Leagues

NFL’s 12 Days of Christmas: Stretch Includes 9 Different Days of Games

The NFL took some extreme measures to facilitate playing on Christmas, which is on Wednesday this year. That’s led to a wild stretch for the league that begins Thursday.

By David Rumsey

Dec 18, 2024 | 04:18 pm

Scott Galvin-Imagn Images

Think of it as the NFL’s version of the 12 days of Christmas.

When the Broncos and Chargers face off Thursday night, they’ll not only be kicking off Week 16 of the regular season but also an unprecedented run of game days for the league.

Over this next 12-day stretch, the NFL will play games on nine different days—a unique circumstance created by the league’s tricky schedule maneuvering to facilitate two Christmas Day matchups, despite the holiday falling on Wednesday this year.

In addition to regular Sunday afternoon games in Weeks 16 and 17, there will be 13 standalone national TV broadcasts featuring 20 of the NFL’s 32 teams at least once, and two teams twice:

Thursday: Broncos-Chargers (Amazon)
Saturday: Texans-Chiefs (NBC), Steelers-Ravens (Fox)
Sunday: Buccaneers-Cowboys (NBC)
Monday: Saints-Packers (ABC/ESPN)
Christmas Day: Chiefs-Steelers, Ravens-Texans (Netflix)
Dec. 26: Seahawks-Bears (Amazon)
Dec. 28: Chargers-Patriots, Broncos-Bengals, Cardinals-Rams (NFL Network)
Dec. 29: Falcons-Commanders (NBC)
Dec. 30: Lions-49ers (ABC/ESPN)

Not featured among those 20 teams are the Bills (11–3) and Eagles (12–2). But Buffalo will be featured in the 4:25 p.m. ET national window of games on CBS on Sunday, and Philadelphia in Fox’s late afternoon slot on Dec. 29.

Candy Canes and Chaos

As part of the scheduling oddity, the Chiefs, Ravens, Steelers, and Texans have begun the dreaded three games in 11 days, which Kansas City star quarterback Patrick Mahomes bemoaned last week before injuring his ankle on Sunday against the Browns.

On Wednesday, the NFL announced those four teams will wear a festive, holiday-inspired uniform patch (warning: there are candy canes involved) for their games on Saturday, and then four days later, Christmas. The league is dubbing the quartet of games the “NFL Holiday Remix.”