on the day after Thanksgiving, the Jets appear to make sense on the surface. The team resides in the world's most-powerful media market where commerce booms during the holidays.
Mike North, the NFL VP for Broadcast Planning, addressed the idea of finding America's Black Friday team during an interview on the Adam Schefter podcast.
"I don't think we were looking on day one to deploy this with a permanent home," said North while speaking to ESPN's NFL insider. "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."
North had previously made it known that the Cincinnati Bengals showed interest in being an NFL Black Friday participant.
"I hope I'm not speaking out of turn when I mentioned to people that the Bengals volunteered. There were others that kind of raised their hands for Black Friday as well," said North.
As for the Jets as a possible permanent Black Friday fixture?
“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?'” said North. “Maybe they didn’t raise their hands in February, but now that they have been selected as the Black Friday host, I think they might be interested in it, too.”
The Jets have five primetime appearances plus the Black Friday matinee on their 17-game slate.
Gang Green will play before an SNF audience twice (Weeks 4, 10) and also make two MNF appearances (Weeks 1, 9). Thursday Night Football on Prime Video gets the Jets at the Cleveland Browns in Week 17. (VIEW Full Jets' Schedule)
North, who has made a number of media appearances around the 2023 NFL Schedule announcement, has mentioned the effect that Aaron Rodgers has had on the Jets' primetime appeal.
"As such, obviously, they [the Jets] play the Bills twice, they've got an incredible schedule this year. They play Kansas City, they play Dallas, they play Philly. If Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback, we're going to do something with those games. If Aaron Rodgers isn't the quarterback of the Jets, we're going to do something with those games, but maybe not as much," said North as a guest on Audacy's "It's Always Gameday in Buffalo" podcast.
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