Christmas Day was once the exclusive territory of the NBA. In recent years, the NFL has decided to invade that territory and play multiple games on Christmas. While this has yielded increased revenues for the NFL, it doesn’t make former Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger happy at all.
“It’s miserable. It’s a shame that the league does this. It just shows that it’s all about money, and this is a way that they can, you know, make more money and figure this thing out because it’s not fair for the players,” Roethlisberger said on his podcast, Channel 7. “You wanna talk about injuries and making the game safer, changing the kickoff rule and preventing guys on hip-drop tackles, and concussions, and this that and the other, and you’re going to make guys play the most violent game in the world, arguably, three games in 11 days. I mean, there’s no time for your body to get healthy and rest.”
The Christmas games themselves aren’t such a big deal. What’s a big deal is that teams who played last Saturday (the Steelers, Chiefs, Ravens, and Texans) now have to play again on Wednesday. With those teams having to turn around and play on January 5, it all adds up to three games in 11 days.
Roethlisberger isn’t alone in his criticism; Chiefs QB Pat Mahomes recently indicated that he is also not a fan of the scheduling.
“It’s not a good feeling,” Mahomes told reporters. “You never want to play this amount of games in this short of time. It’s not great for your body. But, at the end of the day, it’s your job, your profession. You have to come to work and do it.”
