The NFL will play two games on Christmas Day, with the Kansas City Chiefs traveling to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers and the Houston Texans hosting the Baltimore Ravens as part of a doubleheader on Netflix.
All four teams will wear a holiday-inspired patch on their jerseys to mark the occasion, and it will also be present on their uniforms the weekend prior, as the Chiefs host the Texans and the Steelers take on the Ravens on Dec. 21.
The patch features the NFL shield flanked by two candy canes and the league’s decision to add it to their uniforms brings to mind the patch that teams wear on Thanksgiving Day in honor of late Hall of Fame coach and broadcaster John Madden.
This will mark the fifth straight season the NFL has played on Christmas Day, even though the holiday falls on a Wednesday and the league doesn’t traditionally schedule games on that day of the week.
The last time an NFL game was played on a Wednesday was 2021, when a COVID-19 outbreak forced the Ravens and Steelers to postpone their Thanksgiving night matchup by nearly one week.
The NFL also moved its 2012 season opener between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants to Wednesday night to avoid a potential television conflict with the Democratic National Convention.
Prior to that, the last time the NFL played a game on a Wednesday was 1948, when the Los Angeles Rams beat the Detroit Lions. That was notably the first game in league history where a team wore a logo on its helmet.
Header photo courtesy of @HoustonTexans on X/Twitter.
