NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned he did not anticipate participant well being issues being a problem with groups taking part in Christmas video games on a brief week.
“Effectively, I feel the times are the identical for us. We have carried out this,” Goodell defined. “Actually, COVID was a studying alternative, I feel it was the primary time we performed on a Wednesday. It is not going to be a daily factor. Will probably be when Christmas falls on a Wednesday. However the time interval between video games has been carried out earlier than. Now we have not seen any elevation of accidents. You all, and we, have had a significant deal with Thursday night time once we first put it in, and we have nonetheless not seen any type of elevation of accidents. So I feel we’ve got this down.”
The 2023 season featured three video games on Christmas Day, which kicked off with the Raiders’ stunning upset win over the Chiefs in Kansas Metropolis, and included a surprisingly shut end between the Giants and Eagles. Each video games led as much as a extremely anticipated conflict between elites in Santa Clara, California, the place the Ravens dominated the 49ers in entrance of a prime-time viewers.
Final season’s Christmas Day tripleheader drew historic scores, with all three video games rating among the many high 5 Christmas Day NFL video games on file, relationship again to 1988. The Raiders-Chiefs stunner averaged 29.6 million viewers, making it the second most-watched Christmas Day sport in NFL historical past behind solely Bengals-Vikings in 1989. Giants-Eagles averaged 29 million viewers, whereas Ravens-49ers averaged 27.6 million — a quantity that probably would have been larger had Baltimore not taken a commanding 30-12 lead early within the third quarter.
These video games occurred on a Monday, although, making 2024’s Wednesday contests an attention-grabbing scheduling experiment. Judging by previous efforts, this — just like the league’s many broadcasting improvements earlier than it — will succeed.
The NFL is banking on its ever-growing reputation, and with current scores and togetherness in thoughts, intends to maintain soccer intertwined with vacation traditions this winter, and maybe, for years to come back.