NFL's Christmas slate is not worth upsetting your family to sneak away to watch: Meet me at the logo
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone reading this. It’s a special time of year filled with cheer, a time for family and friends to congregate and reminisce about why we love our loved ones the way we do.
Quality time is a key feature of the holidays, but the NFL is taking over this Christmas with three standalone games. Balancing quality time with loved ones while also trying to catch the NFL action is undoubtedly a struggle that millions of people are going to go through this weekend. But be careful: These games on the whole just aren’t worth it.
To be fair to the NFL, these games looked tantalizing when the NFL schedule came out earlier this year. Packers vs. Dolphins, Rams vs. Broncos, Buccaneers vs. Cardinals. The way these teams were thought of back in the spring obviously is not the same as now, but scheduling top games late into the season is a difficult task considering the harm that football players go through just to do their job. The Cardinals are about to start Trace McSorley on Christmas. Baker Mayfield is quarterbacking the Rams on Santa’s day of all days. The Buccaneers and the Broncos are, well, the Buccaneers and the Broncos.
It’s not the NFL’s fault that injuries have left these games without any juice, but this is just the reality of the situation. Luckily, there’s a way to get the best of both worlds here. The Packers playing against the Dolphins still has intrigue as long as Miami’s arsenal of offensive talent is healthy. That is absolutely a game worth watching. The big names, the scoring potential, the fact these teams are both scratching and clawing for a playoff spot — this is a classic late-season NFL matchup where the stakes involved are tangibly felt.
More importantly, it’s the first game of the day. It should be over by 4 p.m. ET, which is more than enough time to celebrate with the people who make the holidays so special. Don’t tarnish those memories by hiding out to watch Broncos-Rams, with both teams far out of the playoff at 8-20 combined, or Tom Brady and the Bucs slog their way to an ugly win against Trace McSorely. It’s just not worth it. It’s a coal-in-the-stocking level offense.
Watch a high-stakes playoff game, stuff your body with food and other libations and then see how the evening is going from there. These particular NFL games are not worth hurting your grandmother’s feelings over. Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you when things are a little tense on Monday morning!
If you disagree and think these games just have to interrupt such a loving time of year, you can look for me at the logo, but I won’t be there. I’ll be drinking wine with my grandmother while Russell Wilson once again struggles to reach the impossible benchmark of 20 points in an NFL game.
