Did someone say football on Christmas?
In the words of the immortal Ralphie Parker — Oh, boy!
This December, the NFL will have a full, specific slate of Christmas Day games — three, including one primetime affair. The news comes via NFL vice president of broadcasting Mike North, who revealed the development to Bills sideline reporter Sal Capaccio on his podcast. With Christmas Day 2022 falling on a Sunday, North told Capaccio he believes the move “makes perfect sense.”
Of course, with the NFL staking a massive claim for viewing eyeballs on another significant holiday, the elephant in the room was the NBA.
The NBA has traditionally made an event out of Christmas Day with a loaded slate of marquee affairs between some of the league’s top teams. It’s gotten so big, that in the sporting world, the NBA is almost synonymous with December 25th.
And now, as the NFL continues to expand its Empire-like vise grip on what feels like the entire calendar, it also wants a piece of that Christmas pie.
More about this from North on the SalSports andStuff pod:
“Christmas, when it falls on an NFL game day, we’ve had a lot of success there, all due respect to our friends at the NBA,” North said. “It is something that our friends are interested in. If Christmas falls on a Sunday, it makes perfect sense.”
This December will mark the third consecutive year the NFL has played on Christmas. Though, the league has never built a slate for Christmas before — which it will reveal during the 2022 schedule release next month.
The NFL will release its 2022 schedule on Thursday, May 12.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) April 21, 2022
We’ll soon get to see how pro football and the NBA go toe to toe to try and steal peoples’ attention away on one of the biggest holidays of the year. An all-time sports duel, to be sure.
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