NFL to play two games on Christmas, a Wednesday, during 2024 season

The NFL is embracing midweek holiday spirit in 2024.

The league will hold two games on Christmas -- a Wednesday -- this season, Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president of media distribution, announced at the Annual League Meeting on Tuesday.

"From what we've seen the last couple years is really some unprecedent growth, and not just on Christmas, on Thanksgiving, too," Schroeder explained Tuesday. "The last couple of years have had the highest-regular season game ever viewed in the regular season. That mindset, that opportunity, that belief we have that football brings people together -- that's even truer on these big holidays that happen throughout the year.

"When we saw the viewership from this past year, really our fans spoke. We certainly saw and believe that they are very much enjoying and wanting NFL football on Christmas. So what we're going to do is we're going to play a couple of games, like we've typically played for well over a decade, probably more than that, on Saturday of Week 16, and then come back and play a couple of games on Christmas Day on Wednesday."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he didn't anticipate player health concerns being an issue with teams playing Christmas games on a short week.

"Well, I think the days are the same for us. We've done this," Goodell explained. "In fact, COVID was a learning opportunity, I think it was the first time we played on a Wednesday. It will not be a regular thing. It will be when Christmas falls on a Wednesday. But the time period between games has been done before. We have not seen any elevation of injuries. You all, and we, have had a major focus on Thursday night when we first put it in, and we've still not seen any kind of elevation of injuries. So I think