Football Christmas

Football has been a part of Thanksgiving pretty much since football, as we know it, was conceived. That's not been the case with Christmas. The NFL now crowns a champion in February. There once was a time when the champion proved themselves before Christmas. Or, right around Christmas. The 1955 and 1960 NFL Championships were played on a Monday, the 26th, to avoid conflict with the Sunday Christmas Day. The Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles were happy those Christmas seasons.

The Christmas-NFL conflict really started in 1971. The AFL and NFL were finally one league and there were more teams involved in the playoffs. There were two games that Christmas Day. The Cowboys beat the Vikings in the early game so we'll ignore that one. The second game was the Dolphins and the Chiefs and it was a classic. The longest game ever played. Some say that it took about a day to finish. It took less than that but it messed up a lot of holiday dinners. That game changed the way the NFL approached Christmas. The league avoided Christmas after that. In 1976 they started the season a week early to avoid a conflict in December. In 1977, '83 and '88 the NFL split playoff games between Saturday and Monday to avoid the Christmas Sunday. The league has relaxed their avoidance of Christmas games over the past couple decades. The current 17-week season pretty much makes it mandatory. The season routinely stumbles into January now. Thanks to that '71 Dolphins-Chiefs marathon the NFL still empties the schedule if Christmas is on a Sunday. The games are later and number two at most. The rest are the day before or after. The NFL doesn't bow to much but they try to show respect to Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Everyone.