For the first time in the NFL, two regular season games will be played on a Wednesday in 2024: Christmas Day.
The announcement was made Tuesday by Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president for media outreach, during the league's annual meeting.
However, this is a case specific to Christmas. A priori, outside of this public holiday, we should not see the NFL on screens on Wednesdays.
“It won’t be a regular thing to play on a Wednesday. Only when Christmas falls on this day of the week,” Roger Goodell insisted during this same meeting.
The NFL at Christmas, a tradition that will take hold
This does mean, however, that the American football league intends to win at Christmas every year, on what has long been a rather busy day for the NBA.
Except when there's money on the line, things can change quickly in the NFL.
“When we saw the viewing figures last year, you could say our fans spoke,” Schroeder told reporters. »
The league will also be invited on Friday evening from the first week of the 2024 regular season with the Eagles' trip to Brazil.
All these new windows pose a concrete problem: that of player rest. When the Christmas matches on Wednesday were announced, it was clarified that teams who played the previous Saturday would participate. It's short. But still a little less terrible than a potential Sunday – Wednesday sequence. In any case, the issue is no longer really sporting.
