Insider not buying NFL claim about midweek Christmas games

NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder told Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal that the league won't schedule games when Christmas Day falls on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk isn't buying Schroeder's claim. 

"With Christmas 2024 landing on a Wednesday, I believe the league will indeed play games that day," Florio said in an article posted on Friday. "It won’t be easy to schedule. It might require, for example, having the six Christmas teams play the prior Thursday and/or Friday. Or perhaps it will require a more creative use of bye weeks, giving the Christmas teams the prior weekend off." 

Pro Football Talk noted last year that the NFL crushed the NBA in television ratings on Christmas, and that's expected again to be the case Monday. This Christmas features the 6-8 Las Vegas Raiders versus the 9-5 Kansas City Chiefs, the 5-9 New York Giants at the 10-4 Philadelphia Eagles and the 11-3 Baltimore Ravens versus the 11-3 San Francisco 49ers in a matchup that may determine the Most Valuable Player Award winner.

"For now the position is 'no games when Christmas lands on Tuesday or Wednesday,'" Florio added. "By next year, that will change. If it doesn’t, I’ve completely misread the motivation for every effort by the NFL to grab every last dollar that it can. Because it does. Why would it stop when the impediment is something that a little calendar manipulation can fix?" 

The NFL proved it can schedule around middle-of-the-week games when contests had to be shifted during the 2020 season because of COVID-19 outbreaks. Players may not love participating in games outside Sundays or Mondays, but it seems likely Florio will be proven right when the league releases its schedule for the 2024 campaign.