Connect with us

NEWS

Power of love: NFL U-turns on promise not to play games on Christmas Day this year with more festive football planned after huge TV ratings in 2023 thanks to Taylor Swift’s trip to watch Travis Kelce and the Chiefs

Published

on

Power of love: NFL U-turns on promise not to play games on Christmas Day this year with more festive football planned after huge TV ratings in 2023 thanks to Taylor Swift's trip to watch Travis Kelce and the Chiefs

 

The NFL has done a U-turn on its promise to avoid games being played on Christmas Day this year, as the league has now announced plans for more festive football after a rise in TV ratings last year thanks in part to Taylor Swift.

 

   Power of love: NFL U-turns on promise not to play games on Christmas Day this year with more festive football planned after huge TV ratings in 2023 thanks to Taylor Swift's trip to watch Travis Kelce and the Chiefs

Power of love: NFL U-turns on promise not to play games on Christmas Day this year with more festive football planned after huge TV ratings in 2023 thanks to Taylor Swift’s trip to watch Travis Kelce and the Chiefs

With Christmas Day falling on a Wednesday this year, teams that will have played the previous Saturday will be favored to play over others, matching the Sunday-Thursday turnaround, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Beaton. Two games are scheduled to take place on Dec. 25 this year, The MMQB’s Albert Breer reported.

Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, said the league changed its stance after last season’s three Christmas games (Ravens-49ers, Chiefs-Raiders and Giants-Eagles) drew in a large audience. Combined, those games averaged over 28million viewers and each ranked among the top-10 rated regular-season matchups

‘The fans clearly spoke,’ Schroeder told WSJ. ‘There’s a big demand.’

This year will be the fifth year in a row that the NFL has scheduled Christmas games, and last season was the first time that the league put three games on the holiday when it happened to be on a Monday

But, the NFL’s plans for Christmas games won’t be well received by some, especially basketball fans, with the NBA viewing the holiday as one of its biggest day of the year with games scheduled back to back from 12:00 EST to late into the evening. Some of the biggest matchups of the season traditionally take place on Christmas.

That won’t bother the NFL however, as the league attempts to be more in sync with the holidays than it has ever been beforehand. Last year, the league had its first Back Friday game ever on top of its Thanksgiving matchups.

All that being said, Christmas Day games weren’t always necessarily favored by fans throughout the history of the NFL, like in 1971, when the league schedule a couple of playoff matchups on Dec. 25, but faced significant backlash from spectators. That prompted the NFL to redo its scheduling to avoid the holiday entirely until 1989.

Other than NBA action taking place on Christmas, the day is traditionally associated with ‘Home Alone’ re-runs.

Playing on Wednesdays is also a rarity in football, considering that the last time an NFL game took place on the weekday was in 2021 due to a COVID outbreak taking place among the Ravens, causing their Thanksgiving game against the Steelers to be delayed three times and played six days later than its original date. In 2015, the NFL was forced to push back its season-opener to Wednesday to avoid coinciding with the Democratic National Convention. Before that, no NFL game had been played on a Wednesday since 1948

NEWS1 day ago

Election 2024 live updates: Republicans win Senate and Trump takes Georgia in second battleground victory, NBC News projects

NFL2 days ago

Kansas City Chiefs remain undefeated, beat Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-24 in OT on NFL Monday Night Football: Live updates

CELEBRITY3 days ago

Don’t You Ever Talk S**t Of My Brother, Who Is The F****d Now; Jason Kelce Spit Angrily To A Fan… Watch Video 👇

CELEBRITY3 days ago

50 Cent Regrets Making Advances at Vivica A. Fox in 2003

CELEBRITY5 days ago

The former Disney star, who was recently spotted with an apparent baby bump, is captured on camera having a tense conversation with her alleged baby daddy before dropping him off to a hotel.

CELEBRITY6 days ago

‘It Hurt Me’: Kevin Hart Drops Bombshell About Erectile Dysfunction Humbling Him Years After Joke About Not Satisfying Wife Eniko In…see more 👇👇

CELEBRITY6 days ago

Former NBA Player Makes Klay Thompson Realization

CELEBRITY6 days ago

Enzo Fernandez’s wife confirms separation from Chelsea star in heartbreaking Instagram post

NEWS6 days ago

Hilarious moment that 20 years after, I still can’t stop laughing

CELEBRITY6 days ago

Watch: N’Golo Kante wins hearts by cleaning up pitch during Al-Ittihad game

CELEBRITY6 days ago

Jennifer Lopez Took the Revenge Dress Trend to a Whole New, Daring Level Amid Ben Affleck Divorce

CELEBRITY6 days ago

Read J-Lo and Ben Affleck’s divorce petition where the pop diva reveals why she filed after just two years of marriage

Copyright © 2024 USAfly24