Santa will be bringing NFL football on Christmas Day once again in 2024.
The league announced on Tuesday that it will hold two games on the holiday even though Christmas will fall on a Wednesday this year.
The participating teams will have played on Saturday the previous weekend to maintain the recovery window.
The franchises involved in the upcoming Christmas games have not been revealed yet.
It will be the first time since 2021 that an NFL game will be played on a Wedneday.
That game — a contest between the Ravens and Steelers — occurred in the middle of the week due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
“COVID was actually a learning thing,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday about the Christmas Day games, according to CBS Sports. “[Playing Wednesday] would not be a regular thing. It will be when Christmas falls on a Wednesday. The time period between games has been done before. We have not seen an elevation of injuries.
“We have had a major focus on Thursday night when we first put this in. We have not seen that elevation either. I think we have this down.”
Holidays have become a battleground for sports fans’ attention, with Christmas long owned by the NBA.
But the NFL has played games on Christmas Day in the four previous seasons and seven out of the last nine years overall.
NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder said, according to ESPN, that viewership numbers show that there was an audience out there that wanted football on the holiday.
“That mindset, that opportunity, that belief we have that football brings people together — that’s even truer on these big holidays that happen throughout the year,” Schroeder said.
The NFL regularly holds games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday, with a special Black Friday game introduced into the mix last season.
It also has several late-season Saturday games, generally after the college football regular season.
Of the three big four professional sports leagues that are active in the winter, only the NHL goes fully dark on Christmas.
