Why the NFL is playing on Friday, which is very rare, and why it’s Dolphins-Jets
How did the Dolphins - heck, how did any team - end up playing on Black Friday, the chronically chaotic shopping day that the NFL historically has avoided?
As part of its 11-year, $11 billion deal for streaming rights to Thursday night NFL games, Amazon asked for a game on the day after Thanksgiving.
Black Friday traditionally jump-starts the holiday shopping season, and Amazon executives viewed a Black Friday NFL game as a vehicle for the e-commerce giant to promote shopping deals.
Per Forbes, Amazon will offer special deals throughout Friday’s game, “including product drops from TCL, Dyson, LEGO and Nintendo. There will be onscreen sales throughout the live stream, with new e-commerce deals during all four quarters, as well as pregame and postgame shows.”
And “marketers will have interactive advertising opportunities available along with banner ads and QR codes that will take shoppers to their product page at Amazon.”
The Jets were selected to host the first Black Friday game because New York City is the retail capital of the nation. The Giants were bypassed partly because they’re playing on Christmas.
“Our friends at Amazon were eager for it,” NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North said of playing a game on Black Friday. “It’s a big retail day and they are a big retail partner, that’s their Super Bowl. The game has been moved in front of the [Prime] paywall and fans only need an internet connection.
“There aren’t a lot of windows to put an NFL game where we haven’t, and that was one of them. That weekend is such a big sports weekend -- three games on Thanksgiving, we usually have a good [Sunday] doubleheader, and that Friday afternoon felt like an itch we could scratch. Now there’s a game that feels like more people should be able to see. Getting that game to a national window is going to be fun.”
The Dolphins were chosen as the opponent because “we wanted to find the right divisional game in Year 1. Those games always matter.”
By NFL rules, games on cable channels or streaming services must be carried in the home markets by an over-the-station. CBS 4 won local bidding rights to air the game in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, and the Keys. No Palm Beach free TV station is permitted to air the game.
The NFL traditionally doesn’t play Friday games in part because of Congress’ Sports Broadcasting Act. A 1966 amendment withdrew antitrust immunity for any pro football telecast if a high school or college football game is played within 75 miles of the station airing the NFL game. That essentially eliminated Friday NFL games in September and October.
The NFL has played only eight Friday games since 1978, mostly because of the NFL’s restrictions during Christmas. In 2005, a Dolphins-Chiefs game scheduled for a Sunday (Oct. 23) was moved to 7 p.m. Friday due to Hurricane Wilma but was televised on only five affiliates in South Florida, Missouri and Kansas.
The NFL announced this year that it will carry games on Christmas every year unless Christmas is on a Tuesday and Wednesday.
