Santa and the Chiefs won’t be coming down your chimneys each Christmas.
The NFL is not yet locking the Chiefs into a yearly Dec. 25 game despite the team’s request, NFL Vice President of Broadcast Planning told the “It’s Always Gameday in Buffalo” podcast.
“For a team like the Chiefs to volunteer for Christmas while they’re busy winning every other Super Bowl or whatever it is, and their tight end is dating the biggest pop star on the planet, sure, the league office would love for the Chiefs to host every year, thanks for volunteering, boys,” North said in a tone indicating his remark reflected the general premise of the idea without looking deeper into the topic.
“I’m not sure that’s gonna become a tradition quite the way Thanksgiving is. Think about what it took for that tradition, right? The Lions since the ‘30s, the Cowboys since the ‘60s. We didn’t commit to a third site on Thanksgiving when we brought that back about 20 years ago. We’ve rotated that around. I imagine we’re gonna keep rotating Christmas around too.”
The NFL unveiled its Netflix doubleheader on Christmas this past year, with the Chiefs beating the Steelers in Pittsburgh and the Ravens stomping the Texans in Houston.
Christmas had primarily been an NBA holiday, but the NFL has now hosted games on Dec. 25 for five straight seasons, and this year will feature a tripleheader.
Netflix again will have two games, while Amazon grabs the third game in the Thursday nightcap since the Thursday game is its normal package.
North said it’s not a guarantee the NFL will play three games each Christmas, but “when we can, we will” due to fan and broadcast partner interest.
The Chiefs have played on Christmas in back-to-back years — losing at home to the Raiders in 2023 and winning, 29-10, in Pittsburgh this past year — and apparently have no hesitation continuing to do so in the future, just like the Cowboys and Lions always have home games on Thanksgiving.
The NFL, though, prefers to have flexibility.
“I know the Chiefs are raising their hands supposedly, but that’s a lot to ask your fans to come out every year on Christmas,” North said. “Certainly, while you’re good and you’re winning AFC West titles and fighting for Super Bowl, it’s an easy give. Five years from now, after Patrick Mahomes retires and they’re not the perennial champion and in every AFC Championship game, I’m not sure we’d want to be married to a site. There are other teams that have raised their hands to become permanent hosts of things like Black Friday or Christmas, thus far we’ve avoided to committing to something like that.”
The Chiefs and Cowboys are tied for the most Christmas games with five each, per champsorchumps.us.
“Never say never,” North said. “Let’s see what the next few years bring. But I don’t think we’re, today, gonna commit to a permanent third host for Thanksgiving, a permanent host for Black Friday or a permanent host for Christmas.”
The NFL is set to release the schedule after the upcoming NFL draft, with the defending champion Eagles set to open the season at home on a Thursday night.
North noted the NFL prefers releasing the schedule after the draft and said it would be helpful to know which team Aaron Rodgers is playing for when it makes up the 18-week slate.
