National Football League (NFL), the largest football league in the United States, is aiming to conquer Christmas too. Although it ocassionally scheduled games on Christmas day if it fell on their usual match weekdays, since 2020 they are purposedly hosting games on Christmas day, to benefit from family gatherings watching TV at home.
This has been controversial for some reasons. Particularly from basketball fans, because Christmas day has traditionally been an NBA day, hosting games on December 25 every year since its second season in 1947.
Now, in addition to seeing how TV ratings decline, NBA has to compete against NFL on such a special day, with the American Football league hosting Super-Bowl level musical numbers, like Mariah Carey and Beyoncé, to a reported average audience of 24 million people per game.
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"I love NFL, but Christmas is our day", said LeBron James after Lakers 115-113 victory over Golden State Warriors on December 25.
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"It justs shows it's all about the money", said an NFL legend
But hosting NFL games on Christmas has been criticised by figures within the NFL world, too. Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback that played for Pittsburgh Steelers from 2004 to 2021, winning two Super Bowls, slammed NFL on his podcast.
"It's a shame that the league does this. It just shows that it's all about money and this is a way that they can make more money and figure this thing out because it's not fair for the players (...) You're going to make guys play the most violent game in the world, arguably, three games in eleven days".
"I mean, there's no time for your body to get healthy and rest", Roethlisberger said, addind that he feels bad for the players. "The holidays, you want to be home with your family, too. That's tough".
"And I know I'm gonna be watching, people are gonna be watching, so they're getting what they want". Indeed, NFL has earned reportedly 150 million dollars for the two NFL games on Christmas day streamed worldwide on Netflix (when the average price per game paid by ESPN is $26 million).