Like it or not, the NFL is taking over the entire sports calendar

One of the most powerful statements to make about a player, a team, or a business is that their opponents know exactly what’s coming and still can’t do anything to stop it. The NFL is a monolith that has taken and will continue to earmark dates on the calendar as they please, which will enhance their brand at the potential expense of others.

For the last seven decades, Christmas has been known as one of the NBA’s banner dates. Being selected to play on Christmas was an honor for teams, as fans would kick back and watch some of basketball’s best throughout the holiday. It still is a crucial day on the NBA calendar, but it has been diluted slowly and surely by the NFL’s takeover.

According to ESPN, the NFL has played 30 games on Christmas day throughout their history, through the 2023 campaign. If the holiday fell on a Sunday, Monday, or even a Saturday, sometimes the NFL would take advantage of the timing by scheduling games since it coincided with their regular schedule. More recently, they’ve taken matters into their own hands.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

Christmas falls on a Wednesday in 2024, and it hasn’t stopped the NFL from re-working their schedule in order to have games slated for that day. It could provide some strange rest and recovery timelines for teams at a crucial point in the year, but the NFL seems more concerned with maximizing their viewership.

The NFL has embraced streaming media in recent years, agreeing to give its Thursday Night Football package to Amazon Prime, and has also aired some games on Peacock. AP News reported in March 2024 that the league agreed to a three-year arrangement with Netflix, where the platform will carry NFL games on Christmas Day.

As if the NFL’s blitz on Christmas didn’t hurt the NBA enough, it seems inevitable that the NFL season will end in mid-February at some point in the future. The league has been interested in expanding the regular season schedule to 18 games, and playing the Super Bowl the Sunday before the President’s Day holiday in the United States. According to ESPN, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is serious about this plan.

That weekend has historically been the one chosen by the NBA to host All-Star Weekend, which features their All-Star Game, and events like the Three-Point contest and Slam Dunk contest. It’ll be interesting to see if the NBA decides to move this to the weekend sandwiched in between the NFL’s conference title games and the Super Bowl.

NBC Sports’ Mike Florio also thinks there could be an NFL calendar takeover in early September if the league does in fact expand its schedule. He wrote that the NFL could start their season on Labor Day weekend, which is a popular time for folks to squeeze in one last summer trip.

The NFL season usually starts on the Thursday after Labor Day because the league wanted to avoid playing games when many fans were on vacation. However, Florio brings up the point that fans can now watch the games on a multitude of devices, which should keep viewership numbers stable.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

NFL fans are used to games being played on Thursday, Sunday and Monday, but the league decided to throw a wrinkle into that pattern early on in the 2024 campaign. The league hosted their first ever game in Brazil on Friday, September 6, which featured the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles.

CBS Sports notes that the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 prohibited the NFL from scheduling games on Fridays or Saturdays between the second weekend in September and the second weekend in December. This was to promote and feature high school football at the youth level on Friday nights, which has become a tradition. The first weekend in September coincided with the start of the NFL season, which allowed the league to get around this in 2024.

CBS Sports also brings up the fact that the NFL has started scheduling games on Black Friday, which certainly falls into the prohibited window earmarked for high school and college football. The Sports Broadcasting Act allows for the NFL to schedule games on a Friday as long as most of the game is finished by 6 p.m. Eastern.

As if this wasn’t enough, the NFL has also parsed out their playoff schedule in January, to the detriment of the NBA and NHL. The NFL used to play all of their playoff games on Saturday and Sunday, but starting in 2022, one game was reserved for Monday night. Sometimes this overlaps with the Martin Luther King holiday, which is another landmark day for the NBA.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also wants to play more regular season games outside of the United States. He told NBC Sports that he wants to see as many as 16 games take place each year internationally. This further introduces the possibility of playing in various time zones other than the slots NFL fans are used to, which would further give the NFL a stranglehold on the schedule.

Goodell also told the Pat McAfee show, “Will an international franchise ever happen, or a division? Maybe. I think that’s beyond 10 years, though.”

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

Let us know what you think about the NFL’s plans to expand geographically and chronologically throughout the sports calendar by leaving a comment!