The Kansas City Chiefs are currently the marquee team in the NFL, as proven by the recent partial release of the 2025 regular-season schedule. The Kingdom and Patrick Mahomes will play on Thanksgiving (the first time since 2006) and once again on Christmas. This sudden inclusion led one prominent NFL analyst to say what’s been on all our minds.
Advertisement
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the Chiefs and Mahomes will be dominating screens during major holidays. After all, last season they played in the NFL’s first game of the season, the Black Friday game, and the Wednesday Christmas Day game. The Black Friday game drew 13.51 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video, while the Chiefs-Steelers Christmas matchup drew 30.0 million.
But the Thanksgiving showdown is a different beast. It went on to rack up 42.1 million viewers with the 2022 Giants-Cowboys game, the most for the holiday and any other day. And who better to top that than the Chiefs, who bring extra attention to the stands not only because of their success but also due to influential figures like Taylor Swift attending?
It’s no wonder Mike Florio seems to have had enough of the Chiefs dominating major holidays.
“The Chiefs, the Chiefs owning all major holidays,” Florio said begrudgingly in an episode of Pro Football Talk.
“They’re playing on Christmas. They’re playing on Thanksgiving. And every year, I’m curious about those Thanksgiving games. Especially the Cowboys game, because you could put any game in there, and it’s going to draw a big audience. They’ve gotten over 40 million [viewers] for that game a couple of times.”
With the high viewership and ratings, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, along with Mahomes and the Chiefs, earned the matchup. But is it what fans want to see? Not quite, including Florio. But he understands why the matchup is happening.
“You put the Chiefs and the Cowboys on Thanksgiving in the late afternoon window, and it’s going to do 45-50 million, because it’s the Chiefs,” Florio professed.
If this matchup can amass more than just 42.1 million viewership, it would become the most-viewed regular-season game in NFL history, according to the Nielsen ratings. Last season’s game (featuring the Cowboys and the Giants) on the same holiday drew 38.5 million, ranking sixth on the list. Clearly, the league is pushing for a better number this year.
Florio’s co-host, Chris Simms, also believes that if Mahomes and Dak Prescott are doing well and both teams have a good record by the end of December, the game could do even better than 45 million.
“I’m with you. If they have good records, both of them, I mean, who knows? Maybe we get to 50 million with this type of matchup,” Simms stated.
However, Simms went on to argue that he’s never seen the NFL and Roger Goodell ride the coattails of a team like Mahomes and the Chiefs for this long. It’s felt like they’ve owned the best games since the turn of the decade. It raises the question: is this okay — and is it merited?
Mahomes and Chiefs getting too much attention?
On the surface, yes, it’s quite surprising how much the NFL seemingly wants to put the Chiefs in primetime games. One might even call it unfair. But when we, as fans and netizens, lean into this notion and get upset at the NFL for continually doing this, it’s what they want.
What’s the saying? Even bad PR is good PR? The NFL will continue to put Mahomes in primetime because it still raises a passionate discourse online. Any Tweet, article, or post that is centered around how tired people are of hearing how good the Chiefs are is actually helping grow the NFL’s popularity.
Add in external factors like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship, Kelce’s mother, and Brittany Mahomes — and you’ve got yourself a borderline reality TV show. How could the NFL not take advantage of this opportunity for viewership? That’s the better question.
So, if you have a problem with the Chiefs and Mahomes owning every holiday every season, try to ignore it. Talking about it only fuels the fire. Or, you could also accept the fact that they’re an excellent team amid a dynasty and deserve to be on television. Whatever floats your boat.
