Jets' Monday Night Football TV Broadcast Threatened By ESPN Dispute

The return of the NFL could be a very bumpy ride.

First, the historic game in Brazil on Friday between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers is in jeopardy of being canceled because of raging wildfires and a nationwide Twitter ban that many are considering an assault on free speech.

And then comes what happened to TV viewers Sunday night across America. Because of a contractual dispute between Disney and DirecTV, programming from ABC and ESPN suddenly went dark on the cable carrier. Viewers watching the U.S. Open tennis tournament on ESPN and the LSU-USC college football game on ABC were abruptly met with a vanishing of sports and a message advising them that the channels were essentially disappearing.

An NFL game without Twitter? And, in eight days perhaps, an NFL game without TV?

On Sept. 9 the New York Jets will kick off their season in a highly anticipated Monday Night Football season opener at the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers. The Jets have Super Bowl aspirations, and the prime-time game will feature the return of Aaron Rodgers from last season's Achilles injury.

But if you're a DirecTV subscriber - there are nine million in the U.S. - the current stalemate will prevent you from being able to watch it on TV.

Said ESPN in a statement:

“DirecTV chose to deny millions of subscribers access to our content just as we head into the final week of the U.S. Open and gear up for college football and the opening of the NFL season. While we’re open to offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we’ve extended to other distributors, we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs. We invest significantly to deliver the No. 1 brands in entertainment, news and sports because that’s what our viewers expect and deserve. We urge DirecTV to do what’s in the best interest of their customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.”

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The development is bad news for tennis fans, potentially worse news for Jets fans and perhaps catastrophic to DirecTV, which has seen its popularity plunge from a high of 20 million subscribers in the "cut the cord" era of TV consumption.

The Atlanta Falcons visit the Eagles in Week 2 of MNF, before a doubleheader on Sept. 23 featuring the Jaguars-Bills and Commanders-Bengals.