Jets hope to make home game on Black Friday a tradition

The Jets are hosting the Miami Dolphins the day after Thanksgiving in 2023 in the NFL’s first Black Friday game. According to NFL executive Mike North, the Jets want to make the Black Friday game an annual tradition. North made the comments on Adam Schefter’s podcast.

The Jets, however, are not the only team hoping to host a game on Black Friday.

North told reporters last week that the Cincinnati Bengals lobbied to host the Black Friday game as an annual fixture. During his interview with Schefter, he mentioned the Jets as another team interested in being an annual host of the holiday game, similar to the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys traditionally hosting nationally televised games on Thanksgiving.

“I hope I’m not speaking out of turn when I mentioned to people that the Bengals volunteered,” said North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning. “There were others that kind of raised their hands for Black Friday as well.”

The Lions and Cowboys have turned annual Thanksgiving spots into featured games. It is easy to understand why the Jets would want to carve out a traditional timeslot on a holiday weekend.

North’s comments about other teams being interested makes me doubt the game will become an annual feature for the Jets. Since 2006 when the NFL introduced a primetime game on Thanksgiving night, numerous teams have lobbied to become the permanent host for the game. Since so many teams want the slot, the league has opted against picking one team. Each year the third game on Thanksgiving features a different host. I would expect to see the same thing happen on Black Friday.