Apparently, Black Friday is more than just biggest shopping day of the year, it is now one of the most sought-after NFL days of the year. And the New York Jets have the inside track to own it.

On Friday, November 24^th at 3pm ET the Jets will host the Miami Dolphins in the NFL’s first Black Friday matchup. It is only game of the day, and it is considered to be a prime slot (pun intended). The rights to the game belong exclusively to Amazon Prime. Don’t be disheartened if Amazon already gets too much of your money that day, the game will stream for free, even if you aren’t an Amazon Prime member.

The Jets hosting the first NFL Black Friday game is not something that would have been considered a year ago, but the addition of Aaron Rodgers to go along with the young team made the Jets a national draw. The league obviously has big hopes for the 2023 New York Jets and giving them this marquee matchup shows that. 

According to league executive Mike North on an appearance on The Adam Schefter Podcast other teams, including the Cincinnati Bengals, lobbied the NFL to host that game not only this year, but on an annual basis similar to the way the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys host Thanksgiving Day games.  

"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."- NFL's vice president of broadcast planning Mike North on The Adam Schefter Podcast

Once the scope of hosting the game settled in, the Jets realized they could have a foot in the door on a big annual property. North said, "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?’ 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."

This would be an amazing idea for the Jets, but this would be a terrible idea for the league. Let’s not forget we are talking about a team that holds the current streak of longest active playoff drought. Let’s not forget we are talking about a team that has drafted two quarterbacks in the top-3 in the last six years and neither of them are true starters.

Let’s not forget that as excited as the fan base is for this year’s team, it could all go away next year if Aaron Rodgers decides he is 100% retired after emerging from an offseason darkness retreat. Imagine a national audience subjected to Zach Wilson year in and year out as the only game in town.

The NFL already made this mistake with the Lions. While the Lions are fun to watch now, for years the Lions game was when you ate your turkey dinner, because you knew you weren’t going to miss much. Say what you want about the NFL, but it exists to make money and putting a subpar product in big time spots is bad for business.

The Black Friday game is already shaping up to be a marquee game every season that every franchise would like to have a piece of. The game also reiterates how the NFL views the future of streaming and the partnership it has with Amazon. The service took over as the exclusive home for Thursday Night Football last year and its partnership with the NFL only seems to be growing larger. 

The 2023 New York Jets are a big time draw nationally. But it wouldn’t be a safe bet to think they will have the same cache in years to come.