Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

BD Sullivan wrote:

MatthewToy wrote:

74_75_78_79_ wrote:Two Christmas games this year - Ravens@Steelers 4:30, Broncos@Chiefs 8:30 (both times ET); most of the other games that week will be the day before (on Sat). The following week, ALL games on New Year's Day either at 1 or 4 ET with no night game. Steelers one of four teams that never played Christmas Day (who are the other 3?). They'll also be playing Thanksgiving Night at Colts.

Who else has played both T-Day and Christmas in the same year? Who else has played the trifecta (both those AND New Year's Day)?

If there were regularly scheduled games on Christmas in the past 50 years then there's a good chance Dallas and/or Detroit played both days.

I'm fairly certain this is the entire list of Christmas games:

1971 (Both Playoff Games)
Dallas @ Minnesota
Miami @ Kansas City
1989
Cincinnati @ Minnesota
1993
Houston @ San Francisco
1994
Detroit @ Miami
1995
Dallas @ Arizona
1999
Denver @ Detroit
2000
Dallas @ Tennessee
2004
Oakland @ Kansas City
Denver @ Tennessee
2005
Chicago @ GB
Minnesota @ Baltimore
2006
Philadelphia @ Dallas
NYJ @ Miami
2009
San Diego @ Tennessee
2010
Dallas @ Arizona
2011
Chicago @ Green Bay

Vikings 29 Bengals 21 not only my FAVORITE of all these, but one of my all-time best Christmas memories-period!

Dallas@Cards '95 - Buddy's last stand as well as game being used for imaginary playoff at end of 'Jerry McGuire' that, in turn, prophesied '98.

Oilers shutting down SF at the Stick, 10-7, in '93 - an awesome end-of-year statement all for naught three weeks later.

'00 Titans steamrolling Dallas...EVEN BETTER than they were the year prior - especially down the stretch - only to shoot themselves in feet vs Balt in divisionals.

Dallas at Vikes '71...forever overshadowed by Mia@KC.

The Portsmouth Spartans played a Christmas Day exhibition game against a team from Omaha in 1933. Only 200 fans attended the game as a brutal cold front (15°F) had swept across the prairie the previous day. The game, a 42-7 triumph by the Spartans, lasted only an hour as they shortened the quarters and there was no halftime intermission. It wasn't until 1971 that another NFL team(s) played on Christmas Day.

The Spartans also played a Christmas Day exhibition game the previous year. A 6-6 tie against the Chicago Bears in Cincinnati on a balmy 65-degree day. This was a week after the Bears beat the Spartans 9-0 in that famed de facto championship game played indoors at Chicago Stadium.

It was a perfect storm of disaster for the NFL in 1971, since the first game was in the Central time zone, which meant that the game started at Noon local time--when many people may have been attending church. Predictably, the local clergy threw a fit. Then, the nightcap went on and on and on and..., which caused havoc for many families that were sitting down for Christmas dinner.

The PR hit was bad enough that the NFL went out of their way to avoid playing then the next four times that the schedule ran head first into that date (1976, 1977, 1983, 1988). They finally relented in 1989 because it was being played at night and they haven't had any issues since--primarily because the games don't start until late afternoon on the East Coast.