I was curious about this week’s Christmas offerings by the NFL. Christmas had always belonged to the NBA, but this year, even though Christmas fell on a Wednesday, the NFL decided to throw its hat into the ring and challenge the NBA for TV ratings.
LeBron James even complained about it, saying that the NFL has Thanksgiving, and the NBA has always had Christmas. This made me ponder the old adage, famously, that pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered. I was curious about what the ratings would show.
Well, the jury is in, and NFL fans are definitely not sick of the product and cannot get enough. They started with just Sunday and then added Monday…which became the premier game of the week. And then Thursday night was introduced. They’ve now added opening week Friday night and Black Friday. They play Saturday games late in the season. They play overseas to widen the TV window in America. They now play 17 games and will expand to 18 games sooner. The league’s dominance is seemingly boundless.
On average, the NBA has about 5 million viewers. The NFL dominated, getting about 5x that amount, averaging about 25 million viewers (and remember, those three games were exclusively on Netflix). Absolutely amazing…don’t expect there to be less games. With these numbers, look for the NFL to shoehorn as many games into as many TV windows as possible.
This past week, there were games on Sunday and Monday Night Football, which ended wk.16. And then wk.17 began on Wednesday (Christmas, which had three games throughout the day), Thursday Night Football, which pitted the Bears and Seahawks, three more games on Saturday, only nine games on Sunday, and finishing on Monday with the Lions facing the 49ers. Never in the sport’s history has a week so been saturated by the NFL.
Even though there are only two weeks left in the season, only two games don’t have any postseason ramifications. The Raiders are playing the Saints, and the Titans are playing the Jaguars. Every other game still has at least one team in the playoff picture. Some are fighting to get in, while others are jockeying for playoff position.
The Chiefs secured the No. 1 seed in the AFC and a first-round bye with their 29-10 victory over the Steelers. The Ravens, Rams, and Falcons are now all in first place in their divisions and control their destinies. The Lions and Vikings are each 13-2, each controlling their destinies. Whichever team that goes 2-0 in these last two games will win the NFC North and secure the No. 1 seed. The other team will catapult all the way down to the No. 5 seed.
With playoff implications on the line, here are this week’s most significant injuries:
Philadelphia Eagles, Jalen Hurts: Hurts has been ruled out and is still in concussion protocol.
Green Bay Packers, Christian Walker: Walker is questionable with a knee injury.
Miami Dolphins, Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill: Waddle is questionable with a knee injury. Hill is questionable and nursing his wrist.
Indianapolis Colts. Anthony Richardson: Richardson has missed practice all week with a back and foot injury.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cade Otton: Otton is out due to a knee injury.
Cincinnati Bengals, Tee Higgins: Higgins is questionable with ankle and knee issues.
