The NFL Is Coming for Adam Silver and the NBA on Christmas Day
For decades, the NBA has owned Christmas.
Other than Santa Claus, LeBron James might be the most associated face with the holiday in North America, playing on Christmas Day year after year.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been adamant that Christmas and the NBA are synonymous, as the NFL is with Thanksgiving.
Well, that doesn’t work for Roger Goodell or the NFL’s owners.
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The NFL owns Thanksgiving and is now making a play to kill the NBA’s attachment to Christmas, pulling out all the stops to make the grand holiday a day when the general public watches football instead of basketball.
While they dipped their toe in the water over the past few years, as NBA players have called the NFL out for trying to take over their day, 2026 is the year when Silver and the rest of the basketball world might be outmatched.
Goodell and the NFL are not only holding a game on Christmas Eve, but they’re having a triple-header on Christmas Day, with some of the biggest and best teams in the entire league suiting up to take the spotlight.
On Christmas Eve, the Houston Texans will take on the Philadelphia Eagles in a game featuring two elite defenses and teams that think they’re Super Bowl-bound.
And somehow, it gets better on Christmas Day.
It starts with one of the greatest rivalries in NFL history: the Green Bay Packers vs. the Chicago Bears. That then leads into a rematch of the AFC playoff overtime thriller between the Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills. And then the final game is the biggest, a rematch of the classic NFC Championship game between the defending champion Seattle Seahawks and rival Los Angeles Rams, featuring reigning MVP Matthew Stafford.
The NFL has deliberately put together arguably its best slate of games of the year to go head-to-head with the NBA.
Unless Adam Silver can invent a time machine to bring back Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to play against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, he might have to wave the white flag on this one.
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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 4:44 PM.