The NFL opened Pandora’s Box last year when it scheduled three special matchups on Christmas Day 2023.
But last Christmas fell on a Monday, a day that is otherwise often reserved for at least one NFL game. Aside from the NFL putting itself in direct competition with one of the NBA’s flagship days, the move was otherwise no harm, no foul. It’s not as if the league would ever schedule Christmas games on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, as Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, told the Wall Street Journal in late December. Right?
About that.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that the league does indeed plan to go forward with Christmas Day games in 2024, even though it falls on a Wednesday this time. Wow. The NFL took just about three months to contradict itself in public because it knows many TVs around the country will probably be on something on the holiday anyway. So, they should make that programming NFL football. Why, it’s almost as if the league will do anything in the name of brazen profit. Hmm.
Color me shocked!
But wait, it gets worse.
Not only will the NFL play two games on Christmas Day 2024, it will have the four participating teams also play in a Saturday doubleheader just several days before.
There are no proper words for this madness, and there doesn’t need to be too much ink spilled over this.
By now, we all know very well that the NFL says one thing for optics but will just as easily pivot on a dime and shed all pretenses about its goals. The idea behind not playing on Tuesday or Wednesday wasn’t just about interrupting people’s family time on a holiday. If anything, it was mainly about not asking players to play on what are traditionally recovery days in the long grind of a now 17-game season. Now the players playing on Christmas will get three days rest after playing in a mid-weekend night game. It boggles the mind. (Note: Expect some ugly football, too!)
Now, with games also being played on Fridays, it seems the gate for NFL football to oversaturate an entire seven-day week has finally arrived. Good. Great. Grand. Wonderful. So much for “player safety concerns,” episode 1,452. Never, ever believe the NFL when it says one of its utmost concerns is the safety of its players after seeing situations like this Christmas fiasco.
But hey, if there’s even any tiny morsel of money to be made from people passively turning on their TVs in the background, you can always bet the NFL is waiting around the corner.
