National Football League Christmas games
Christmas Day and Christmas Eve games in the National Football League are an occasional part of the league's schedule. In contrast to Thanksgiving Day games, however, they are not an annual occurrence; as of 2017, there have been just 19 Christmas Day games in the NFL's history.
After the NFL held two Divisional Playoff games on Christmas Day 1971, the league avoided any more games on Christmas Day until 1989. Since then, the NFL has held occasional games on Christmas Day in some years, as part of week 16 or 17 of the regular season. Two games were played each Christmas Day from 2004 to 2006 and then from 2016 to 2017.
The NFL has generally scheduled games on Christmas Day only if it falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday (though a Friday Christmas game was played in 2009 and will be played in 2020). If Christmas falls on a Sunday, the normal Sunday afternoon games are moved to Saturday, Christmas Eve, and one or two games are scheduled for Christmas night to be broadcast nationally. This situation most recently occurred in 2016 and will occur again in 2022. In rare cases when a game must be played on the evening of Christmas Eve, the game is typically hosted on the West Coast of the United States so that the game takes place in the late afternoon there, and likewise, games played in the late afternoon on Christmas Day are hosted in either the Eastern or Central time zones so that they do not start before 3:30 p.m. local time. This provides a window of roughly 20 hours of local time, spanning late Christmas Eve into Christmas Day, in which the league will not play.
History
Early years
In the earliest days of professional football, the season typically ended near the end of November (marquee games were often played on Thanksgiving) or in the first week of December, depending on the team; exhibition games would then be held in the winter. Once league schedules were standardized in the 1930s, the NFL Championship Game was typically held in mid-December. The 1943 NFL Championship Game, played on December 26 of that year because of scheduling complications brought on by World War II, was the first regulation NFL game to be played on or after Christmas.
From 1943 until the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, the NFL regular season usually ended in mid-December, with the NFL Championship Game being held on the Sunday two weeks later. If that Sunday fell on Christmas Day December 25, the league preferred to move it to the following day, Monday, December 26; this rescheduling occurred for both the 1955 and the 1960 championship games.
The American Football League compensated differently: the 1960 championship game was moved back by a full week, being played on New Year's Day 1961, with Christmas Sunday being an off-week. (The NFL's 1966 championship game was also held on Sunday, January 1, 1967, two weeks after the end of the regular season.) New Year's Day was an available day since the college bowl games are pushed forward to Monday, January 2 in years in which January 1 falls on a Sunday. The AFL had scheduled the 1966 championship game for Monday afternoon December 26, but when the two leagues agreed to merge in 1970 and play a "World Championship game" starting with the 1966 season, the AFL game was moved back to Sunday, January 1.
1971 Divisional Playoffs
The first NFL games actually played on December 25 came after the merger, during the 1971–72 NFL playoffs. The first two games of the Divisional Playoff Round were held on Christmas Day; the first of these was between the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings, while the second of the two contests played that afternoon, the Miami Dolphins versus the Kansas City Chiefs, wound up being the longest game in NFL history.[1] Because of the length of the latter game, the NFL received numerous complaints, reportedly due to the fact that it caused havoc with Christmas dinners around the nation. The league also came under fire from some quarters for intruding on a traditional religious and family holiday, and a Kansas state legislator proposed a bill to ban the scheduling of future games on December 25.[2][3] As a result, the NFL decided to not schedule any Christmas Day games for the next 17 seasons.
Avoiding Christmas
This required considerable effort during those years in which Christmas fell on a Saturday or a Sunday, given that ordinarily those days would be days in which NFL playoff games were to be held.
In 1976, the NFL opened its regular season a week earlier than would have ordinarily been the case (September 12, the second Sunday of the month, rather than the customary third Sunday) so that the Divisional Playoffs could be held on December 18 and 19 instead of December 25 and 26, and thus no games would be needed on Saturday, December 25 (Super Bowl XI was subsequently played on January 9, the earliest date in Super Bowl history).
In 1977, with Christmas falling on a Sunday, the Divisional Playoff Games were held around the holiday, with an AFC doubleheader on Saturday, December 24, and an NFC doubleheader on Monday, December 26. This was done so that one team did not have a two-day rest advantage over the other for the Conference Championship games (the NFL only allowed one-day rest advantages). This scheduling resulted in most of the country missing the majority of the 1st quarter of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Denver Broncos game telecast (beginning at 4:00 PM EST), since the early AFC game that Saturday (Oakland Raiders-Baltimore Colts, beginning at 12:30 PM EST) went into double overtime; with an ordinary schedule of one game from each conference, viewers would have had the option of switching channels (or using a VCR) but in this case NBC simply stayed with the Raiders-Colts game (except in the Pittsburgh and Denver markets) and had to overlap its telecasts.
The NFL continued to avoid Christmas even after it started to extend the length of the regular season and the playoffs. The league expanded to a 16-game regular season and a 10-team playoff tournament in 1978, but it was not until 1982 that the regular season ended after Christmas. It was originally scheduled to end on Sunday, December 26 of that year, but the regular season was extended to Sunday, January 2, 1983 after the 57-day NFL players' strike reduced the season from 16 games to 9; the NFL compensated by extending the regular season one week and eliminating the off week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl.
In 1983 and again in 1988, the NFL split the first round Wild Card Playoffs between Saturday, December 24 and Monday, December 26 to avoid a Christmas game.
Had the United States Football League survived to play its autumn 1986 season, it would have featured the first major professional football games to be played in the regular season on Christmas; the USFL planned a complete set of four games for Christmas Day.[4] The USFL suspended operations prior to the 1986 season and the games were never played.
Regular season contests arrive on Christmas
Finally, in 1989, the NFL tried another Christmas Day game, the Cincinnati Bengals at the Minnesota Vikings, but it was a 9 p.m. ET Monday Night Football contest on ABC, thereby avoiding interfering with family dinners. The NFL pushed the regular season back one week in 1989 as a one-off experiment, meaning Christmas would fall during the last week of the regular season instead of the first round of the playoffs. Starting with the following season, the league added a bye week, making Christmas permanently fall during the regular season. In the years since, the NFL has played an occasional late-afternoon or night game on the holiday, but there has not been a Christmas Day game starting earlier than 4:30 p.m. ET since 1971.
In 1993, NBC aired a Christmas game for the first time since 1971, when the Houston Oilers visited the San Francisco 49ers, with a kickoff time of 5 PM Eastern/2 PM Pacific.
ESPN aired a Christmas game for the first time ever in 1994, when the Detroit Lions visited the Miami Dolphins.
In 1999, CBS aired its first Christmas game since 1971, when the Denver Broncos visited the Detroit Lions.
Fox aired a Christmas game for the first time in 2005, when the Chicago Bears visited the Green Bay Packers.
The NFL Network aired its first Christmas game in 2009, when the San Diego Chargers visited the Tennessee Titans.
2011 and beyond
The first Christmas game under the current television contracts was held in 2011. According to league policy, most of the weekend's games were moved to Christmas Eve while one game was set aside for NBC Sunday Night Football. That game was played between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field – the second time that these two teams played at that venue on Christmas. Unlike 2005, there was not a second Christmas Day game, due to changes in the NFL's television contracts since the last time Christmas landed on a Sunday during that year. Christmas again fell on a Sunday in 2016. As in previous years, the majority of games were moved to Christmas Eve and Sunday Night Football got one game, along with a special Sunday afternoon edition of Thursday Night Football exclusive to NFL Network (which when it happens again in 2022, may be subject to the NFL's flex rules where the afternoon and evening games may change slots).[5]
Christmas games were not played again until 2016, when Christmas again fell on a Sunday. Again, the majority of games were moved to Christmas Eve, but there were two games on Christmas Day. The Baltimore Ravens visited the Pittsburgh Steelers for a special Sunday afternoon edition of Thursday Night Football exclusive to NFL Network, while the Denver Broncos visited the Kansas City Chiefs for the standard NBC Sunday Night Football game. Unlike most Sunday night games late in the season, the latter game was not subject to flex-scheduling due to the holiday and the fact that the majority of games were played on Saturday.
Two games were played on Christmas Day in 2017, which was a Monday. The Pittsburgh Steelers visited the Houston Texans on a special edition of Thursday Night Football, while the Oakland Raiders visited the Philadelphia Eagles on the standard Monday Night Football game.
One game will be played on Christmas Day in 2020, as it will be the Thursday Night Football season finale between the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings at 4:30 pm EST, since Christmas Eve falls on a Thursday.[6]
All-time results
1971 playoff games
| Season | Visiting Team | Score | Home Team | TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Dallas Cowboys | 20–12 | Minnesota Vikings | CBS |
| Miami Dolphins | 27–24 (2OT) | Kansas City Chiefs | NBC |
Regular season
Christmas Day standings
By Franchise (as of 2017 NFL Season)
| Team | W | L | T | PCT. | PF | PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 42 | 17 |
| Pittsburgh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 65 | 33 |
| L.A. Chargers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 42 | 17 |
| N.Y. Jets | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 13 | 10 |
| Denver | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 54 | 23 |
| Kansas City | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 88 | 67 |
| Miami | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 64 | 57 |
| Tennessee | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 74 | 86 |
| Arizona | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | 40 | 63 |
| Baltimore | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | 57 | 54 |
| Chicago | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | 45 | 52 |
| Green Bay | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | 52 | 45 |
| Dallas | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 90 | 106 |
| Minnesota | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | 64 | 71 |
| Cincinnati | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 21 | 29 |
| Houston | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 6 | 34 |
| San Francisco | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 7 | 10 |
| Detroit | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | 27 | 44 |
| Oakland | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | 40 | 50 |
Christmas Eve
There have also been several games played on Christmas Eve over the years, the most famous of these being an Oakland Raiders-Baltimore Colts playoff contest in 1977 which culminated in a play immortalized as "Ghost to the Post". These games have typically been played early in the afternoon out of deference to the holiday. If Christmas Day falls on a Sunday (most recently in 2016 and next in 2022), then most of the weekend's NFL games will be on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, except for a few games played on Thursday, Sunday, or Monday night in the league's regular prime-time TV packages.
The 2004 season featured a Christmas Eve matchup on Friday afternoon, one of the rare instances when the league has played on Friday. The game (Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings for the NFC North title) aired on Fox; the Packers defeated the Vikings 34–31. Prior to that, the last Christmas Eve Friday game was played in 1999 when the New Orleans Saints defeated the Dallas Cowboys.
Since the Sunday Night Football package moved to NBC in 2006, there were two instances in which Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday. In 2006, while the regular slate of afternoon games was played, no Sunday night game was scheduled. Instead, two games were played on Monday, Christmas Day. NBC, which was under contract to air the Sunday night game, aired the first Christmas Day game pitting the Philadelphia Eagles against the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium, with a 5:00 pm ET kickoff (it is the only Monday game called by longtime Monday Night Football announcer Al Michaels since the move of MNF to ESPN and his move to NBC). ESPN followed at 8:30 pm with the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football. In 2017, the normal SNF game was moved to Saturday, December 23 and no Christmas Eve game was played (on Christmas Day, Monday, there was an NFL Network special and the standard Monday Night Football game).
In 2007, Christmas Eve landed on a Monday. This proved especially problematic; the league's television contract with ESPN requires the league to provide 17 Monday Night Football games over the course of the first 16 weeks of the season (the league no longer schedules a Monday night game for the final weekend of the season). In seasons past, the league compensated for an instance like this by giving ESPN or ABC an extra Saturday or Thursday night game later in the season, but this was no longer possible because the new television contract gave the rights to those games to NFL Network. Thus, with the league already stretching its limits by placing a Monday night doubleheader on opening weekend, this meant that every available Monday night would have to air at least one game, even if it were Christmas Eve. To ease the issue, the game was scheduled between two Western teams, the Denver Broncos at the San Diego Chargers, so that the game could start at 5:00 PM local time. The same scenario was set to occur in 2012, but the NFL's newly renegotiated television allowed ESPN to move the scheduled "Monday night" game for that week to the Saturday before (the Saturday night game in 2012 would feature the Atlanta Falcons and the Detroit Lions). This happened again in 2018, but the NFL reverted to the 2007 situation, with the Denver Broncos visiting the Oakland Raiders. Such a situation will not occur again until 2029, which is beyond the current television contracts.
Since the Thursday Night Football package began in 2006, there have been three instances when Christmas Eve was on a Thursday. In 2009, no game was scheduled on December 24, opting instead to hold a special edition of TNF on Christmas Day (see above). In 2015, the NFL scheduled a Thursday Night Football game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders, again two west coast teams, with the game starting at 5:00 PM local time, and no games scheduled on Christmas Day. When Christmas Eve fell again on a Thursday in 2020, the league once again did the opposite and only held a game on Christmas Day.
For 2016, Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday. A reduced slate of 11 afternoon games were scheduled on Christmas Eve, as well as a primetime game (being broadcast as a special edition of Thursday Night Football) between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Houston Texans. The game started at 7:25 PM local time in Houston, marking the latest NFL game ever played on Christmas Eve. [7][5]
References
- Ho Ho Ho! The NFL on Christmas History
- "NFL Playoffs on Christmas Draw Protests Across Land". The Los Angeles Times. 1971-12-17.
- Eldridge, Larry (1971-12-22). "The football grinch who stole Christmas". The Christian Science Monitor.
- http://www.oursportscentral.com/usfl/1986sked.php
- "NFL throws huge Christmas curveball on 2016 regular-season schedule". CBSSports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
- Middlehurst-Schwartz, Michael (May 7, 2020). "NFL to hold Christmas game in rare Friday matchup between Vikings, Saints". USA Today. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
- "NFL Week 16 schedule: Christmas comes early for pro football fans". AL.com. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
