In case it wasn’t already clear, NFL games on Christmas Day are here to stay.
Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell revealed as much, confirming previous reports that the league would expand its Christmas Day slate from two games to three in 2025. While some had previously believed that was because Christmas Day falls on a Thursday this year and it thus made sense for Amazon to host its traditional Thursday Night Football matchup in addition to Netflix’s doubleheader, Goodell made it clear the league will be hosting a holiday tripleheader for the foreseeable future.
“We will clearly have three games [on Christmas Day] every year,” Goodell said.
While the announcement is hardly surprising, it’s nonetheless notable that the NFL is officially staking its claim to Christmas Day, which the NBA traditionally uses as one of its spotlight dates. Although the NBA still managed to draw impressive numbers in the wake of the NFL’s competition last year, football still dominated the day with Netflix’s doubleheader featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Baltimore Ravens and the Las Vegas Raiders vs. the Kansas City Chiefs drawing an average of 24.2 million viewers.
After rearranging its schedule last season to account for the Wednesday holiday—all four participating teams played on the previous Saturday instead of Sunday—creating Christmas Day schedules for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday for the next four years should be a breeze. The idea of the NFL scheduling a tripleheader on a Tuesday could prove trickier, but that’s not something the league will have to worry about until 2029.
Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how the NFL leverages its Christmas Day package from a media rights standpoint, although it’s clear the league is thrilled with its current setup with Netflix and the streamer’s global reach. Between the NFL’s recent influx of international games, its Christmas Day takeover and the inevitability of an 18th regular-season game, it appears we’re only just now finding out how big this league can truly be.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.