Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

NFL planning for tripleheader on Christmas Day, will directly challenge the NBA

Originally posted on Sportsnaut | By Vincent Frank | Last updated 5/8/23

The NFL will release its 2023 schedule later this week with a ton of monumental matchups on the slate. That includes a rematch of February’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.

We’re certainly going to see a ton of must-see matchups once the 2023 schedule is officially released. It’s now also looking like the NFL is planning to go directly up against the NBA on Christmas Day.

According to Peter King of NBC Sports, the league is preparing for a tripleheader on Christmas. The holiday lands on a Monday, which makes this even more interesting. Last year saw Christmas land on a Sunday. The NFL decided to play a majority of its games on Christmas Eve with a doubleheader on the holiday.

In the past, the league has, to a certain extent, ceded the holiday to the NBA, largely because Christmas is seen as a basketball-centric holiday from the perspective of the sports world.

That’s no longer going to be the case moving forward. The NFL may be feeling confident this year, given that the Christmas matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins was among the 10 most-watched regular-season games of the 2022 campaign.

Who might the NFL feature on its Christmas Day schedule?

One obvious team has to be the New York Jets after they pulled off the blockbuster trade for four-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers. He’s going to be a major television draw in 2023.

We also wouldn’t be surprised if both reigning conference champions in the Philadelphia Eagles and reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs are featured in separate games.

In terms of overall draws, the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers will always be in the conversation.

With that said, the NFL might want to avoid the Christmas Day matchup we saw last season that interested no one. When the schedule came out, most thought the Denver Broncos taking on the Los Angeles Rams would be enticing.

As we all now know, it didn’t happen, with Russell Wilson struggling in his first season with Denver and the Rams being an injury-plagued enigma throughout the 2022 season. To be fair, however, unless you can see the future, it's impossible to plan for those contingencies.

This article first appeared on Sportsnaut and was syndicated with permission.

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