NFL Considers Expanding Holiday Schedule

The NFL has been assertive in their desire to spread out the cadence of their product, which the public has shown they can’t get enough of.

It’s forced other leagues to make decisions around the NFL’s plans, and the race to dominate the calendar might only get more intense during the 2026 football season.

The NFL is reportedly considering scheduling a game on Thanksgiving Eve, which would precede the traditional Thanksgiving contests, and the recently created Black Friday game.

NFL now is exploring playing a game on Thanksgiving Eve as early as this season. This year this would be Wednesday, Nov. 25. pic.twitter.com/ZFTrOIjTYV

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 11, 2026

The three-day stretch would likely feature five total contests, simulating an appetizer, main course, and dessert menu for football fans.

The league released a statement to The Associated Press in mid-March which addressed their forward-thinking plans for future slates.

“Every offseason we look for new opportunities to best serve our fans in the schedule-making process,” the statement read. “As Commissioner Goodell has said, Thanksgiving and NFL football have become synonymous and given the continued growth of fan interest around our games on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, looking for additional opportunities tied to this special holiday is exciting for us to explore.”

There are different considerations that the league would need to factor in for the two teams participating in a Thanksgiving Eve matchup. One thought is that both teams would come off a bye to have ample rest before the historically unorthodox Wednesday contest.

Whether it falls on a Wednesday night or a different time, the NFL certainly looks to be focused on bringing at least one other contest to the Thanksgiving adjacent window.

Commissioner Roger Goodell said in December 2025 that the league was considering adding a second Black Friday game.

There have been mixed reactions to the possibility of the schedule adjustment. Sports commentator Bomani Jones wondered aloud about what such a decision might do to football’s traditional day of the week.

“What they are diluting is the day (of) Sunday,” Jones contended. “What makes y’all so much different than everything else is y’all got this whole day that’s loaded with stuff. And instead, you put a little bit here, you put a little bit there.”

Jones also questioned what type of matchup a Wednesday game would feature.

“If I’m the NFL, I get that you can get a little more bread by doing this, but I would be trying to figure out, how do we protect the sanctity of Sunday? And to me, that’s not what they’re doing here, unless they’re going to put bums in (the Thanksgiving Eve) game.”

The NFL Playing A Game On Thanksgiving Eve Would Be RIDICULOUSLY Stupid https://t.co/Ii5pGYwWeh pic.twitter.com/BwB1d33kMI

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 14, 2026

Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina took the other side of the discussion by addressing the arguments against the notion that a Thanksgiving Eve game is a good idea.

“If your argument is about the NFL diluting its product or hurting scarcity by going overboard by adding a new broadcast window, that just doesn’t make much sense,” Traina wrote.

He emphasized that inventory is just being re-arranged, which shouldn’t lend itself to football overload.

“We don’t love football because it’s played once or twice a week,” Traina communicated. “We love football because each team only plays 17 games and almost every game of the regular season is meaningful.”

The NFL schedule is usually released in May.