Why the NFL will likely reject the Chiefs’ reported scheduling request to play an annual Christmas game

The Kansas City Chiefs had a Christmas wish for the NFL schedule, but it doesn’t look like the league is going to grant it. 

On April 2, The Athletic reported that the Chiefs had asked the NFL to make the team a “fixture” for Christmas games. Just like Santa, the Chiefs want to start showing up every Christmas. Apparently, the Chiefs were hoping that they could start playing an annual Christmas game just like the Cowboys and Lions play on Thanksgiving every year. 

Unfortunately for the Chiefs, it doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen. The NFL’s Vice President of Broadcast Planning, Mike North, explained why the league likely won’t be committing to any one team for the Christmas games. North was asked about the subject during an interview on the “It’s Always Gameday in Buffalo” podcast this week, and his answer was two-fold: It’s not great for the fans and there’s no guarantee that a team will always be good. 

“From the fan standpoint, I know the Chiefs are raising their hands supposedly, but that’s a lot to ask your fans to come out every year on Christmas,” North said. “Certainly while you’re good and you’re winning AFC West titles and fighting for Super Bowls, it’s an easy give. If, five years from now, Patrick Mahomes retires and they’re not the perennial division champion and in every AFC Championship game, I’m not sure we’d want to be married to a site.”

Just because the Chiefs won’t be playing every year, doesn’t mean they won’t be playing on Dec. 25 in 2025. The Chiefs have played on Christmas in each of the past two seasons, and there’s a chance the streak could hit three this year, but again, it likely won’t be an annual thing. 

“For a team like the Chiefs to volunteer for Christmas while they’re busy winning every other Super Bowl and their tight end [Travis Kelce] is dating the biggest pop star on the planet [Taylor Swift], then sure, the league office would LOVE for the Chiefs to host on Christmas every year,” North said. “Thanks for volunteering. But I’m not sure that’s going to become a tradition the way Thanksgiving is. Think about what it took for that tradition: The Lions since the 1930s, the Cowboys since the 60s.”

NFL to hold historic Christmas tripleheader: 2025 schedule to include games on Netflix and Amazon

John Breech

North pointed out that the besides the Lions and Cowboys, the NFL has been reluctant to schedule any team in an annual game. The NFL added a third game to the Thanksgiving slate in 2006, and the league could have asked a team to annually host the game. Instead, the NFL decided to rotate the game around, and that’s what will likely happen with the Christmas games, according to North. 

“We didn’t commit to a third site on Thanksgiving when we brought that back about 20 years ago,” North said. “We’ve rotated that around. I’d imagine we’re going to keep rotating Christmas around, too.”

The Jets and Bengals both offered to host the NFL’s new Black Friday game on an annual basis, but both teams got shot down because the league wants to keep things open. 

“There have been other teams that have raised their hands to become permanent hosts of things like Black Friday or Christmas, but thus far, we’ve avoided committing to something like that,” North said. “Never say never, let’s see what the next few years bring, but I don’t think, today, we’re going to commit a permanent third host for Thanksgiving, a permanent host for Black Friday or a permanent host for Christmas.”

The Chiefs likely won’t be playing on Christmas every year, but they could still end up playing on Dec. 25 this year; and even if they don’t, Chiefs fans can still celebrate the holiday by watching the team’s Hallmark movie. 

Although we don’t know who’s playing on Christmas this year, we do know the NFL will be holding a tripleheader on the holiday with two games on Netflix and one game on Amazon. The Christmas games, along with the other games on the 2025 schedule, will be released in May. The NFL is currently targeting May 13, 14 or 15 for the release of this year’s schedule.