NFL Teams Ask About Becoming Permanent Host for Amazon Black Friday Game, per Report
The Jets are set to host the Dolphins for the NFL’s first Black Friday game, to be broadcast on Amazon Prime, an event that the league plans on becoming an annual tradition. However, unlike the Lions and Cowboys, which annually host games on Thanksgiving Day, the league hasn’t chosen one team to be the permanent Black Friday host.
Apparently, it’s not for a lack of trying, though.
Multiple teams have asked the league to host the Black Friday game on a permanent basis, according to USA Today’s Chris Bumbaca. However, the NFL instead would prefer to rotate the game in different cities, like it has done for the NFL draft since 2015.
The league is hopeful that the Black Friday game will become a staple of the schedule even without a permanent host.
“We’ll see how it goes, but I think our expectation and I think that the NFL’s expectation is that this becomes an annual tradition,” Amazon global head of sports and Prime Video vice president Jay Marine told USA Today. “If it goes as we plan.”
The NFL chose to add the Black Friday game this year to pair with its Amazon Thursday Night Football package, which began last season, especially since Amazon doesn’t broadcast any of the three Thanksgiving Day games. The league hopes it can combine its product with Amazon’s busiest day of the year to create a collaborate business victory.