Insider shares bold idea for NFL scheduling Christmas 2024

NBC Sports' Peter King is the latest NFL insider to share an idea for how the league could approach the schedule regarding Christmas 2024 falling on a Wednesday. 

In his latest "Football Morning in America" column, King proposed that the NFL should schedule only one game for Christmas night this year. 

"Take two pretty good teams in the same division," King explained. "Have them play their one required short-week Thursday game on Dec. 19. Then have them come back for their second meeting of the season the next week, on Wednesday, Dec. 25. You’ll say you can’t play back-to-back games against the same team. Why? Give me one reason why. There’s not a good one." 

While NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder told Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal last month the league won't schedule games when Christmas Day lands on a Tuesday or Wednesday, that was before football dominated the NBA in television ratings for matchups that aired on Dec. 25. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk believes the NFL will hold games on Christmas later this year, and Florio suggested last week that two teams could face each other on Christmas Eve before three games occur on Christmas Day. 

King's idea is more reasonable but wouldn't help the NFL win ratings battles for Dec. 24 or the afternoon of Dec. 25. 

"The benefit to these teams, to me, is that the two road trips are relatively short, say two hours and 20 minutes, and then both teams have 10 days off before the final game of the season, at a time of year when the importance of rest is paramount," King continued. "I think the players would be for it." 

The NFL changed its plans on the fly when midweek games were needed because COVID-19 outbreaks impacted clubs throughout the 2020 season. Schedule makers have roughly four entire months to figure out how to handle weeks affected by Christmas Eve and Christmas Day contests, and there's no reason to believe the league will simply gift Christmas afternoon to the NBA this year when history shows a plethora of Americans want to celebrate the holiday watching football instead of basketball.