Jeff Bezos didn’t have to purchase the Washington Commanders.
He already owns your entire NFL.
Amazon wasn’t happy that its Prime Thursday Night Football rankings had been down late final season, so commissioner Roger Goodell whipped up the votes to appease his streaming accomplice this spring — fan flexibility and participant security issues be damned.
Not even vehement protests from Giants co-owner John Mara may stop the league’s 32 house owners from approving a measure that may permit the NFL and Amazon to flex video games to Thursday Night Football twice this season between Weeks 13 and 17.
It handed by the minimal variety of votes, 24-8, at a Monday afternoon assembly in Minneapolis. This is on high of Goodell and the house owners passing a measure in March that allowed the NFL to schedule groups for 2 Thursday Night video games in a single season as an alternative of 1.
The flexed Thursday video games should be flexed a minimal of 28 days previous to the date, which is extra discover than the beforehand proposed 15-day interval. And the rule change is billed as a “one-season trial.”
But within the occasion that the NFL and Amazon don’t flex the 2 video games to Thursday this season, the measure would keep in place for 2024.
So now, a household of 4 should buy tickets in August to a December Sunday recreation and discover out in November that the sport is now on a Thursday evening.
“I’m disappointed, but certainly not surprised,” Mara informed NFL Network.
The worst a part of the house owners passing this vote is how blatant their self-interest stands above any concern for touring followers or late-season participant well being.
Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones, for instance, identified that solely seven p.c of NFL followers have ever been in a stadium, in line with NFL Network. In different phrases, the NFL’s message to ticket-buying followers is: Keep spending your cash, however you’re not our precedence.
Unforgettably, Mara revealed in March that Goodell and the league had basically bypassed the NFL’s government council and well being and security committee to try to pressure by the measure for its streaming accomplice.
“At some point, can we please give some consideration to the people who are coming to the games?” an incredulous Mara stated then. “People make plans to go to these games weeks and months in advance. And 15 days ahead of time to say, ‘Sorry, folks, that game you were planning on taking your kids to Sunday at one o’clock, it’s now gonna be Thursday night.’”
Many coaches and gamers are also snickering on the NFL’s competitors committee citing “player safety” as its purpose for proposing a kickoff rule change whereas the house owners push by extra brief weeks and Thursday flexes on high of the comparatively new 17-game common season schedule.
The Giants, Jets, Packers, Bears, Raiders, Lions, Bengals and Steelers all voted in opposition to the flexing proposal, in line with ESPN. Unfortunately, Mara couldn’t drum up yet another “nay.”
The Jets and Amazon are fascinatingly entangled in one another’s fortunes prior to now yr.
An unwatchable Jaguars 19-3 win over the Jets in Week 16 (thanks quite a bit, Zach Wilson!) was one of many many stinkers that led to decrease Thursday rankings late final season. So that recreation helped catalyze three big developments, it seems: an Aaron Rodgers commerce to the Jets, elevated Thursday appearances for groups, and the flexing of Thursday Night Football.
The Jets additionally accepted the chance to host the Miami Dolphins in Amazon’s first-ever Black Friday recreation this November whereas concurrently voting in opposition to the flexing measure.
Yet nonetheless, for almost all of the league’s house owners, a money-making accomplice took precedence above something on Monday which, as Mara stated, is disappointing however not shocking.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com