Christmas is coming early for NFL fans, with Netflix dropping the first teaser for its two live football games set for Dec. 25.
Set to “Feliz Navidad,” the 30-sec. spot opens with Travis Kelce yelling, “What a day to play football baby!” as crowds cheer in the background. That’s followed by a montage of shouting by various players, the teams facing off, Santa playing the drums and outright celebration from both fans and athletes alike.
The festivities kick off Christmas Day with reigning Super Bowl champs the Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the Pittsburgh Steelers at 1 p.m. ET, followed by the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Houston Texans at 4:30 p.m. ET.
During the Financial Times’ Business of Entertainment Summit last month, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters teased that the streamer would “Netflix-ify” the pair of games.
“We’ll plan to have a little bit of stuff around the games with our talent and stuff like that that will hopefully make it super fun,” he said at the time.
Peters also emphasized that the games would be treated as a singular event, rather than something that would happen on a recurring basis. But he didn’t rule out expanding the company’s sports rights portfolio as long as it’s done in a way that “works for the business.”
“Those have been typically challenging deals to go do and make it work for the business,” the exec said. “Never say never, keep your mind open to how to do it and think creatively about it. Certainly, we’re poking at the edges of that, so maybe we’ll figure out a way, but we haven’t figured out a way yet. And a lot of the big rights deals are locked up for a while.”
The games are part of a three-season deal between the league and the streamer, with Netflix also set to air at least one holiday game each year in 2025 and ’26.
They mark the streamer’s latest venture into live events, following the Netflix Cup, a golf tournament featuring drivers from “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” and “Full Swing;” the Netflix Slam, a tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz; comedy specials from big names like Chris Rock and Joe Rogan; “Everybody’s in L.A.” hosted by John Mulaney; and “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef,” a hot dog-eating contest that saw Joey Chestnut break a hot dog-eating world record on Labor Day against his rival, Takeru Kobayashi.
Upcoming live events include Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson on Nov. 7 and WWE wrestling matches starting in 2025. The streamer also has a multi-year deal to live stream the SAG Awards.
The NFL first launched Yuletide games in 1971 before bringing them back on a semi-regular basis in 1989. In total, the league has staged 30 Christmas contests.
Last year, the NFL’s three Christmas games ranked among the Top 25 most-viewed TV programs of 2023, with the Raiders vs. the Chiefs drawing the highest Christmas Day viewership since 1989.
In addition to airing on Netflix, the games will be on broadcast TV in the competing teams’ cities and will be available on U.S. mobile devices with NFL+.
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