NBC made it official at halftime of tonight's Cowboys-Redskins game. The Jets will play the Bengals on NBC's Sunday Night Football next week with a chance to make the Playoffs.
The flexible scheduling slot for the Sunday night game in Week 17 has been filled. The NFL announced Sunday the game between the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Jets has been moved from a 1 p.m. ET kickoff to 8:30 p.m. ET and will be aired nationally on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
The game will mark the Bengals’ second regular-season appearance on Sunday Night Football since the series moved to NBC in 2006.
This is the first time the Jets will appear on Sunday Night Football on NBC. That's pretty incredible. You would have thought they would have flexed them some time last year to get Favre or maybe a Mangini-Belichick duel.
You might not want to hear this, but the last time the Jets played a game on NBC, it was a similar win and in Week 17 game against the Lions in 1997, Bill Parcells' first year. That ended in a heartbreaking loss to make the Playoffs.
No bad thoughts are allowed here, though. Last year the Jets were still alive heading into the last week of the season, but this has such a different feel. The way the team was playing this time a year ago, it felt like waiting for an execution. You knew it was going to end painfully. This couldn't be more different. I'm so fired up right now.
How tough is it going to be to wait for 8:30 next Sunday?