When the Kansas City Chiefs take the field on Christmas Day, they’ll become the first NFL team in 97 years to play a game on six different days of the week during a single-season.
The reason this rarely ever happens is because the NFL almost never schedules any games for Wednesdays. The only reason we’re getting a Wednesday game this year is because Christmas is falling on a Wednesday. Back in March, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the league would avoid playing on Wednesdays in the future unless Christmas happens to fall on a Wednesday like it does this year.
Over the past 74 years, there have only been TWO Wednesday games played in the NFL, but that number is going to double this year with a Wednesday doubleheader being played on Netflix. The first game of the doubleheader will feature Kansas City (14-1) at Pittsburgh (10-5) in a game that kicks off at 1 p.m. ET. In the second game, we’ve got the Texans (9-6) hosting the Ravens (10-5) at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Although there are four teams playing, the Chiefs are the only ones from that group that will have played on six different days of the week this year. One other reason this bizarre scheduling quirk happened is because the Chiefs also played on Black Friday.
Here’s a breakdown of the Chiefs’ schedule by day:
Sunday: 10
Monday: Two
Tuesday: Zero
Wednesday: One (Week 17 vs. Steelers)
Thursday: One (Week 1 vs. Ravens)
Friday: One (Week 13 vs. Raiders)
Saturday: One (Week 16 vs. Texans)
For Week 18, the Chiefs could play on Saturday or Sunday, but that won’t be announced until early next week. With their bizarre schedule, the Chiefs are the first team in 97 years to play on six different days of the week. The last team to do it came all the way back in 1927 when the New York Yankees played on every day except for Monday.
In other bizarre scheduling news, the Ravens and Steelers will both be playing their second Wednesday game in five seasons, which is pretty wild when you consider that there were only two Wednesday games in the NFL from 1950 thru 2023. The Ravens and Steelers faced each other on a Wednesday in 2020 in a game that got postponed due to COVID. It’s been 84 years since we’ve seen another team do that. No NFL team has played that many Wednesday games in such a short span since the Chicago Cardinals played three Wednesday games in a three-season span from 1938 thru 1940.