Jets Complain About Scheduling Conflict With Jewish Holidays

On Tuesday night, a reader in New York pointed out that the Jets’ first two home games conflict with the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. According to the New York Daily News (via ESPN.com), the Jets complained to the league office about the scheduling quirk on Wednesday. The Jets are due to host the Patriots on September 20, the final day of Rosh Hashanah. They also host the Titans on September 27, the first day of Yom Kippur. Though Yom Kippur doesn’t begin until sundown on September 27, the Titans-Jets game is scheduled to commence at 4:15 p.m. EDT. The complaint from the team apparently resulted from complaints to the team. “The Jets are hearing from their fans,” Howard Katz, NFL senior VP of broadcasting, told the Daily News. “There was miscommunication between the Jets and the NFL office, for which I take full responsibility. All we can continue to do is look and see if there is a solution to this.” The easy solution would be to move the September 27 game against the Titans to 1:00 p.m. EDT, and perhaps to move the September 20 game against the Jets to prime time, since Rosh Hashanah ends at sundown that day. Another alternative would be to flip-flop the Pats-Jets games, with New England hosting on September 20 and the Jets hosting on November 22. But such a move would give the Jets four straight home games in November, with a bye week after the first one. It would also put the Patriots on the road for four straight weeks. UPDATE: We tried to allow comments to this one, but realized that it was impossible to screen out the anti-Semitic remarks. I love this audience, but some of you who choose to post here can be real assholes. (And, no, I’m not just figuring that out tonight.)