May 16, 2024 • 34 mins
Host Eric Allen is joined in the Audi Performance Studio by Mike North, the NFL's VP of Broadcast Planning. 1:30 - What made the Jets an attractive option for primetime and stand-alone games for the NFL. 4:30 - Why the Jets vs San Francisco 49ers was selected for the first Monday Night Football matchup of the season. 12:05 - How the days off between games affect the schedule making process. 15:30 - If the Jets home atmosphere last season went into the thought process for primetime games this season. 18:30 - The appeal in having the Jets play in the International Games in London against the Minnesota Vikings. 26:10 - What fans need to know about flexible scheduling in the last few months of the season.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the official Jets podcast. Ericaum here at One
Jets Drive, joined by Mike North, the vice president of
broadcast Planning for the National Football League. Mike, thanks so
much for joining us today. You are a busy man.
I gotta imagine you're feeling quite good now that the
grind is done.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You know, it's interesting, Eric, I think I said this
to you guys last year. It's both kind of the
best and worst day of the year. It's almost like
that line in City Slickers where they were asking him,
you know, his favorite day and his worst day. Look,
it's obviously culmination of a long process and a lot
of sleepless nights, a lot of panic and anxiety, a
lot of mountain dew and jelly beans. Obviously really happy
(00:46):
to have the project you know, finished and out to
the fans. But also, you know, you always worry on
a day like today, you know, what did we miss?
What is somebody going to point to that maybe we
weren't prepared for. We talked to the teams yesterday, the
network partners today, and you know, everybody gets something, nobody
gets everything, so always just trying to learn and see
(01:06):
what was you know, the hot button issues for both
the teams and the partners, and trying to figure out
what was really important that we might have missed or
maybe what we did well or maybe over delivered, and
how to adjust this process moving forward.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Let's get into it right here. I'm going to get
into a bunch of specifics with you, but bottom line,
the National Football League all in on the New York
Jets this year. Six prime time games, seven stand alone contests.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah. Look, this time last year they were the story
of the offseason. You can make a case, and you
know what's really changed. I know, the quarterbacks a year
older and coming off a major injury, but certainly well rested,
and it seems to us like the team only got better.
So if we were all in last year, I think
(01:54):
we're all in again. And you know it's not even us, right,
it's the fans. What do the fans care about? What
are they most interested in seeing? And I think if
you talk to most fans, and certainly as we talked
to our media partners, you know, one of the key
storylines of the year clearly is, you know, the Aaron
Rodgers experience that we got robbed of last year. Man
(02:14):
nobody saw, you know, only four plays coming from last season,
So I feel like we're, you know, just kind of
running back twelve months ago. We were all in. I'm
not sure really what's changed, so to the extent that,
you know, the Jets think they're going to be good.
The last time we saw this guy play quarterback, he
was playing at an MVP level. Yeah, I think it's
(02:34):
safe to say we are bullish, you know, if not
on the Jets playoff chances, certainly on the fan interest
in you know, Aaron Rodgers, certainly through the first let's
call it eight or nine weeks of the season, and
then from that point on, you know, once you get
to the second half, you're less about storylines and you know,
playing against your old team and how are you going
to adjust to a new coach or a new offensive coordinator.
(02:56):
Second half of the season's really just about playoff implications.
So the stories early and then really let the standings
dictate what matters late.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Mike bottom line, I think this is historic because you're
talking about the Jets six primetime games within eleven weeks
and then for home primetime games in nine weeks. We've
been doing some research around here. I haven't seen anything
like that throughout the league.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, look, some of it comes with the addition of
you know, more primetime windows. So we've got you know,
kind of more mouths to feed, whether it's those side
by sides for AVC and espno Monday Night Football, obviously
the standalone game in London with the trip to the UK.
You know, those are becoming more prevalent. There's probably gonna
(03:42):
be seven or eight of them maybe next year you
look down the stretch. Obviously we added some new windows
here with our little Christmas round robin. So you know,
the days when you had seven, eight nine games being
played on each of you know, CBS and Fox on
a Sunday afternoon and the vast majority of our games
being played at one o'clock, that's not really where this
(04:03):
project is going. That's not really where fan consumption is going.
So we've got a lot more mouths to feed, a
lot more national windows, and therefore the teams that are
most interesting to our fans and to our partners are
probably going to find themselves in you know, one or
two more national windows now than they probably would have.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Let's start at week one. Why were the Jets in
the forty nine ors so attractive to you guys, Monday
night football for a second consecutive season for the Jets opener. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Look, there was a lot of schedules that we looked
at where we were literally just going to run it
back Buffalo Jets again week one on Monday night. We
looked at Jets Dolphins for Monday Night, and I shouldn't
say it was locked in on Monday night. There's as
you well know, the Giants are celebrating their hunter season,
and so one of the things that they were thinking
about was, hey, how about week one at home at
(04:53):
one o'clock in the afternoon, we can bring back some
of the alumni. Those alumni events get a little harder
as you get later in the day, you know, past
some of us old guys at dinner time and bedtime.
So once we kind of got our mind around maybe
the Giants at home Sunday of one o'clock of week one,
then you start thinking about what do you want to
do with that Jets first game and obviously Aaron Rodgers
(05:15):
second first game as a Jets quarterback. We looked at
schedules where you know, they might have found themselves on
a road on a Sunday afternoon maybe at Tennessee or
Jacksonville and then come home in Week two and be
that first Amazon Thursday Night game. You know, didn't seem right.
Maybe to have that first game of the season kind
of be buried in a window with say eight or
(05:36):
nine other games, Like I think that's one of the
ones that the fans want to see. So Sunday Night
was an option, certainly looked at that Monday Night obviously
an option, And you think about what ESPN and the
Disney family can bring to kind of amplify a Week
one storyline like that the game will be simulcast on
ESPN and ABC. You know last year they had a
game pretty sure it was Philly Kansas City, that Super
(05:58):
Bowl rematch. When you saw on both of those networks
like that, you're approaching twenty nine to thirty million people,
you know, watching a game that shows you if the
fans want to find it, they can, so, like I said,
it could have been Jets Dolphins, It could have been
Jets Bills. It could have been Jets Jaguars or Jets Steelers,
but Jets Niners sounds like a pretty awesome Week one
game and looking forward to seeing what you know, ESPN
(06:20):
can do with a whole day's worth of promotion and
build up. And yeah, that one wouldn't say we locked
it in. But once you started seeing it started to
get real comfortable.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Is that something that computers spit out on their own
or is that something that you look at and say, okay,
we're targeting this from the get we know this is
an attractive matchup. The forty nine Ers just appeared in
the Super Bowl, narrowly loose to the Kansas City Chiefs
in overtime, second time in four years. You got so
many connections in this game. Aaron Rodgers coming back, you know,
(06:55):
northern California kid who went to cal Berkeley. Of course,
a lot of history from his days. So with the
Packers playing against the forty nine ers, got Robert Sala,
former defensive coordinator there under Kyle Shanahan, and the list
goes on and on.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, look, the answer to your question is the way
we look at it is all two hundred and seventy
two of these matchups have value clearly, and which ones
do the fans most want to see and therefore shouldn't
find themselves in windows where the most fans can't get
to them So did we tell the computer put Jet
sand Fram Monday night a week one? No? Did we
(07:31):
tell the computer Jet sanfran is a big one and
it really needs to be Sunday night. Monday night could
have been a four to twenty five Eastern time game
on CBS or Fox. We looked at it for you know,
some of the holiday weekends. Maybe, like the computer should know,
we should know that that Jets Niners game was just
too big to kind of oh yeah, just another game
(07:54):
four to h five Eastern time in Week eight opposite
a Fox doubleheader game at four twenty five feet during
the Cowboys. Like, that's not the right use of that asset.
So did we tell the computer put it in week
one on Monday night?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
No?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Did we tell the computer make sure we get maximum
value out of a game like that? Yes? And so
as the computer spins around through the infinite solution space
and starts throwing back options to the scheduling team, which
we then bring to our boss, Hans Schroeder, which he
then brings to his boss, Roger Goodell. Like I said,
you would have been thrilled with the Jets Dolphins of
(08:28):
Jets Bills on Monday Night. But Jets Niners. It feels
like maybe maybe a step up, a little tick higher.
And as you kind of build out this historic opening
weekend where we're going to be playing games on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday,
that's a lot of football. That Monday night game really
needs to be something to kind of bookend and still
have everybody eager to get to when you get to
(08:49):
Monday night. And again you think about the ESPN family
of you know, media personalities, and they'll be talking about
it starting first thing in the morning with stevit A
and going all the way through with ESPN Radio and
all day long on all their platforms. I'm not sure
if it's a Manning cast, but I suspect it will be.
Like that's an awful lot of people talking about a
big game. Hopefully that culminates with you know, twenty twenty
(09:10):
five to thirty million people getting in front of their
televisions at eight o'clock on that Monday night, and then
hopefully the game is competitive and comes down to the wire,
you know, one score game in the fourth quarter. That's
the recipe for good ratings.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
We all know it's a change landscape, and you just
mentioned it before. But what goes into the thinking as
far as Week two, the Jets go back on the
road on a short week against Tennessee. That will be
the first time since twenty seventeen since back to back
road games. That's not really an anomaly in the National
Football League. But then Week three the home opener Thursday
(09:45):
night against New England. So ultimately, Mike, as you know,
three games and ten days for the Jets to start
the season.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, this is this is common frankly at this point
in the season. You know, talk to the Jets a
lot about this yesterday and today. If you're gonna get
hit with that sort of three games in ten days stretch,
probably better to catch it early in the season. You
probably rested. We had that bye week between the end
of preseason and start a regular season. We looked at
(10:12):
a lot not just where the games were being played,
but who the games were against. You know, nobody knows
anything in this league, obviously, but if you come out
of the gate with, you know, three teams that all
made the playoffs last year, even if they're all three
at home, is that better? And we talked a lot
about you know, that Jets Patriots game kind of September
(10:33):
did we targeted as a home opener, not necessarily, but
it felt good for our friends at Amazon to have
that Jets Patriots game. It's in the run of a
bunch of really good division games to kind of start
their season. So look, three games in ten days never easy.
But you know, I know the Jets fans won't believe this,
but you know they weren't singled out. I think, if
(10:53):
I'm remembering correctly, I think there's six such occasions this
season where teams play a Monday, Sunday, Thursday. And you've
all seen now we announced we're playing Christmas games this
year on Wednesday. So that's four teams playing Sunday, Saturday, Wednesday.
So this is just kind of the new normal for
the NFL right now. We'll obviously have conversations with all
(11:14):
the teams, all our football people, Competition Committee, Player Health
and Safety don't ever want to do anything that is,
you know, either patently unfair or unsafe. But again, I
think for the Jets fans wondering why they got singled out,
they really didn't. It's happened quite a bit across the
league this year. And again you could make an argument
that maybe early in the season better than having something
(11:37):
like that hits you after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Can you speak to the new normal? As far as
the Jets, I think over the first eleven games prior
to the week twelve by, they will not have consecutive
weeks of the same amount of days in between those games.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah. Look again, I think that's probably a byproduct of
just where we play our games now. Right we're playing
games on Thursday. We have, you know, a season long
Thursday slate. It wasn't that long ago, you know, we
only had half a season of Thursdays, And it wasn't
that long ago we only played on Thanksgiving on Thursdays.
So you know, you've got a Thursday night schedule every year.
(12:21):
These international games are here to stay, and, like we said,
becoming more prevalent. I think we might be looking at
half the teams in the league next year playing an
international game. You know, ideal probably not from a coaching standpoint,
but you know, you think about a coach who's been
here a couple of years, You think about a quarterback
that's been in the league a long time. Maybe it's
(12:43):
something that a team like that might overcome as opposed
to a team you know, with a new coach, a
new quarterback, trying to implement a new system, stuff like that.
Can we be that discerning about Hey, every team in
the league's got to have x many number of weeks
where they play Sunday to Sunday. You almost kind of
back yourselves into a corner that way, too, because if
you're Sunday to Sunday every year, every week, you're gonna
(13:05):
end up paying somebody who's coming off there Thursday or
coming off there by. And now are they more rested
and are you disadvantaged that way? This is a constant
evolving process. We're really fortunate that the computers and the
hardware and the software and our partners are you know,
kind of joined with us in lockstep, always thinking about
(13:26):
how to make this process better, how to innovate, how
to be smarter, how to use the resources we have
a little more smartly. And if we learn that, you know, hey, Monday, Sunday, Thursday,
we really shouldn't do because on the back end of
that stretch, you know, tem x finishes with a lower
expected win percentage, Like it'll be something we had just
moving forward. But again, I think the way the league
(13:48):
is going now where you think about some of these
new windows, some of these new partners. You know, this
is really a way to try to feed our fans,
you know, voracious appetite for more NFL football. You know,
you play it or games on a Sunday afternoon at
one o'clock, you can't watch them all, whereas you start
to spread them out a little bit. And now you
know in the league this year, we're playing what Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
(14:11):
It's almost like the COVID year where we just had
to kind of figure it out as we went. You know,
the fans are going to tell us if this is
too much, if this is too many games in national
windows and they just can't watch them all, they'll tell us.
But I don't think we've hit that inflection point yet.
And I think, you know, we're all going to have
to adjust a little bit, both in our viewing habits
and really in the team's preparation.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So you got Rogers back. You think this is a
very talented roster, no doubt about that. Let me ask
you about New England, the home opener September nineteenth, the
bills October fourteenth, Then of course after that Houston on
Halloween and then followed by two weeks later Indianapolis November seventeenth,
(14:53):
all games at Mettlife Stadium. Obviously, you think the Jets
are going to be a contending team early, at least early.
And you, guys, the way you have this schedule, Hey, listen,
this team could be a winner down the line. But
how much do you take into account game presentation and
maybe what the Jets did last year as far as
(15:17):
that atmosphere when you take it all in and say, hey, listen,
we're gonna give this team not just a couple of
home games at night, but four home games at night,
because yes, they're gonna be good on the field, but
also they bring it in terms of their presentation.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah. Look, this is a you know, for those of
us who go to stadiums every weekend, you know, lucky
enough to be in the building, there's nothing like being
in an NFL stadium, just the buzz leading up to
kickoff and then the noise and the lights and the
sound and the music. You know, I hate to keep
going back to that Buffalo game last year where Aaron
went out after four plays, but you know, despite a
(15:53):
real pall over the building there still turned out to
be maybe one of the most exciting games and one
of the most exciting finishes really had all season long.
And I just remember, you know, the touchdown at the end,
with the lights flickering and the noise and everybody going crazy.
It was a fun place to be. Can we capture
that emotion in the stadium so that it comes through
the television screen? You know, we talk a lot about,
(16:16):
you know, when we play these games in Germany in
England when you watch you know, those European soccer games
and they're just singing the whole time and there's just
so much noise and it's just a buzz you know.
Can we capture that. Can we get some of that,
you know for our game in our country And can
that really, like we said, kind of come through the
television screen and make you feel like you're there. And
(16:38):
the cameras are so good you're literally looking into the
guy's helmet. The mics are incredible. I mean, we are
hearing conversations that we never used to hear before, you know,
on television almost live. Yeah, there's no question, you know.
MetLife is an iconic venue for this league, hosted a
Super Bowl not that long ago. I suspect we'll host
another Super Bowl at some point. You know, every Jets
(17:00):
and Giants game is an event. They're bigger, you know,
when they're at night. They're bigger when they're under the lights.
They're bigger when they're in primetime. And you also think
about some of the rivalries you mentioned, you know, New
England coming to town, Buffalo come into town. You know,
those are big games no matter when we play them.
But to kind of slide them into that nighttime slot,
you know, there's a buzz not just in you know,
the stadium, but really in the whole you know city
(17:23):
right in Jersey, in Manhattan, everybody knows Bill's Jets tonight,
Bill's Jets tonight. There's people taking off work, there's people
getting on the train, getting out there, fill in the
parking lots. It's a full day. And that's something really
kind of special that this league has when you're playing
that night game and you can turn it into a
day long event because at the end of the day,
right it's only three hours of football and only sixty
(17:44):
minutes of actual action, but it's a day long celebration.
And yeah, there's no question, you know, the way the
Jets and the Giants really have made the you know,
big event feel for a game at MetLife that translates
through the television screen and that becomes something that our
television partners when we're meeting with them kind of early
in the scheduling process and they're targeting the games that
they would love to see on their schedule. There's a
(18:06):
lot of Jets and Giants home games, and there's a
lot of Jets and Giants games that ended up you
know at Mettlife in primetime this season.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Seven standalons that includes the Jets playing the Vikings in
Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium over there in London. What do you
think about the Jets product going overseas, going across the
pond again.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, Look, this was one of the ones where our
UK office they tell us every year, you know, we've
got our designated teams. Those are decided more by a
rotation and by whichever conference has the extra home games.
So we knew we were sending you know, Minnesota over
Chicago over Jacksonville goes regularly, Carolina, you know what's going
over to Germany. Once that part's known, then we kind
(18:47):
of work with an international department and try to figure out, okay,
here are the home opponents for those teams, which ones
kind of make sense, which one moved the needle, which
ones are going to be most well received? You know,
ten fifteen years ago, when do we started in two
thousand and six, I think so almost twenty years now.
It was still kind of new, and people were buying
tickets more out of curiosity, and you might remember like
(19:08):
they cheered way too much for punt, like they were
still learning our game. The fan over there has evolved.
It's beyond just like, oh, here's any random NFL game now,
thank you for your patronage. They know that, they really do,
and they want to see the biggest games. They want
to see the biggest stars, and they want to see
the biggest brands. And it was always interesting to me
(19:29):
to go to a London game and you might have
two teams playing each other, but if you look through
the stands, there's jerseys from thirty two other teams. Thirty
other teams, I should say, always a lot of Jets
jerseys in the stands in the London games. So that
was top of the list. And to their credit, the Jets,
we're willing and eagers a stretch, certainly at the ownership level.
(19:51):
Obviously he's got a history over there. But you know,
when a team raises their hand, you know, that certainly
helps us because you think about the promotion, the going
over early, opening your practices, doing fan events. I think
it's going to be a really fun week for the
Jets over there. And yeah, our international department was thrilled
to see that that's the game that landed there.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Does the club still have an option to take a
bye following the London game or debt no longer exists.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
That's something we talked to about everybody, talk about with everybody.
The challenge for us, at least for the teams going
over to the UK is we're trying to work around,
you know, the international soccer schedule. You mentioned it's a Tottenham,
so we're working around the Tottenham schedule. You're working around
Wembley's availability, whether the English national team is playing a
soccer game there. So we try to work around the
(20:39):
international breaks for the European soccer leagues and those tend
to happen kind of earlier in our season, you know.
So you're thinking about a week five, week six game,
do you really want your buye that early, and you know,
the teams have become so accustomed, I think to these
international games now we're playing most of them in the
(20:59):
afternoon over there, which is morning time over here. I
think the Jets are going to be back at Newark Airport,
probably earlier after that Tottenham game. Then they will, you know,
when they play Seattle or obviously after they play San
Francisco on a Monday night. So these European games are
becoming a lot more routine, and you're definitely seeing more
clubs opting out of the bye week. Just bring us
home to a home game. We'll just stay in our
(21:21):
routine and then we'll take that buy later when you know,
maybe that rest period might be a little bit more
well received.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah. I actually think it ends up three long weeks
for the Jets and then four short weeks. But after
they get back from London, you guys have them hosting
the Bills on Monday Night football, so you get that
extra day and then on the return interesting matchup Sunday
Night football, the Jets going to Pittsburgh, so another short
(21:49):
week there.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, and again you could argue with both sides, right,
the extra day coming back from London helps, but then
you know, short in the week as you head to
Pittsburgh for a big game. You know, it's hard to
look at it just on a one day here and there,
coming off a Monday, coming off of Saturday, whatever it is.
We tried to look at it more holistically, like where
are the breaks in the jet schedule where they can
get rested, get healthy. You know, you've got the two Thursdays,
(22:13):
so you get what we call the mini by where
you get kind of ten days off before the next game.
You got the extra day like you mentioned coming out
of the London game, and the bye fell all the
way down there in what we twelve. I mean for
a team that thinks they're going to be playoff relevant,
you know, you get that Week twelve by you kind
of get rested, you kind of get everybody healthy, you
kind of reset, and then you're hopefully rested and healthy
(22:36):
for that run to the playoffs. I always think about
that first time we did Week fourteen byes. It was
the first year we expanded the season out to eighteen
weeks and Tom Brady had moved on to Tampa. They
had one of the very first Week fourteen buyes that
this league's ever done, and I remember correctly, I think
they were kind of reeling. I think they might have
been six and six. They had just gotten beat by
(22:57):
maybe Cincinnati or Kansas City or something. They went into
a week fourteen by they came out healthy and rested
and ran the table for regular season, four postseason and
won a Super Bowl. So I think if I'm the
coach of the Jets, I like that Week twelve by,
your point is well taken. Just there's no real routine
in those early weeks, but hopefully there's a couple of
you know, kind of rest periods where they can catch
(23:18):
their breath, they can get healthy if they've had some injuries,
obviously hopefully not to their quarterback again, and then kind
of get into that routine kind of down the stretch
in December when obviously everybody's playing for playoff position.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Any consideration going back to back, having the Jets play
at San fran and then coming back and playing at
Arizona and the teams, including the Jets, reach out to
you guys and say, hey, listen, we do have interest
in doing that, because obviously you're not going to be
able to take in everybody's requests and accommodate thirty two teams.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, like we were talking earlier about the new normal,
there's an awful lot of mouths to feed. There's an awesome,
awful lot of television and media partner obligations to work around.
We've got minimum commitments to each of our broadcast partners
on a team by team appearance basis their stadium availability issues.
You know, you think about a Jets and Giants share
in a building like that. As soon as you take
(24:12):
one weekend out of the mix for a concert or
whatever else is going on in that building, that just
kind of gluts up what's left, and so you end
up seeing like the Sunday Monday or the Thursday Sunday,
which I know is tough on the staff at MetLife,
but yeah, look, the Jets were open to play in
the San Fran and Arizona games and back to back
week I'm not sure weeks one and two was exactly
(24:35):
what they had in mind once we sort of kind
of gotten around to you know, Jet sand Fran at
week one. I think if the Jets San Fran and
Arizona games had found themselves paired up in like weeks
thirteen and fourteen, even that probably wouldn't have worked. I
don't think they would have wanted to go out and
stay over the holiday. So yeah, they were willing to pair.
Other teams raise their hand, Miami, the Chargers, Arizona, San Francisco,
(24:59):
Los Angeles, you know, anybody with those long trips, you know,
raise their hand, willing to pair. But I'm not sure
we're at a position where we could say, I guarantee
you we're going to pair them. The you know, interesting
thing for us is just trying to figure out which
of these, you know, requests from the teams that we
can ACQUI us to end up having an impact not
just on the overall schedule, Hey if we do that,
(25:21):
we can't do this, but also on the competitive inequities
like is it fair for a team to get a
cross country trip pairing like that, stay out West practice,
save themselves that extra you know, ping ponging travel. You know,
if you do it for the Jets, do you have
to also do it for the Dolphins when they go
to the rams in Seattle? Like still kind of wrestling
(25:42):
down whether there's a real competitive impact on that. Totally
understand you know, the Jets' willingness to do it and
did we see schedules where they're long trips prepared? Yes?
Did we see one where they were paired in weeks
one and two? No?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
What do we have to know here, Mike about flexible
scheduling in two thos? I was in twenty four because
after the bye the Jets. Right now it's set up
for five one o'clock games. They host Seattle December one,
at Miami December eighth, at Jacksonville December fifteenth, and then
home to the Rams in the twenty second and then
(26:16):
at Buffalo on December twenty ninth. All those games scheduled
for one o'clock right now.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
All against pretty good teams too, that we think are
going to be playoff relevant. So I think the honest
answer to your question is, you know, everything's kind of
written in pencil. You know, all those games down the stretch.
That's where flexible scheduling really kicks in, not just for
Sunday nights anymore, but for Monday nights. We did our
first Monday night flex last season with that Seattle Philly game.
Moving to a Monday night. Thursday night has a component
(26:44):
of flex that one's going to be a little tougher
to forecast because understanding the changes to not just the fans,
but the teams and their travel and their charter and
their hotel. You know, we're going to make a Thursday
flex decision four weeks out, a Monday flex decision two
weeks out, on a Sunday flex decision as short as
one week out. So I think the honest answer to
your question is, if if the Jets are as good
(27:05):
as they think they are or as they're going to be,
and the teams that they're playing down the stretch right
there are also playoff relevant, you're certainly going to have
to be nimble. You know, We're never hiding the ball here.
I think we're pretty honest, pretty transparent, you know, with
our fans and with our clubs about Hey, look that
particular weekend, the Sunday night game we all thought was
going to be great has kind of fallen apart on us.
(27:26):
But look at that Jets game at one o'clock. It's
a definite candidate to move into a more high profile window.
Maybe not even all the way to primetime at eight
o'clock at night on Sunday or Monday, but even the
four o'clock in the afternoon. You know on a Sunday afternoon,
just if those are the games that matter the most
to our fans, we should try to find a way
to get them into a television window that's more available
(27:46):
to well, put.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Those babies in pencil. As far as the sixth prime
time and the seventh standalone in London, that's definitely happened
against the Vikings. You could have more primetime games into Sumber.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yes, yes, and it wouldn't be reckless, it wouldn't be cavalier,
wouldn't be haphazard. We got to be sensitive to where
were you the week before, where are you going to
be the week after? How many times is this for
not just your team but your fans to come out
to met Life like hopefully these kind of early season
primes when the weather's still nice and you know what
better way to spend in October day than in the
parking lot all day throwing a ball and then go
watch some primetime football. That part sounds great fully acknowledge.
(28:24):
Maybe it's a little different calculus if we're talking about
you know, a week whatever it is, sixteen seventeen, where
you know it may it might be a little chilly
for that Rams Jets game if we decide to take
that out of a one o'clock window and move it
into a primetime window. But those games are important to
CBS and Fox as well, right, we can't just take
all the best games and put them in primetime and
have Sunday afternoon just be you know, hey, whatever's left over,
(28:47):
Like those are important windows for us too. There's ten
eighteen million fans watching on a Sunday afternoon as well,
So having a big game at a one o'clock window,
you might actually find yourself distributed to sixty sixty five
seventy percent of the country if we don't have to
move you to prime in order to get more fans
to watch the game that matters the most of that weekend.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
How much did Christmas scheduling impact you guys this year?
And was there consideration of putting the AFC East in
that slot? And actually it impacts not just Christmas, right,
because those teams who are playing on Christmas are ultimately
going to end up playing that preceding Saturday.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You got it. We play Sunday to Thursday all the time.
If we're going to play on a Wednesday, which I'm
not sure we thought we were going to when we
started this process. But Saturday to Wednesday, it's akin to
Sunday to Thursday. So yeah, where the Jets in the
conversation maybe really early. I mean, the challenge here is that,
like you said, you're playing a bit of a round robin, right,
you gotta find four teams that you believe in that
(29:45):
are going to be playoff relevant in Week sixteen and
seventeen of the NFL season. It's may. I mean, what
do any of us know, But you gotta find four
teams that we think are going to be playoff relevant
worthy of two national television windows each and all happened
to play each other. So the division kind of made
sense if you could find a division where you thought
(30:05):
all four teams were going to be playoff relevant down
the stretch like that looked at maybe like an AFC
North where all four of those teams were kind of
in it all the way through down the end. Maybe
you could play two or three teams from a certain
division and see if they pair up with somebody else. Obviously,
you talk about Jets, San Francisco, Buffalo travels out. San
(30:26):
Francisco actually comes to Buffalo. So we thought, could there
be a Jets, Niners, Buffalo, you know, Miami, maybe round
Robin in there somewhere. That's a lot of travel though
for a short week. Not sure we should ask the
Jets to go to San fran on a short week
or San fran to come to Buffalo on a short week.
So really tried to kind of thread a really narrow
(30:46):
needle there where the Jets in the conversation early they were,
but where we landed on Christmas did not end up
utilizing the AFC East there. But yeah, it was a
unique challenge. And look, this problem never gets any easier.
But again, have spoken they want to see NFL games
on Christmas, So kind of had to figure out a
way to thread that Wednesday needle and I think we
did it pretty elegantly.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
What made this process unique twenty twenty four as far
as this schedule, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I mean I would tell you what probably made it
most unique for us was, you know, it's sports, right,
none of us know anything. It's May who knows which
these games are going to be playoff relevant. I still
think back to this time last year. We were all
in on the New York Jets and we were all
out on the Houston Texans. Yeah, the Texans didn't have
(31:36):
a single national game at all last year, so maybe
a little hedge this year. Every team's got at least
one national window where, hey, if you do surprise us,
you know, at least there's a chance for the fans
to see you. And then again you work your way
towards the back end of the season. That's where flexible
scheduling kind of kicks in. And for the teams that
have you know, surprised us, or played their way into
primetime or played their way into more you know, national
(31:58):
television windows, that's where we'll pull some levers. But exacerbated
challenged a little bit by the fact that you know,
you do have these two Saturday games now leading into
the Christmas round robin. You do have these three games
on Saturday in week seventeen. You do have the side
by side Monday night games. You do have all these
extra international games. Like we're thinning out the pool pretty
(32:19):
quick and still trying to feed an awful lot of mouth.
So process never gets any easier, But relish the challenge
and honored to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I like the way it shapes up from a Jets perspective,
with the Rogers and these prime time games. Because you
mentioned CJ. Stroud and the Texans before. They weren't quite
on your radar last year, but they win the AFC
selth so now you have them coming to met Life.
It's kind of like the old guard versus these new
young arms. And then how about Anthony Richardson as well,
(32:50):
So that can you talk about how you guys take
that all in and think about the changing storylines.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Yeah, you think about a team like Houston that we
didn't see coming. You think about a team like Indianapolis
lost Richardson and we're still playoff relevant all the way.
I believe to Week eight team last year right with
Gardner under center. So you know, you've got young quarterbacks
and you've sort of seen a pattern in this league
year two, year three when they start to get it
and everything kind of slows down for them. And we
can still tell some of the stories of some of
(33:18):
the young quarterbacks that just got drafted, whether it's in
Washington or New England or obviously in Chicago. So you know,
like we said, storylines kind of early in the season,
playoff implications late in the season, and I think you
hit it right on the head. There's storylines really with
every Jets game, assuming Aaron's under center, and we are
sure hoping he is. There's storylines with every Jets game,
(33:39):
and really looking forward to seeing how it plays out,
and hope the fans are excited to see it.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
To night A busy man. We appreciate your time. You
got any golf on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I don't know what you're talking about, but thank you
for having me on pleasure. Always happy to talk to
you guys. And you know what, maybe let's connect again
kind of mid season. Let's see we'll get through.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
We will do that. Well, let's see how.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
We get through the first eight week gauntlet, and let's
see what we are maybe during the bye week and
talk again and see if we can do some am
high steering about which of those games in December might
be candidates for a flex scheduling.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Much like you in December. We're gonna pencil you in.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Everything's in pencil, my man. Good to see Eric. Take
care
Welcome to the official Jets podcast. Ericaum here at One
Jets Drive, joined by Mike North, the vice president of
broadcast Planning for the National Football League. Mike, thanks so
much for joining us today. You are a busy man.
I gotta imagine you're feeling quite good now that the
grind is done.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You know, it's interesting, Eric, I think I said this
to you guys last year. It's both kind of the
best and worst day of the year. It's almost like
that line in City Slickers where they were asking him,
you know, his favorite day and his worst day. Look,
it's obviously culmination of a long process and a lot
of sleepless nights, a lot of panic and anxiety, a
lot of mountain dew and jelly beans. Obviously really happy
(00:46):
to have the project you know, finished and out to
the fans. But also, you know, you always worry on
a day like today, you know, what did we miss?
What is somebody going to point to that maybe we
weren't prepared for. We talked to the teams yesterday, the
network partners today, and you know, everybody gets something, nobody
gets everything, so always just trying to learn and see
(01:06):
what was you know, the hot button issues for both
the teams and the partners, and trying to figure out
what was really important that we might have missed or
maybe what we did well or maybe over delivered, and
how to adjust this process moving forward.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Let's get into it right here. I'm going to get
into a bunch of specifics with you, but bottom line,
the National Football League all in on the New York
Jets this year. Six prime time games, seven stand alone contests.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah. Look, this time last year they were the story
of the offseason. You can make a case, and you
know what's really changed. I know, the quarterbacks a year
older and coming off a major injury, but certainly well rested,
and it seems to us like the team only got better.
So if we were all in last year, I think
(01:54):
we're all in again. And you know it's not even us, right,
it's the fans. What do the fans care about? What
are they most interested in seeing? And I think if
you talk to most fans, and certainly as we talked
to our media partners, you know, one of the key
storylines of the year clearly is, you know, the Aaron
Rodgers experience that we got robbed of last year. Man
(02:14):
nobody saw, you know, only four plays coming from last season,
So I feel like we're, you know, just kind of
running back twelve months ago. We were all in. I'm
not sure really what's changed, so to the extent that,
you know, the Jets think they're going to be good.
The last time we saw this guy play quarterback, he
was playing at an MVP level. Yeah, I think it's
(02:34):
safe to say we are bullish, you know, if not
on the Jets playoff chances, certainly on the fan interest
in you know, Aaron Rodgers, certainly through the first let's
call it eight or nine weeks of the season, and
then from that point on, you know, once you get
to the second half, you're less about storylines and you know,
playing against your old team and how are you going
to adjust to a new coach or a new offensive coordinator.
(02:56):
Second half of the season's really just about playoff implications.
So the stories early and then really let the standings
dictate what matters late.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Mike bottom line, I think this is historic because you're
talking about the Jets six primetime games within eleven weeks
and then for home primetime games in nine weeks. We've
been doing some research around here. I haven't seen anything
like that throughout the league.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, look, some of it comes with the addition of
you know, more primetime windows. So we've got you know,
kind of more mouths to feed, whether it's those side
by sides for AVC and espno Monday Night Football, obviously
the standalone game in London with the trip to the UK.
You know, those are becoming more prevalent. There's probably gonna
(03:42):
be seven or eight of them maybe next year you
look down the stretch. Obviously we added some new windows
here with our little Christmas round robin. So you know,
the days when you had seven, eight nine games being
played on each of you know, CBS and Fox on
a Sunday afternoon and the vast majority of our games
being played at one o'clock, that's not really where this
(04:03):
project is going. That's not really where fan consumption is going.
So we've got a lot more mouths to feed, a
lot more national windows, and therefore the teams that are
most interesting to our fans and to our partners are
probably going to find themselves in you know, one or
two more national windows now than they probably would have.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Let's start at week one. Why were the Jets in
the forty nine ors so attractive to you guys, Monday
night football for a second consecutive season for the Jets opener. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Look, there was a lot of schedules that we looked
at where we were literally just going to run it
back Buffalo Jets again week one on Monday night. We
looked at Jets Dolphins for Monday Night, and I shouldn't
say it was locked in on Monday night. There's as
you well know, the Giants are celebrating their hunter season,
and so one of the things that they were thinking
about was, hey, how about week one at home at
(04:53):
one o'clock in the afternoon, we can bring back some
of the alumni. Those alumni events get a little harder
as you get later in the day, you know, past
some of us old guys at dinner time and bedtime.
So once we kind of got our mind around maybe
the Giants at home Sunday of one o'clock of week one,
then you start thinking about what do you want to
do with that Jets first game and obviously Aaron Rodgers
(05:15):
second first game as a Jets quarterback. We looked at
schedules where you know, they might have found themselves on
a road on a Sunday afternoon maybe at Tennessee or
Jacksonville and then come home in Week two and be
that first Amazon Thursday Night game. You know, didn't seem right.
Maybe to have that first game of the season kind
of be buried in a window with say eight or
(05:36):
nine other games, Like I think that's one of the
ones that the fans want to see. So Sunday Night
was an option, certainly looked at that Monday Night obviously
an option, And you think about what ESPN and the
Disney family can bring to kind of amplify a Week
one storyline like that the game will be simulcast on
ESPN and ABC. You know last year they had a
game pretty sure it was Philly Kansas City, that Super
(05:58):
Bowl rematch. When you saw on both of those networks
like that, you're approaching twenty nine to thirty million people,
you know, watching a game that shows you if the
fans want to find it, they can, so, like I said,
it could have been Jets Dolphins, It could have been
Jets Bills. It could have been Jets Jaguars or Jets Steelers,
but Jets Niners sounds like a pretty awesome Week one
game and looking forward to seeing what you know, ESPN
(06:20):
can do with a whole day's worth of promotion and
build up. And yeah, that one wouldn't say we locked
it in. But once you started seeing it started to
get real comfortable.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Is that something that computers spit out on their own
or is that something that you look at and say, okay,
we're targeting this from the get we know this is
an attractive matchup. The forty nine Ers just appeared in
the Super Bowl, narrowly loose to the Kansas City Chiefs
in overtime, second time in four years. You got so
many connections in this game. Aaron Rodgers coming back, you know,
(06:55):
northern California kid who went to cal Berkeley. Of course,
a lot of history from his days. So with the
Packers playing against the forty nine ers, got Robert Sala,
former defensive coordinator there under Kyle Shanahan, and the list
goes on and on.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, look, the answer to your question is the way
we look at it is all two hundred and seventy
two of these matchups have value clearly, and which ones
do the fans most want to see and therefore shouldn't
find themselves in windows where the most fans can't get
to them So did we tell the computer put Jet
sand Fram Monday night a week one? No? Did we
(07:31):
tell the computer Jet sanfran is a big one and
it really needs to be Sunday night. Monday night could
have been a four to twenty five Eastern time game
on CBS or Fox. We looked at it for you know,
some of the holiday weekends. Maybe, like the computer should know,
we should know that that Jets Niners game was just
too big to kind of oh yeah, just another game
(07:54):
four to h five Eastern time in Week eight opposite
a Fox doubleheader game at four twenty five feet during
the Cowboys. Like, that's not the right use of that asset.
So did we tell the computer put it in week
one on Monday night?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
No?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Did we tell the computer make sure we get maximum
value out of a game like that? Yes? And so
as the computer spins around through the infinite solution space
and starts throwing back options to the scheduling team, which
we then bring to our boss, Hans Schroeder, which he
then brings to his boss, Roger Goodell. Like I said,
you would have been thrilled with the Jets Dolphins of
(08:28):
Jets Bills on Monday Night. But Jets Niners. It feels
like maybe maybe a step up, a little tick higher.
And as you kind of build out this historic opening
weekend where we're going to be playing games on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday,
that's a lot of football. That Monday night game really
needs to be something to kind of bookend and still
have everybody eager to get to when you get to
(08:49):
Monday night. And again you think about the ESPN family
of you know, media personalities, and they'll be talking about
it starting first thing in the morning with stevit A
and going all the way through with ESPN Radio and
all day long on all their platforms. I'm not sure
if it's a Manning cast, but I suspect it will be.
Like that's an awful lot of people talking about a
big game. Hopefully that culminates with you know, twenty twenty
(09:10):
five to thirty million people getting in front of their
televisions at eight o'clock on that Monday night, and then
hopefully the game is competitive and comes down to the wire,
you know, one score game in the fourth quarter. That's
the recipe for good ratings.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
We all know it's a change landscape, and you just
mentioned it before. But what goes into the thinking as
far as Week two, the Jets go back on the
road on a short week against Tennessee. That will be
the first time since twenty seventeen since back to back
road games. That's not really an anomaly in the National
Football League. But then Week three the home opener Thursday
(09:45):
night against New England. So ultimately, Mike, as you know,
three games and ten days for the Jets to start
the season.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, this is this is common frankly at this point
in the season. You know, talk to the Jets a
lot about this yesterday and today. If you're gonna get
hit with that sort of three games in ten days stretch,
probably better to catch it early in the season. You
probably rested. We had that bye week between the end
of preseason and start a regular season. We looked at
(10:12):
a lot not just where the games were being played,
but who the games were against. You know, nobody knows
anything in this league, obviously, but if you come out
of the gate with, you know, three teams that all
made the playoffs last year, even if they're all three
at home, is that better? And we talked a lot
about you know, that Jets Patriots game kind of September
(10:33):
did we targeted as a home opener, not necessarily, but
it felt good for our friends at Amazon to have
that Jets Patriots game. It's in the run of a
bunch of really good division games to kind of start
their season. So look, three games in ten days never easy.
But you know, I know the Jets fans won't believe this,
but you know they weren't singled out. I think, if
(10:53):
I'm remembering correctly, I think there's six such occasions this
season where teams play a Monday, Sunday, Thursday. And you've
all seen now we announced we're playing Christmas games this
year on Wednesday. So that's four teams playing Sunday, Saturday, Wednesday.
So this is just kind of the new normal for
the NFL right now. We'll obviously have conversations with all
(11:14):
the teams, all our football people, Competition Committee, Player Health
and Safety don't ever want to do anything that is,
you know, either patently unfair or unsafe. But again, I
think for the Jets fans wondering why they got singled out,
they really didn't. It's happened quite a bit across the
league this year. And again you could make an argument
that maybe early in the season better than having something
(11:37):
like that hits you after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Can you speak to the new normal? As far as
the Jets, I think over the first eleven games prior
to the week twelve by, they will not have consecutive
weeks of the same amount of days in between those games.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah. Look again, I think that's probably a byproduct of
just where we play our games now. Right we're playing
games on Thursday. We have, you know, a season long
Thursday slate. It wasn't that long ago, you know, we
only had half a season of Thursdays, And it wasn't
that long ago we only played on Thanksgiving on Thursdays.
So you know, you've got a Thursday night schedule every year.
(12:21):
These international games are here to stay, and, like we said,
becoming more prevalent. I think we might be looking at
half the teams in the league next year playing an
international game. You know, ideal probably not from a coaching standpoint,
but you know, you think about a coach who's been
here a couple of years, You think about a quarterback
that's been in the league a long time. Maybe it's
(12:43):
something that a team like that might overcome as opposed
to a team you know, with a new coach, a
new quarterback, trying to implement a new system, stuff like that.
Can we be that discerning about Hey, every team in
the league's got to have x many number of weeks
where they play Sunday to Sunday. You almost kind of
back yourselves into a corner that way, too, because if
you're Sunday to Sunday every year, every week, you're gonna
(13:05):
end up paying somebody who's coming off there Thursday or
coming off there by. And now are they more rested
and are you disadvantaged that way? This is a constant
evolving process. We're really fortunate that the computers and the
hardware and the software and our partners are you know,
kind of joined with us in lockstep, always thinking about
(13:26):
how to make this process better, how to innovate, how
to be smarter, how to use the resources we have
a little more smartly. And if we learn that, you know, hey, Monday, Sunday, Thursday,
we really shouldn't do because on the back end of
that stretch, you know, tem x finishes with a lower
expected win percentage, Like it'll be something we had just
moving forward. But again, I think the way the league
(13:48):
is going now where you think about some of these
new windows, some of these new partners. You know, this
is really a way to try to feed our fans,
you know, voracious appetite for more NFL football. You know,
you play it or games on a Sunday afternoon at
one o'clock, you can't watch them all, whereas you start
to spread them out a little bit. And now you
know in the league this year, we're playing what Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
(14:11):
It's almost like the COVID year where we just had
to kind of figure it out as we went. You know,
the fans are going to tell us if this is
too much, if this is too many games in national
windows and they just can't watch them all, they'll tell us.
But I don't think we've hit that inflection point yet.
And I think, you know, we're all going to have
to adjust a little bit, both in our viewing habits
and really in the team's preparation.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So you got Rogers back. You think this is a
very talented roster, no doubt about that. Let me ask
you about New England, the home opener September nineteenth, the
bills October fourteenth, Then of course after that Houston on
Halloween and then followed by two weeks later Indianapolis November seventeenth,
(14:53):
all games at Mettlife Stadium. Obviously, you think the Jets
are going to be a contending team early, at least early.
And you, guys, the way you have this schedule, Hey, listen,
this team could be a winner down the line. But
how much do you take into account game presentation and
maybe what the Jets did last year as far as
(15:17):
that atmosphere when you take it all in and say, hey, listen,
we're gonna give this team not just a couple of
home games at night, but four home games at night,
because yes, they're gonna be good on the field, but
also they bring it in terms of their presentation.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah. Look, this is a you know, for those of
us who go to stadiums every weekend, you know, lucky
enough to be in the building, there's nothing like being
in an NFL stadium, just the buzz leading up to
kickoff and then the noise and the lights and the
sound and the music. You know, I hate to keep
going back to that Buffalo game last year where Aaron
went out after four plays, but you know, despite a
(15:53):
real pall over the building there still turned out to
be maybe one of the most exciting games and one
of the most exciting finishes really had all season long.
And I just remember, you know, the touchdown at the end,
with the lights flickering and the noise and everybody going crazy.
It was a fun place to be. Can we capture
that emotion in the stadium so that it comes through
the television screen? You know, we talk a lot about,
(16:16):
you know, when we play these games in Germany in
England when you watch you know, those European soccer games
and they're just singing the whole time and there's just
so much noise and it's just a buzz you know.
Can we capture that. Can we get some of that,
you know for our game in our country And can
that really, like we said, kind of come through the
television screen and make you feel like you're there. And
(16:38):
the cameras are so good you're literally looking into the
guy's helmet. The mics are incredible. I mean, we are
hearing conversations that we never used to hear before, you know,
on television almost live. Yeah, there's no question, you know.
MetLife is an iconic venue for this league, hosted a
Super Bowl not that long ago. I suspect we'll host
another Super Bowl at some point. You know, every Jets
(17:00):
and Giants game is an event. They're bigger, you know,
when they're at night. They're bigger when they're under the lights.
They're bigger when they're in primetime. And you also think
about some of the rivalries you mentioned, you know, New
England coming to town, Buffalo come into town. You know,
those are big games no matter when we play them.
But to kind of slide them into that nighttime slot,
you know, there's a buzz not just in you know,
the stadium, but really in the whole you know city
(17:23):
right in Jersey, in Manhattan, everybody knows Bill's Jets tonight,
Bill's Jets tonight. There's people taking off work, there's people
getting on the train, getting out there, fill in the
parking lots. It's a full day. And that's something really
kind of special that this league has when you're playing
that night game and you can turn it into a
day long event because at the end of the day,
right it's only three hours of football and only sixty
(17:44):
minutes of actual action, but it's a day long celebration.
And yeah, there's no question, you know, the way the
Jets and the Giants really have made the you know,
big event feel for a game at MetLife that translates
through the television screen and that becomes something that our
television partners when we're meeting with them kind of early
in the scheduling process and they're targeting the games that
they would love to see on their schedule. There's a
(18:06):
lot of Jets and Giants home games, and there's a
lot of Jets and Giants games that ended up you
know at Mettlife in primetime this season.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Seven standalons that includes the Jets playing the Vikings in
Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium over there in London. What do you
think about the Jets product going overseas, going across the
pond again.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, Look, this was one of the ones where our
UK office they tell us every year, you know, we've
got our designated teams. Those are decided more by a
rotation and by whichever conference has the extra home games.
So we knew we were sending you know, Minnesota over
Chicago over Jacksonville goes regularly, Carolina, you know what's going
over to Germany. Once that part's known, then we kind
(18:47):
of work with an international department and try to figure out, okay,
here are the home opponents for those teams, which ones
kind of make sense, which one moved the needle, which
ones are going to be most well received? You know,
ten fifteen years ago, when do we started in two
thousand and six, I think so almost twenty years now.
It was still kind of new, and people were buying
tickets more out of curiosity, and you might remember like
(19:08):
they cheered way too much for punt, like they were
still learning our game. The fan over there has evolved.
It's beyond just like, oh, here's any random NFL game now,
thank you for your patronage. They know that, they really do,
and they want to see the biggest games. They want
to see the biggest stars, and they want to see
the biggest brands. And it was always interesting to me
(19:29):
to go to a London game and you might have
two teams playing each other, but if you look through
the stands, there's jerseys from thirty two other teams. Thirty
other teams, I should say, always a lot of Jets
jerseys in the stands in the London games. So that
was top of the list. And to their credit, the Jets,
we're willing and eagers a stretch, certainly at the ownership level.
(19:51):
Obviously he's got a history over there. But you know,
when a team raises their hand, you know, that certainly
helps us because you think about the promotion, the going
over early, opening your practices, doing fan events. I think
it's going to be a really fun week for the
Jets over there. And yeah, our international department was thrilled
to see that that's the game that landed there.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Does the club still have an option to take a
bye following the London game or debt no longer exists.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
That's something we talked to about everybody, talk about with everybody.
The challenge for us, at least for the teams going
over to the UK is we're trying to work around,
you know, the international soccer schedule. You mentioned it's a Tottenham,
so we're working around the Tottenham schedule. You're working around
Wembley's availability, whether the English national team is playing a
soccer game there. So we try to work around the
(20:39):
international breaks for the European soccer leagues and those tend
to happen kind of earlier in our season, you know.
So you're thinking about a week five, week six game,
do you really want your buye that early, and you know,
the teams have become so accustomed, I think to these
international games now we're playing most of them in the
(20:59):
afternoon over there, which is morning time over here. I
think the Jets are going to be back at Newark Airport,
probably earlier after that Tottenham game. Then they will, you know,
when they play Seattle or obviously after they play San
Francisco on a Monday night. So these European games are
becoming a lot more routine, and you're definitely seeing more
clubs opting out of the bye week. Just bring us
home to a home game. We'll just stay in our
(21:21):
routine and then we'll take that buy later when you know,
maybe that rest period might be a little bit more
well received.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah. I actually think it ends up three long weeks
for the Jets and then four short weeks. But after
they get back from London, you guys have them hosting
the Bills on Monday Night football, so you get that
extra day and then on the return interesting matchup Sunday
Night football, the Jets going to Pittsburgh, so another short
(21:49):
week there.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, and again you could argue with both sides, right,
the extra day coming back from London helps, but then
you know, short in the week as you head to
Pittsburgh for a big game. You know, it's hard to
look at it just on a one day here and there,
coming off a Monday, coming off of Saturday, whatever it is.
We tried to look at it more holistically, like where
are the breaks in the jet schedule where they can
get rested, get healthy. You know, you've got the two Thursdays,
(22:13):
so you get what we call the mini by where
you get kind of ten days off before the next game.
You got the extra day like you mentioned coming out
of the London game, and the bye fell all the
way down there in what we twelve. I mean for
a team that thinks they're going to be playoff relevant,
you know, you get that Week twelve by you kind
of get rested, you kind of get everybody healthy, you
kind of reset, and then you're hopefully rested and healthy
(22:36):
for that run to the playoffs. I always think about
that first time we did Week fourteen byes. It was
the first year we expanded the season out to eighteen
weeks and Tom Brady had moved on to Tampa. They
had one of the very first Week fourteen buyes that
this league's ever done, and I remember correctly, I think
they were kind of reeling. I think they might have
been six and six. They had just gotten beat by
(22:57):
maybe Cincinnati or Kansas City or something. They went into
a week fourteen by they came out healthy and rested
and ran the table for regular season, four postseason and
won a Super Bowl. So I think if I'm the
coach of the Jets, I like that Week twelve by,
your point is well taken. Just there's no real routine
in those early weeks, but hopefully there's a couple of
you know, kind of rest periods where they can catch
(23:18):
their breath, they can get healthy if they've had some injuries,
obviously hopefully not to their quarterback again, and then kind
of get into that routine kind of down the stretch
in December when obviously everybody's playing for playoff position.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Any consideration going back to back, having the Jets play
at San fran and then coming back and playing at
Arizona and the teams, including the Jets, reach out to
you guys and say, hey, listen, we do have interest
in doing that, because obviously you're not going to be
able to take in everybody's requests and accommodate thirty two teams.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, like we were talking earlier about the new normal,
there's an awful lot of mouths to feed. There's an awesome,
awful lot of television and media partner obligations to work around.
We've got minimum commitments to each of our broadcast partners
on a team by team appearance basis their stadium availability issues.
You know, you think about a Jets and Giants share
in a building like that. As soon as you take
(24:12):
one weekend out of the mix for a concert or
whatever else is going on in that building, that just
kind of gluts up what's left, and so you end
up seeing like the Sunday Monday or the Thursday Sunday,
which I know is tough on the staff at MetLife,
but yeah, look, the Jets were open to play in
the San Fran and Arizona games and back to back
week I'm not sure weeks one and two was exactly
(24:35):
what they had in mind once we sort of kind
of gotten around to you know, Jet sand Fran at
week one. I think if the Jets San Fran and
Arizona games had found themselves paired up in like weeks
thirteen and fourteen, even that probably wouldn't have worked. I
don't think they would have wanted to go out and
stay over the holiday. So yeah, they were willing to pair.
Other teams raise their hand, Miami, the Chargers, Arizona, San Francisco,
(24:59):
Los Angeles, you know, anybody with those long trips, you know,
raise their hand, willing to pair. But I'm not sure
we're at a position where we could say, I guarantee
you we're going to pair them. The you know, interesting
thing for us is just trying to figure out which
of these, you know, requests from the teams that we
can ACQUI us to end up having an impact not
just on the overall schedule, Hey if we do that,
(25:21):
we can't do this, but also on the competitive inequities
like is it fair for a team to get a
cross country trip pairing like that, stay out West practice,
save themselves that extra you know, ping ponging travel. You know,
if you do it for the Jets, do you have
to also do it for the Dolphins when they go
to the rams in Seattle? Like still kind of wrestling
(25:42):
down whether there's a real competitive impact on that. Totally
understand you know, the Jets' willingness to do it and
did we see schedules where they're long trips prepared? Yes?
Did we see one where they were paired in weeks
one and two? No?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
What do we have to know here, Mike about flexible
scheduling in two thos? I was in twenty four because
after the bye the Jets. Right now it's set up
for five one o'clock games. They host Seattle December one,
at Miami December eighth, at Jacksonville December fifteenth, and then
home to the Rams in the twenty second and then
(26:16):
at Buffalo on December twenty ninth. All those games scheduled
for one o'clock right now.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
All against pretty good teams too, that we think are
going to be playoff relevant. So I think the honest
answer to your question is, you know, everything's kind of
written in pencil. You know, all those games down the stretch.
That's where flexible scheduling really kicks in, not just for
Sunday nights anymore, but for Monday nights. We did our
first Monday night flex last season with that Seattle Philly game.
Moving to a Monday night. Thursday night has a component
(26:44):
of flex that one's going to be a little tougher
to forecast because understanding the changes to not just the fans,
but the teams and their travel and their charter and
their hotel. You know, we're going to make a Thursday
flex decision four weeks out, a Monday flex decision two
weeks out, on a Sunday flex decision as short as
one week out. So I think the honest answer to
your question is, if if the Jets are as good
(27:05):
as they think they are or as they're going to be,
and the teams that they're playing down the stretch right
there are also playoff relevant, you're certainly going to have
to be nimble. You know, We're never hiding the ball here.
I think we're pretty honest, pretty transparent, you know, with
our fans and with our clubs about Hey, look that
particular weekend, the Sunday night game we all thought was
going to be great has kind of fallen apart on us.
(27:26):
But look at that Jets game at one o'clock. It's
a definite candidate to move into a more high profile window.
Maybe not even all the way to primetime at eight
o'clock at night on Sunday or Monday, but even the
four o'clock in the afternoon. You know on a Sunday afternoon,
just if those are the games that matter the most
to our fans, we should try to find a way
to get them into a television window that's more available
(27:46):
to well, put.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Those babies in pencil. As far as the sixth prime
time and the seventh standalone in London, that's definitely happened
against the Vikings. You could have more primetime games into Sumber.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yes, yes, and it wouldn't be reckless, it wouldn't be cavalier,
wouldn't be haphazard. We got to be sensitive to where
were you the week before, where are you going to
be the week after? How many times is this for
not just your team but your fans to come out
to met Life like hopefully these kind of early season
primes when the weather's still nice and you know what
better way to spend in October day than in the
parking lot all day throwing a ball and then go
watch some primetime football. That part sounds great fully acknowledge.
(28:24):
Maybe it's a little different calculus if we're talking about
you know, a week whatever it is, sixteen seventeen, where
you know it may it might be a little chilly
for that Rams Jets game if we decide to take
that out of a one o'clock window and move it
into a primetime window. But those games are important to
CBS and Fox as well, right, we can't just take
all the best games and put them in primetime and
have Sunday afternoon just be you know, hey, whatever's left over,
(28:47):
Like those are important windows for us too. There's ten
eighteen million fans watching on a Sunday afternoon as well,
So having a big game at a one o'clock window,
you might actually find yourself distributed to sixty sixty five
seventy percent of the country if we don't have to
move you to prime in order to get more fans
to watch the game that matters the most of that weekend.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
How much did Christmas scheduling impact you guys this year?
And was there consideration of putting the AFC East in
that slot? And actually it impacts not just Christmas, right,
because those teams who are playing on Christmas are ultimately
going to end up playing that preceding Saturday.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You got it. We play Sunday to Thursday all the time.
If we're going to play on a Wednesday, which I'm
not sure we thought we were going to when we
started this process. But Saturday to Wednesday, it's akin to
Sunday to Thursday. So yeah, where the Jets in the
conversation maybe really early. I mean, the challenge here is that,
like you said, you're playing a bit of a round robin, right,
you gotta find four teams that you believe in that
(29:45):
are going to be playoff relevant in Week sixteen and
seventeen of the NFL season. It's may. I mean, what
do any of us know, But you gotta find four
teams that we think are going to be playoff relevant
worthy of two national television windows each and all happened
to play each other. So the division kind of made
sense if you could find a division where you thought
(30:05):
all four teams were going to be playoff relevant down
the stretch like that looked at maybe like an AFC
North where all four of those teams were kind of
in it all the way through down the end. Maybe
you could play two or three teams from a certain
division and see if they pair up with somebody else. Obviously,
you talk about Jets, San Francisco, Buffalo travels out. San
(30:26):
Francisco actually comes to Buffalo. So we thought, could there
be a Jets, Niners, Buffalo, you know, Miami, maybe round
Robin in there somewhere. That's a lot of travel though
for a short week. Not sure we should ask the
Jets to go to San fran on a short week
or San fran to come to Buffalo on a short week.
So really tried to kind of thread a really narrow
(30:46):
needle there where the Jets in the conversation early they were,
but where we landed on Christmas did not end up
utilizing the AFC East there. But yeah, it was a
unique challenge. And look, this problem never gets any easier.
But again, have spoken they want to see NFL games
on Christmas, So kind of had to figure out a
way to thread that Wednesday needle and I think we
did it pretty elegantly.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
What made this process unique twenty twenty four as far
as this schedule, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I mean I would tell you what probably made it
most unique for us was, you know, it's sports, right,
none of us know anything. It's May who knows which
these games are going to be playoff relevant. I still
think back to this time last year. We were all
in on the New York Jets and we were all
out on the Houston Texans. Yeah, the Texans didn't have
(31:36):
a single national game at all last year, so maybe
a little hedge this year. Every team's got at least
one national window where, hey, if you do surprise us,
you know, at least there's a chance for the fans
to see you. And then again you work your way
towards the back end of the season. That's where flexible
scheduling kind of kicks in. And for the teams that
have you know, surprised us, or played their way into
primetime or played their way into more you know, national
(31:58):
television windows, that's where we'll pull some levers. But exacerbated
challenged a little bit by the fact that you know,
you do have these two Saturday games now leading into
the Christmas round robin. You do have these three games
on Saturday in week seventeen. You do have the side
by side Monday night games. You do have all these
extra international games. Like we're thinning out the pool pretty
(32:19):
quick and still trying to feed an awful lot of mouth.
So process never gets any easier, But relish the challenge
and honored to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I like the way it shapes up from a Jets perspective,
with the Rogers and these prime time games. Because you
mentioned CJ. Stroud and the Texans before. They weren't quite
on your radar last year, but they win the AFC
selth so now you have them coming to met Life.
It's kind of like the old guard versus these new
young arms. And then how about Anthony Richardson as well,
(32:50):
So that can you talk about how you guys take
that all in and think about the changing storylines.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Yeah, you think about a team like Houston that we
didn't see coming. You think about a team like Indianapolis
lost Richardson and we're still playoff relevant all the way.
I believe to Week eight team last year right with
Gardner under center. So you know, you've got young quarterbacks
and you've sort of seen a pattern in this league
year two, year three when they start to get it
and everything kind of slows down for them. And we
can still tell some of the stories of some of
(33:18):
the young quarterbacks that just got drafted, whether it's in
Washington or New England or obviously in Chicago. So you know,
like we said, storylines kind of early in the season,
playoff implications late in the season, and I think you
hit it right on the head. There's storylines really with
every Jets game, assuming Aaron's under center, and we are
sure hoping he is. There's storylines with every Jets game,
(33:39):
and really looking forward to seeing how it plays out,
and hope the fans are excited to see it.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
To night A busy man. We appreciate your time. You
got any golf on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I don't know what you're talking about, but thank you
for having me on pleasure. Always happy to talk to
you guys. And you know what, maybe let's connect again
kind of mid season. Let's see we'll get through.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
We will do that. Well, let's see how.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
We get through the first eight week gauntlet, and let's
see what we are maybe during the bye week and
talk again and see if we can do some am
high steering about which of those games in December might
be candidates for a flex scheduling.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Much like you in December. We're gonna pencil you in.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Everything's in pencil, my man. Good to see Eric. Take
care
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