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THE NFL is facing festive fixture chaos with FIVE games still not having a slot on the schedule in Week 17.
Christmas week will see NFL games on Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and Monday as well as a triple header on Saturday.
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But decisions are still to be made on five games to put into various slots, seemingly because of a weak slate of games.
Christmas Day will see the Kansas City Chiefs visit the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Texans host the Baltimore Ravens.
Netflix will stream those games on its platform and will be desperate to avoid some of the issues seen with the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight, which saw buffering and grainy images ruin the fight for many.
Amazon Prime will then host the resurgent Seattle Seahawks against the struggling Chicago Bears on Thursday Night Football.
Six games are, so far, pencilled in for Sunday afternoon, with the Browns vs Dolphins game on Sunday night and the Detroit Lions’ trip to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football.
The games still to find a home are – Bengals-Broncos, Rams-Cardinals, Patriots-Chargers, Giants-Colts and Commanders-Falcons.
The chaos comes amid Patrick Mahomes admitting that the hectic schedule will take a toll on the Chiefs.
Kansas City are set to play three games in 11 days – on December 15, December 21 and Christmas Day.
Mahomes said: “All you can do is focus on the game and the practice that you had that day.
“I try to prepare my body all year long for this stretch by tailoring my workouts, tailoring how you practice and you prepare.
“The coaches do a great job of taking care of us on the practice field.
“We practice hard as anybody, but they know how to kind of dial it back when we need it.
“It is not a good feeling. I’m excited to play on Christmas to hopefully get back from what we did last year [when the Chiefs lost on the holiday to the Las Vegas Raiders], but you never want to play this many games in this short of time.
“It’s just 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.”
NFL on Netflix
Netflix will be the global home of the NFL on Christmas Day this year.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid added: “That’s a unique situation.
“You just have to manage it. It is what it is. You make the best of it.
“One thing is you’ve got to get guys ready for a game, give them the chance to do whatever you present to them.
“So, I help them out now. We’ve got a normal week right here.
“We’ve got to take care of business.”
