The NFL’s Christmas schedule has some players not feeling so happy

On By Littum

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Patrick Mahomes was fired up for the chance to play again on Christmas Day.

“Until I realized it was Wednesday,” the Kansas City Chiefs the quarterback said Monday.

Under the Christmas tree, the players from the four teams in action on Wednesday await not presents, but a pronounced set of bruises, aches and pains.

To play on a Wednesday, four teams took the field on Saturday – the Chiefs, Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers host the Chiefs at 1 p.m. ET, while the Ravens and Texans kick off in Houston (with an intermission from Beyoncé) at 4:30 p.m. ET.

A four-day turnaround has become a more common occurrence in the NFL. Teams playing on “Thursday Night Football” often have to prepare within that time frame. But the league’s desire to play on Christmas Day, despite the holiday’s long association with the NBA, combined with the introduction of a new media partner in Netflix, made Wednesday’s games a reality.

“I think it’s really cool to play the first Netflix game, and play on Christmas Day in front of the whole nation,” said Mahomes, who noted the chance to make up for last year’s Dec. 25 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, their last loss on their way to a second straight Super Bowl title.

His teammates don’t necessarily agree.

“When it came out, I thought it was terrible,” safety Justin Reid said, per Kansas City Star. “And I still think it’s terrible. But it is what it is.”

Defensive tackle Chris Jones, inactive for Wednesday’s game with a calf injury, said he will address the scheduling proximity with the NFL Players Association.

“I think that’s a conversation that needs to be had in the offseason,” Jones said.

The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 prevents the NFL from scheduling games on Saturday until the second weekend in December. It opened on Dec. 21 — against two of the three College Football Playoff games that day — as a day to field the four Christmas Day teams to provide the minimum rest time required to trot out there less than 96 hours after they left the field.

“I think we have a good understanding of how to play short-week football,” NFL media and business director Brian Rolapp said last month while speaking on a panel at the Sports Business Journal’s Innovators Conference.

He added: “I don’t feel like we’re splitting the atom here. … I think we always think about where the best windows are to play from a media standpoint, the competitive nature of the game and the health and safety of the games first. We started to playing short week games in 2006 and we started with six games and we’ve gradually gotten smarter and better at it.”

For the Chiefs, it’s a stretch of six games in 31 days. This is their third short week in that span since playing the Raiders on Black Friday. They are the first team since the 1927 Yankees—not the famous “Murderers’ Row” Major League Baseball squad that featured Babe Ruth and Lou Gherig—to play every day of the week except Tuesday in the same season.

Mahomes is dealing with a sprained ankle; head coach Andy Reid headed from Arrowhead Stadium to the Chiefs’ practice facility to log a few hours of preparation Saturday. At this point in the season, every team is dealing with some kind of affliction.

“It’s part of what you have to do,” Reid told reporters Monday.

After Saturday’s loss to the Ravens, Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward was asked if it was unfair to have this compact schedule at this point in the season.

“No,” he replied. “That’s what you signed up for. It’s football. No matter who it is, you sign up for it every day. I know everybody in our locker room does. The schedule is made. You just play. If we had won three (in a row), would we really talk about it? We’ve had opportunities.”

The team talked about the challenges ahead, Heyward said, and those who value their professionalism would find a way to recover Sunday as they begin their preparation for the Chiefs or review their performance against the Ravens.

“That’s how we roll,” Heyward said. “We don’t make excuses. We deal with what we have and move on.”

At least Baltimore and Houston had the benefit of a Week 14 bye, which provided an opportunity to recharge and regain health late in the NFL calendar. The Chiefs (Week 6) and Steelers (Week 9) weren’t so lucky.

“Every team that plays on Wednesday has to deal with that, so we’re not complaining,” Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton said. It’s just part of the business.

“It’s kind of nice to get them out of the way — just boom, boom, boom — three games done and now we’ve got Cleveland after this week and going to the playoffs, but like I said, we’ll take it … I was going to to say one week at a time, but it’s really just one game at a time. We play four times a week, but I don’t think anyone thinks about that. We just go out there to play the game.”

The Texans played the New York Jets on Halloween, a Thursday, earlier this season. Head coach DeMeco Ryans said the team will follow their schedule from that week. Recovering mentally, he said, will be crucial as the team saw wide receiver Tank Dell leave Saturday’s game via ambulance after suffering a serious leg injury that included a dislocated kneecap and torn ACL while catching a touchdown against Kansas City .

The chance to play on Christmas is also “a unique opportunity for us … everyone is watching, tuned in,” Ryans said.

That doesn’t mitigate the challenge of playing on short rest, even if it’s Christmas.

“It’s hard,” Heyward said, “but who said football was easy?”

This story has been updated with a new photo and new information.