The 2022 NFL schedule was released on Thursday night, and one of the biggest things that stood out was the league will be very busy on Christmas Day. There will be three NFL games played on Dec. 25, making it the first time in league history that a tripleheader will be featured on Christmas. The first game will be the Green Bay Packers vs. the Miami Dolphins with a 1 p.m. ET kickoff time on Fox. The second game is the Denver Broncos vs. Los Angeles Rams with a 4:30 p.m. ET kickoff time on CBS, Nickelodeon and Paramount+. And the night game will be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Arizona Cardinals with an 8:20 p.m. ET kickoff time on NBC.
Quarterbacks will be the theme for the three games as four Super Bowl-winning signal-callers will be playing on Christmas Day. Aaron Rodgers of the Packers led his time to a Super Bowl title during the 2010 season, while Russell Wilson of the Packers won his Super Bowl in 2013 as a member of the Seattle Seahawks. Matthew Stafford led the Rams to a Super Bowl championship in February, and Brady won six Super Bowls as a member of the New England and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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Before the schedule was released, it was announced that the Broncos and Rams will battle on Dec. 25. And when NFL vice president of broadcasting Mike North appeared on the, he said the league was planning to have three games on the holiday. “We will play on Saturday night (Christmas Eve) on NFL Network and then when we get to Sunday, Christmas Day, we’ll have a tripleheader,” North said. “We’ll play one game on CBS afternoon, one game on Fox afternoon and our regular Sunday night game on NBC.”
One reason the NFL is playing three games on Christmas is it falls on Sunday. For the week, there will be one game played on Thursday, Dec. 22 (Jacksonville Jaguars vs. New York Jets), 11 games on Christmas Eve, three on Christmas Day and one on Monday, Dec. 26 (Los Angeles Chargers vs. Indianapolis Colts). In its history, the NFL has played 24 games on Christmas Day, including the playoffs.
