Forget the NFL’s plan to take over Black Friday. Well, forget about it for 2022 anyway.
Peter King tweeted yesterday that the league feels like there are too many obstacles to make the game happen this season. Instead, expect the league and Amazon to be ready for 2023.
According to King, there were two major factors that lead to the decision. The first was the notion of giving the week seven nationally televised games. The other was that while the league would have to compete with college football on Black Friday in any year, in 2022 there is also a World Cup to worry about. The United States is scheduled to take on England on Black Friday.
It is definitely fair to think that an NFL game could outrate either of the other options. The problem is that there are people that would choose the novelty of the USMNT playing in the World Cup. The ratings win may not be big enough for the NFL to justify the cost of staging the game.
The decision seems like the right one for the NFL. It is also good news for CBS, ABC and FOX. Those networks routinely carry college football games on Black Friday. By waiting until 2023, the NFL has given those networks time to figure out their strategy for the future when the NFL will almost certainly be taking a big chunk out of the ratings they have become accustomed to.
