The Jets landed on the NFL’s first-ever Black Friday sport on Prime Video partly as a result of Amazon needed a New York soccer group enjoying on the most important procuring day of the yr.
“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, maybe a game in New York might be a fun way to introduce this concept,’” NFL VP of broadcast planning Mike North mentioned in a convention name on Friday. “We did look at Eagles-Giants. We looked at a Jets home game. But we looked at other games, as well.”
North mentioned some individuals within the league appreciated the thought of a Chiefs-Raiders sport in that spot.
“Black Friday in the Black Hole,” he mentioned.
The Cincinnati Bengals additionally volunteered to host the sport and make it an annual custom, which is one thing North mentioned the NFL will “explore.”
Unquestionably, buying Aaron Rodgers landed the Jets their 5 prime-time evening video games plus the sixth in that unique 3 p.m. Black Friday slot.
The league was ready for each eventualities, utilizing AWS analytics to spit out totally different permutations relying on whether or not Rodgers remained a Green Bay Packer or bought dealt.
“If Aaron Rodgers is gonna be a Jet, great, let’s lock a couple of the Jets’ games into prime time, let’s allow a few more to be doubleheaders, let’s consider them for Black Friday, run [the schedule matrix] again,” North mentioned. “If Aaron Rodgers doesn’t get the deal done, if they don’t agree to the trade, then maybe May 1 we kind of peel back on some of those. Run it again. So we were lucky that those planes landed prior to the draft and we were able to lock it into a path we had already gone through.”
It was most attention-grabbing, although, that Amazon’s enter landed the Black Friday sport within the firm’s most well-liked market. It was a reminder — within the context of the controversy about groups’ elevated Thursday Night Football appearances — about which voices maintain sway within the room.
Giants co-owner John Mara was infuriated in March when a measure handed to let the NFL schedule groups for 2 Thursday evening video games per season, and one other measure making an attempt to flex video games to Thursdays from Weeks 14-17 was narrowly voted down.
That measure is predicted to come back again up for a second dialogue and vote between May 22-24 on the spring house owners’ conferences in Minnesota, too.
“At some point, can we please give some consideration to the people who are coming to the games?” an incredulous Mara mentioned.
Mara referred to as the thought of flexing video games to Thursday evening with solely 15 days discover “abusive” to followers.” He mentioned he wasn’t “crazy about” making groups play two Thursday video games per yr, both, citing participant well being issues and saying the NFL bypassed protocol in vetting the thought.
But he acknowledged they had been having the dialog as a result of “ratings towards the end of the year on Amazon were down a little bit.”
“You’re gonna add a second one and it’s gonna be late in the season when players’ bodies are a little more beaten up and battered than they were maybe earlier in the season,” Mara mentioned. “I think we need to look at that … Players don’t like playing on Thursday nights… I think you add a second one, it’s not gonna be very popular.”
In the 2023 schedule, there are three groups scheduled to play twice on Amazon’s Prime Video Thursday Night Football: the Chicago Bears, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints. The Jets are a fourth group on Amazon’s package deal twice, together with a Thursday Night go to to Cleveland late within the season and their Black Friday residence sport.
The league says there are eight groups enjoying on a number of quick weeks this season, together with the Detroit Lions, who’re enjoying on Thursday evening thrice together with the NBC season opener on the Kansas City Chiefs.
“You play your way into prime time,” North mentioned.
So far, North says, “nobody gave us real significant pushback” when the NFL bought groups on a name to debate their quick weeks and schedules earlier than the discharge. He thinks the larger query will likely be if the NFL is ready to stability the inequity from yr to yr.
“Ownership knew what they voted for,” North mentioned. “They knew it was gonna be an opportunity that it landed on them in yr one. I believe what everybody’s gonna be extra targeted on is what are we gonna do subsequent yr and the next yr? Is it gonna fall on the identical groups again and again? I believe Pittsburgh’s bought each of their quick weeks at residence this yr, so how competitively unfair is that?
“As of right now, there’s nobody really screaming and yelling at us, ‘Why’d you pick me?’” he mentioned. “But a quarter of the league ended up in this bucket this year with multiple short weeks. If any of those teams ends up in the bucket again next year, I suspect we’ll hear maybe just a little more griping.”
AROUND THE LEAGUE
Seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady is in “deep” discussions to turn out to be a restricted accomplice of the Las Vegas Raiders, based on ESPN, that means Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels — Brady’s longtime Patriots offensive coordinator — would possibly in the future work for his former quarterback. The report mentioned Brady’s funding is predicted to be “passive,” with no operational management or authority in enterprise or soccer issues. Brady, who tried to orchestrate a commerce to the Raiders late in his profession, additionally has purchased a stake within the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, a group that can be primarily owned by Raiders proprietor Mark Davis. …
The attorneys basic of New York and California just lately opened a joint investigation into allegations of office discrimination and pay inequities on the NFL places of work, based on the New York Times. The league has mentioned it is going to cooperate and doesn’t tolerate discrimination in any kind. The NFL faces accusations from dozens of present and former staff who described a demoralizing tradition that drove some girls to stop and left others feeling ostracized. “No matter how powerful or influential, no institution is above the law, and we will ensure the NFL is held accountable,” New York AG Letitia James mentioned in a press release. …
North, the NFL’s VP of broadcast planning, mentioned one purpose the Giants and Eagles had been scheduled to play on Christmas Day, a Monday, was that “you know that game has to have playoff implications.” Do you?
Here’s the excellent news: North doesn’t foresee the NFL scheduling video games on Christmas Day subsequent yr when it falls on Wednesday. …
Dan Snyder simply received’t go away. The Washington Commanders proprietor and his legal professionals are lobbying the NFL to restrict the discharge of lawyer Mary Jo White’s investigative report into allegations of Snyder’s sexual misconduct and monetary improprieties, based on ESPN. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who has enabled Snyder all through the dragged-out course of, has promised the report will likely be launched in full. A bunch led by Philadelphia 76ers billionaire proprietor Josh Harris is making an attempt to buy the franchise for $6.05 billion. But one proprietor instructed ESPN that Snyder “won’t go away without a fight.”
THEY SAID IT
“The worst thing we could do to a team was have them play the Kansas City Chiefs.” — North, the NFL’s VP of broadcast planning, on what the analytics deemed most unfair to a group’s schedule
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Source: www.bostonherald.com