Earlier this week the NFL made a handful of important announcements regarding the 2024 season. The hip drop tackle has been banned and envisioning how that will be officiated is a nightmare in and of itself. We now have an entirely new kickoff system – that John Fassel helped make a reality – which should lead to some exciting moments across the season and hopefully some interesting opportunities for players like KaVontae Turpin.
Among the things that the NFL discussed also had to do not with any particular rule, but a particular when. Christmas Day to be exact. Despite the fact that Christmas falls on a Wednesday in 2024, the NFL is moving forward with having games on the day. Two of them to be specific.
I discussed all of the recent rules changes with Arrowhead Pride’s Stephn Serda on the latest episode of TGIFootball on The SB Nation NFL Show and we spent a lot of time talking about this whole Christmas Day game situation.
It is not uncommon for the NFL to schedule Christmas Day games when the day falls on one that makes sense relative to the league. The Dallas Cowboys have played on a handful of Christmas Days themselves, in fact speaking personally the first game I ever went to was on Christmas Day (2006 against the Philadelphia Eagles… we do not need to talk about it).
The Cowboys have played on Christmas Eve over each of the last two seasons and also did so in 2011 and 2017, but you have to go all the way back to 2010 to find them playing on Christmas Day itself. That was a horrible game in a lost season that saw both Jon Kitna and Stephen McGee take snaps at quarterback for Dallas.
It stands to reason that most people are against Christmas Day games given that they provide an opportunity to visit with family and friends, but it is certainly possible that there are people who like the idea of watching the Cowboys play under those very circumstances. We are all well-accustomed to watching the Cowboys play on a different holiday, Thanksgiving Day, something most fanbases are not familiar with, so perhaps you do not find the idea of Dallas also playing on Christmas as weird or off-putting.
But be warned. With Christmas Day falling on a Wednesday the amount of rest required (in the NFL’s eyes) is going to involve playing a day earlier the week prior. This means that a team will go from (in all likelihood) a game on a Sunday to one on a Saturday to then their Christmas Day matchup on Wednesday. That is really hard to do in general and this obviously happens at a time where every win is of critical importance relative to the playoff picture.
