Kansas City Chiefs unlikely to be NFL’s permanent Christmas team
Kansas City Chiefs unlikely to be NFL’s permanent Christmas team
The Chiefs share a color scheme with Santa Claus, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be a Christmas tradition any time soon.
The NFL’s takeover of Christmas Day is charging ahead. Fresh off of a 2024 season which saw the NFL play a doubleheader on Christmas Day — despite the holiday falling on a Wednesday — the league has scheduled three games on that date this year. The Kansas City Chiefs have played on Christmas each of the last two years, and are reportedly interested in becoming a holiday mainstay for the league, but the NFL isn’t ready to greenlight that idea just yet.
According to multiple reports, the Chiefs have volunteered to become the team that plays on Christmas every year. Much like the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions always play on Thanksgiving, the Chiefs want to establish themselves as a yuletide tradition.
The NFL doesn’t sound too enthused about the plan. In an appearance on the “It's Always Gameday in Buffalo” podcast, NFL vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling Mike North said that Christmas games are more likely to continue featuring a variety of different teams.
“I’m not sure that’s gonna become a tradition quite the way Thanksgiving is,” North said. “I mean, 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 rotated that around. I imagine we’re gonna keep rotating Christmas around, too.”
North continued that while the league wouldn’t rule anything out, a permanent host on Christmas or for the NFL’s Black Friday games was unlikely in the future.
The streamers that partner with the league to present these Christmas games might have something to say about that. This year’s Christmas contests will appear on Netflix and Prime Video, both of which might jump at the chance to have a ratings magnet like the Chiefs playing on their platforms every year.
On the other hand, the NFL is unlikely to put games featuring less-popular teams on Christmas. The holiday makes for a chance to attract a captive audience, and the NFL will want to maximize its viewership on the holiday. The Chiefs may not end up on Christmas every year, but the league will almost certainly try to schedule games featuring marquee teams (like Kansas City) that will draw as many viewers as possible.
The NFL reached more than 60 million total viewers with its 2024 Christmas doubleheader, and it won’t be backing off its intentions to own the holiday any time soon. The Chiefs may not become a permanent part of the Christmas NFL schedule, but that won’t mean the matchups will be lackluster going forward.
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