This will be the season of Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets in the NFL.
ESPN’s Troy Aikman announced Thursday morning that Rodgers would make his regular-season debut as a Jet against the Buffalo Bills on Monday, Sep 11 (8 p.m. ET).
The nationally-televised game from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey will be simulcast across ABC, ESPN and ESPN+.
It should generate monster TV ratings for the venerable “Monday Night Football,” the league’s original prime-time football franchise.
It’s also great news for The Walt Disney Co., which is paying a combined $165 million over five years for its new MNF booth of Aikman and Joe Buck.
After their long previous run at Fox Sports, this will be their second season in the booth together at ESPN.
“Aaron Rodgers was the story all off-season. He went where he was hoping to go – that’s the New York Jets. Immediately, they’re a Super Bowl contender,” Aikman told Robin Roberts on ABC’s “Good Morning America” morning show.
“We all know what Josh Allen and the Bills have been able to do the last several years. They’ve come up a little bit short. To have that game on Monday Night Football to kick off the season…We’re really excited to be ending off the Week 1 games with the Bills at the New York Jets. Should be fantastic.”
On Wednesday, the NFL revealed that Rodgers and Gang Green will also play the Miami Dolphins in the league’s first-ever Black Friday game on Friday, Nov. 24 (3 p.m. ET). The game will be exclusively streamed by Amazon Prime Video.
