Steelers Schedule Updates: Steelers Get Chiefs on Christmas
The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Kansas City Chiefs at 1 p.m. on Christmas Day as one of the two games that will be aired that day.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will play in the first of two Christmas games for the 2024 season, hosting the defending Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, in a 1 p.m. clash.
The Steelers announced that very game on Wednesday, and that game will be on a Wednesday. It is an odd day to have a game on, meaning that the Steelers will play on a Saturday against the Baltimore Ravens the previous week. But the Steelers’ schedule is much different from previous iterations.
It marks the reflection point of a tough stretch after Week 11, when the Steelers will play all six of their AFC North games along with the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. This is the first time that Pittsburgh has played on Christmas since 2017.
On top of that, the game will exclusively be streamed on Netflix. Netflix joins Amazon Prime, which owns the rights to the Thursday Night Football package, and NBC’s Peacock, which broadcast a Wild Card playoff game last year, as NFL streamers. Those deals have come in addition to the league’s arrangements with traditional broadcasters ABC/ESPN, CBS, NBC and FOX. Deals with other streaming companies have mandated an over-the-air option in local markets. The specific matchups for the two-game Christmas slate have not yet been announced.
From 1989 to 2000, just six games were played on Dec. 25, with most of the games that would typically have been played on Christmas moved to Dec. 24.
Starting in 2004, though, the NFL began an expansion of the Christmas Day product. In 2004, Christmas was on a Saturday, 2005 a Sunday and 2006 a Monday, and all three years, two games were played on Christmas. When the Calendar came around again from 2009-11, one game each was played on Christmas. In 2016 and 2017, the league played two games on Christmas, one in 2020 and two in 2021.
In 2022, with Christmas again falling on a Sunday, the NFL went full bore, scheduling a full slate of nationally televised games, one early, one afternoon and one night game. The move was so successful that even though Christmas fell on a Monday in 2023, the did the same thing.
Steelers president Art Rooney II, usually the voice of the traditionalists among NFL ownership, had to admit that the strong ratings showed an enthusiasm for playing the games on Christmas Day.
“You have to be flexible,” he said. “You have to be willing to go where your fans are. It’s become a popular day for our games, and so I think you’ll continue to see it.”
The full Steelers schedule will be released at 8 p.m. on NFL Network.
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