One of the toughest stretches for any NFL team in history is now unfolding for four top franchises. It’s already claiming some of the league’s biggest stars—and perhaps leaving some collateral damage for several of the league’s rights holders. 

The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens, and Texans are each playing three games in 11 days among their Week 15 games this past Sunday, upcoming Week 16 games on Saturday, and then a Christmas Day doubleheader on Netflix. The heavily compressed run of games—all involving top teams—has been known since the schedule release in May, and the selection of these teams in featured broadcast slots owes heavily to their status as regular Super Bowl contenders. 

The league even went so far as to have these four teams grouped together for both the Weeks 16 and 17 games to enable the unusual scheduling of NFL games on a Wednesday for the Netflix doubleheader, as each will play the Christmas matchups on three days of rest. 

Now that the games are happening, though, the grumbling and injury fallout has begun. Even before Sunday’s contests, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes complained, “It’s not a good feeling. You never want to play this amount of games in this short of time. It’s not great for your body.” The fears of Mahomes were then confirmed in Kansas City’s 21–7 win over the Browns, as the two-time league MVP sustained an ankle injury and is now considered “week-to-week” in his availability. 

That means he could miss the Chiefs’ upcoming home game against the Texans, and perhaps even the holiday showcase against the Steelers, an absence that would be a big blow for NBC and Netflix, respectively. The Chiefs’ official injury report for Week 16 has not been released yet. 

A similar situation is unfolding in Pittsburgh with Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt, who also sustained an ankle injury Sunday in a 27–13 loss to the Eagles. Like Mahomes, X-rays came back negative, but the status for the five-time NFL All-Pro is uncertain. The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said Monday that Watt is “probably good for the playoffs, at least.” The Steelers’ upcoming game at Baltimore will be shown on Fox. 

All these matchups will have significant seeding implications in the AFC playoffs, as the Chiefs, Steelers, and Texans have already clinched postseason spots, and the Ravens are a near-lock to join them. The situation could prove to be a boon for the Bills, currently the AFC’s No. 2 team and playing a conventional schedule with two Sunday afternoon home games over the next two weeks.

In a first for the Ryder Cup, players on the 2025 U.S. team will receive a $200,000 stipend for competing in the biennial team golf event.

The PGA of America, which operates the U.S. team and runs the Ryder Cup when it is played Stateside every four years, announced the decision on Monday, following recent reports that U.S. players would be paid.

“While no players asked to be compensated, the PGA of America Board of Directors has voted to increase the allocation to the members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team from $200,000 to be directed to charities—a figure unchanged since 1999—to $500,000, with $300,000 of that to be directed to the charity or charities of the players’ choice. The balance is a stipend,” the organization said in a statement. 

Players on the European Ryder Cup team will continue to not receive any payment. U.S. players could still choose to donate their $200,000 stipend to charity—something U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, who will also get the six-figure payment, told the Associated Press he would do.

In the Presidents Cup—run by the PGA Tour and played in non–Ryder Cup years, pitting U.S. players against those from international countries outside of Europe—players from both teams receive $250,000 stipends, a practice that began in 2022. In the Olympics, golfers can receive prize money from their country’s Olympic federation. Scottie Scheffler received $37,500 from the U.S. Olympic Committee for winning gold at the Paris Games.

With 12 team members and captain Bradley, the PGA of America will be paying out $2.6 million in stipends, in addition to a smaller amount given to assistant captains, according to the AP. 

Money-Making Machine

Tickets are already sold out for next September’s event at Bethpage Black Golf Course just outside New York City, despite prices starting at $750 for the three competition days. Beyond ticket sales, NBC pays the PGA of America $55 million for the U.S. media rights to each Ryder Cup, as part of a $440 million deal running through the 2031 edition. The PGA of America pays roughly 20% of its Ryder Cup broadcast fee—about $11 million each cycle—to the PGA Tour, in exchange for using PGA Tour players.

When the Ryder Cup is played across the pond every four years, revenue is largely used to support tournament purses and the operations of the European Tour, which for sponsorship reasons is called the DP World Tour.

Cash Controversy

The question of whether players should be paid emerged as a controversial topic at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, which Europe won. A British reporter claimed that U.S. player Patrick Cantlay wasn’t wearing a hat during the Ryder Cup in protest of not being paid. Cantlay refuted that report.

However, pay-for-play has remained in the spotlight for the U.S. team. 

When reports of U.S. players getting paid emerged this fall, Rory McIlroy, who has competed in seven Ryder Cups for Europe, told BBC Sport that he “personally would pay for the privilege to play on the Ryder Cup.” 

Earlier this month, Tiger Woods, who passed up the opportunity to captain the U.S. team in 2025, said players didn’t want to be paid but pushed for them to have a larger say in where revenue from the event goes. 

“The Ryder Cup itself makes so much money, why can’t we allocate it to various charities?” he said ahead of the Hero World Challenge that he hosts annually in the Bahamas. “And what’s wrong with each player, 12 players getting a million dollars and the ability to divvy out to amazing charities that they’re involved in that they can help out?” Later, Woods added, “I hope they would get $5 million each and donate it all to charity.”