The NFL is coming back with force for Christmas 2024, even after the league previously said it likely couldn’t, showing both the power of its fans and the depth of stakeholders’ desire to establish a firm grasp on the holiday.

As owners meetings concluded Tuesday in Orlando, the NFL said it will play a doubleheader on Christmas, despite the fact that it will fall on Wednesday this year. Here’s how it will work: On Saturday, Dec. 21, the league will play what is expected to be a tripleheader. Four of those teams will then play again (likely against new opponents) on Dec. 25, with the same amount of rest that Thursday Night Football participants typically get after a Sunday game. The NFL previously suggested it would probably not pursue Christmas games this year due to the midweek placement on the calendar, but it left open the possibility “if the broadcast partners are interested, if it fits in our overall strategy.” 

Indeed, the viewership numbers for its three Christmas 2023 games, played on a Monday, made a massive statement in favor of a return engagement this year. CBS drew an average of 29.2 million for an early-afternoon game between the Raiders and Chiefs. Fox averaged 29 million for its late-afternoon broadcast of Giants-Eagles. And ESPN garnered an average of 27.1 million for a prime-time Ravens-49ers game. 

Those figures—all representing historic highs of some meaningful measure—completely trounced the NBA’s, which averaged 2.86 million for its set of five games, recorded viewership declines in each of those games this past Christmas, and saw its historic hold on the holiday meaningfully disrupted. “We’ve seen some unprecedented growth” in viewership on the holiday, Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president for media distribution, told reporters in Florida. “Football brings people together, and that’s even truer on those big holidays.”

Expanding Calendar … and Streaming

More broadly, the return to Christmas this year is also emblematic of the NFL’s ongoing efforts to expand its calendar, an initiative that will also see the league’s debut game in Brazil, in which the Eagles will play either the Browns or Packers on Friday, Sept. 6, and will be streamed by Peacock. That marks yet another game moved to the “exclusively streamed” category. Last year, Peacock had a regular-season and playoff game. But, in January 2025, that streaming-only wild-card matchup will move to Amazon Prime Video, its new annual home, the league confirmed Tuesday.

There are still plenty of questions surrounding Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani after he finally spoke about the ongoing betting scandal involving his former translator, Ippei Mizuhara, on Monday afternoon. But the first step of addressing the elephant in the room is out of the way, and Mike Paul, a public relations and reputation management consultant, joined the Front Office Sports Today podcast to break down his takeaways from Ohtani’s press conference.

Here are some of Paul’s biggest thoughts on Ohtani’s strategy:

• Rapid reaction: “If I had to grade this press conference, this controlled press conference, without knowing the details of it being an alleged crime, I would have given it a lower grade. But because we know that it is an alleged crime, a very serious crime, I would give it an A.”
• The reach of Ohtani: “He’s a global figure. The story’s gonna be even bigger [abroad] than it is here, I predict. And it’s important for the legal team, as well as the public relations and branding teams, to keep on top of every twist and turn.”

• What’s the truth? “Ohtani said that when [Mizuhara] was asked the question to explain what had happened, he didn’t translate that for him. I find that fascinating. It’s the reason why we had two different answers. One that was from the translator and now one that’s from him. The truth versus the lies. And someone manipulating and taking advantage of your inability to speak English to communicate one message to some and another to you.”
• How did this happen? “If [Mizuhara] was properly vetted, someone would have learned that he likes to gamble. And that obviously did not come up, at least from what we know today, in any vetting of any kind.”

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