Afternoon Edition |
April 25, 2025 |
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The NFL will play three games on Christmas Day every year moving forward, turning a recent ratings success into a permanent part of its schedule. Commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed the move Friday, and we break down what it means for the league’s calendar.
—David Rumsey
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The NFL is returning to scheduling a Christmas Day tripleheader this season, which commissioner Roger Goodell announced will now be the norm every holiday season.
“I think we will clearly have three games every year,” Goodell said Friday afternoon on The Pat McAfee Show.
Earlier this month at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, the league confirmed its plans for three Dec. 25 games this coming season, with Netflix once again airing two, and Amazon Prime Video streaming the other as part of its Thursday Night Football package, the latter of which was first revealed last spring.
But this is the first confirmation of the NFL’s intent to make the Christmas Day tripleheader an annual occurrence, even if the league’s recent success on the holiday made it more than obvious. Last Christmas, Steelers-Chiefs and Ravens-Texans averaged 24.1 million and 24.3 million viewers, respectively, on Netflix, making them the most-streamed NFL games in U.S. history.
Holiday Planning
The 2025 NFL schedule will be released May 14, the league revealed Thursday night, but specific teams or even matchups set to be played on Christmas and other special occasions could be rolled out earlier, as is often the case.
For decades, the NFL mostly avoided the Christmas spotlight, but in 2022 switched up its strategy and played its first Christmas Day tripleheader, on a Sunday, followed by another one in 2023, on a Monday. This past season, the league shrunk its Christmas presence to two games after initially planning not to play on the holiday, since it fell on a Wednesday.
Goodell’s comments Friday make it clear that no matter what day of the week Christmas falls on moving forward, NFL fans can expect to watch three games. Over the next three years, Christmas falls on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. From 2028 to 2031, when the NFL will likely be opting out of its current media-rights deals, Christmas will fall on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Turkey Time
Goodell confirmed that several teams are interested in playing an annual Christmas game like the Lions and Cowboys do on Thanksgiving, but reiterated that the NFL has no plans to make any specific franchise a Christmas mainstay.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, though, Goodell said the NFL is likely going to shift the kickoff time of the first Thanksgiving Day game: “One little small change: We’re probably going to move from a 12:30 p.m. ET start to 1. So, we’ll go back to the traditional windows.”
In recent years, the early Thanksgiving game has kicked off at 12:30 p.m. ET and the late game at 4:30 p.m. ET, which is slightly different than the standard Sunday afternoon game times of 1 p.m. ET and 4:25 p.m. ET for national TV windows.
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The Knicks and Rangers will each see big reductions in their local media-rights fees this season, after MSG Networks refinanced a debt deal to avoid bankruptcy.
MSG Networks comprises regional sports networks that are part of the publicly traded Sphere Entertainment Co., which is controlled by James Dolan, who owns the NBA and NHL teams. The RSNs had $804 million in debt that was originally due to creditors last October.
In a move that allows MSG Networks to not file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Knicks will take a 28% reduction in their rights fees for the 2024–2025 season, and the Rangers an 18% drop, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The teams will also no longer receive an annual-rights fee escalator throughout the current contract, which runs until 2029.
MSG Networks had been set to pay $187 million to broadcast Knicks and Rangers games in 2025.
Performance Check
The Knicks earned the No. 3 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference with the NBA’s fourth-highest active payroll this season of $188.8 million. New York beat the Pistons on Thursday night to go up 2–1 in the first-round series. Next season, the Knicks are also projected to have the league’s fourth-highest active payroll at $199.7 million, although offseason moves could change that.
The Rangers missed the playoffs this year, finishing 11th place in the Eastern Conference. The NHL salary cap was $88 million, and the team’s total cap allocations were $84.9 million, according to Spotrac.
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Green Bay is already exceeding expectations as host of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Thursday night’s Round 1 drew 205,000 fans around Lambeau Field, the league announced. That’s roughly double the population of Green Bay, and already 82% of the predraft projections of roughly 250,000 people expected to attend the event.
If the crowds on Friday night and Saturday mirror trends from previous years, Green Bay will easily blow by that 205,000 figure—and challenge for a spot in the top three most-attended drafts.
Last year, 275,000 fans attended the first night of the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit, en route to a record 775,000 fans across all three days. Even if Green Bay dips from that pace, seeing attendance surpass 300,000 shouldn’t be a problem. Kansas City drew 312,000 in 2023, and Las Vegas hit 300,000 in 2022. The second all-time record is Nashville’s 600,000 in 2019.
One potential issue, though, is the weather. Rain is forecast for most of Friday afternoon in Green Bay before tapering off in the evening, when temperatures will be in the 40s. Round 2 of the draft begins at 7 p.m. ET, with fans allowed to enter the main draft stage area three hours before.
Saturday is expected to be much better, with no rain predicted. Round 4 begins at noon ET, and the remainder of the draft will play out from there.
Seeing Green
Ahead of the draft, Lions president Rod Wood took a shot at his franchise’s NFC North rival, saying there was “no way Green Bay will come close” to Detroit’s attendance last year. While that may still be true, the NFL’s smallest market is showing out in a way not many expected.
That should bode well for other cold-weather cities with outdoor stadiums that don’t have a realistic chance at hosting a Super Bowl but want to lure the league’s traveling springtime circus. Washington, D.C., is a front-runner for the 2027 draft, and Buffalo has made its interest known for 2028 or 2029, with a new, $2 billion–plus stadium opening in 2026.
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“We all didn’t expect this, of course.”
—Shedeur Sanders, on not being selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Sanders, speaking at his draft party in Texas late Thursday night, said, “All of this is, of course, fuel to the fire. Under no circumstances—we all know this shouldn’t have happened, but we understand we’re on to bigger and better things. Tomorrow’s the day, and we’re going to be happy regardless.”
The Browns, who are in desperate need of a franchise quarterback while they are still dealing with the $172 million Deshaun Watson situation, have two of the first four picks in the second round, which begins at 7 p.m. ET. That should be enticing for viewers looking to catch the action on ABC, ESPN2, and NFL Network. TV ratings for the first round have not yet been released.
Early on in the draft process, Sanders was seen as a potential top-five pick, like his Colorado teammate Travis Hunter. However, that changed throughout the draft process, with multiple reports surfacing after the NFL Scouting Combine and this week citing anonymous team executives who were not impressed with Sanders’s interviews. It is still unclear exactly what Sanders said to turn teams off.
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26
The number of players selected in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft who played at SEC or Big Ten schools last season. The SEC had 15 players picked Thursday night, tying its own record for a conference set in 2020. The 11 Big Ten players drafted is a record for that conference.
The SEC and Big Ten have separated themselves from their Power 4 counterparts, the ACC and Big 12, on the field of play and financially off it. The Big Ten led the first 12-team College Football Playoff with four teams, while the SEC was second with three. The two conferences have been exploring a scheduling pact, and will gain more power around CFP decision-making in 2026.
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Cam Ward ⬆ The first overall pick in the NFL Draft will wear No. 1 for the Titans, after receiving permission from Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Moon, who had his jersey retired by the franchise in 2006. Ward wore No. 1 in college at Miami and Washington State. Moon appeared at the rookie’s introductory press conference on Friday and presented him with a No. 1 jersey.
Formula E ⬇ McLaren Racing will exit the electric racing series after the current season ends in July. McLaren, which only entered Formula E in 2023, said it will focus on its Formula One and IndyCar teams, among other racing efforts.
D-II football ⬆ The NCAA Division II football championship bracket will expand from 28 to 32 teams this season. The D-II executive board this week authorized more than $2.5 million in budget requests for the 2025–2026 fiscal year, including $545,000 to expand the College Football Playoff bracket.
NCAA ⬆⬇ Genius Sports will begin selling official NCAA data to licensed sportsbooks for all postseason tournaments, including March Madness, through an expanded deal running until 2032. College sports have not been immune to the many sports betting scandals of the past year.
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- The four-year rookie contract for Ashton Jeanty, drafted No. 6 by the Raiders, is worth $35.8 million—the second-largest guarantee for an NFL running back behind Eagles star Saquon Barkley.
- New Packers receiver Matthew Golden said his first purchase after being drafted with the 23rd pick will be a house for his grandmother. Check it out.
- Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury left a note on GM Adam Peters’s desk before the team’s draft pleading for him to take Oregon offensive tackle Josh Conerly Jr. Washington selected him with the 29th pick. Take a look.
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