NFL Announces 'Black Friday' Game for 2023 Season

By Brian Jones

The NFL will continue to take over Thanksgiving weekend with the addition of a new game. On Tuesday, the league and Amazon announced that Prime Video will exclusively steam a newly scheduled "Black Friday" game the day after Thanksgiving Day. The game will take place on Friday, Nov. 23, 2023, and the kickoff time is expected to be at 3 p.m. ET. It will be the first time the league will play a game on Black Friday. 

"Thanksgiving is synonymous with football and we're excited to give our fans another day of NFL action during this holiday weekend," Hans Schroeder, Chief Operating Officer for NFL Media, said in a statement. "Amazon is uniquely positioned to partner with us for this game as Black Friday is one of the most important days of the year for their business."  

The participating teams will be announced when the 2023 schedule is released, which will likely happen in May 2023. Prime Video is the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football, a package that is averaging 10.8 million viewers through the first five games of the season. 

"Thursday Night Football has already proven tremendously successful on Prime Video, delivering millions of viewers every week, and we're excited to expand our relationship with the NFL with the inaugural Black Friday game, starting next year," Jay Marine, Global Head of Sports, Prime Video, said in a statement. "Black Friday is the unofficial start of the holiday season, and we're thrilled to kick it off with a gift for football fans across the country with this new game." 

According to the Associated Press, there were rumors of a Black Friday game being played this year. However, the day is already set with World Cup and big college football matchups. There will be three games on Thanksgiving Day this year, including the Buffalo Bills vs. Detroit Lions, New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots vs. Minnesota Vikings. For Christmas, the NFL will play a full schedule of games on Christmas Eve as it falls on a Saturday. There will be three games played on Christmas Day — Green Bay Packers vs. Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos vs. Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Arizona Cardinals. 

The NFL has played three games on Thanksgiving Day regularly since 2006. The Lions and Cowboys always host games in the afternoon, and Fox and CBS alternate carrying those two games. The prime-game game airs on NBC and features different teams each year. 

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