Football needs to take a hike on holidays

 

Dear NFL and UFL,

I respectfully request that you leave our holidays alone. From his past UFL season to the announcement of the upcoming NFL season, you have unfairly targeted all of our major holidays with games. I want to watch many of those games but more importantly, I want to spend the holidays with my family and friends, not glued to the TV watching sporting events.

This domination of the holidays is incredibly damaging to family time and separates us from our cultural and religious celebrations. This is harmful on many levels. Before I get into that, allow me to set the stage.

The Houston Gamblers of the UFL played 10 regular season games, five at home. Their first home game was on Easter, April 5. Their second home game was on a Thursday night, April 16. Although not a holiday it was a very inconvenient time. They played at home on Sunday, April 26, at 11 a.m., which cuts into church time for many people. The next home game was Sunday, May 10, which was Mother’s Day. The final home game came on Sunday, May 24, the day before Memorial Day. It’s no wonder the Gamblers had the worst attendance in the UFL.

When the NFL made its schedule announcement, it highlighted all of its holiday games like they had won the lottery. A Monday night game will be played on Oct. 12, which is Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day. That one is not such a big deal.

New this year is the Thanksgiving Eve game on Wednesday, Nov. 25. That is followed by the traditional Thanksgiving Day games, offering no break for a Thanksgiving meal. Then the NFL had the audacity to schedule a Christmas Eve game on Thursday, Dec. 24, and three games on Christmas Day! That is followed by a New Year’s Eve game on Thursday, Dec. 31. There will be a playoff game on Monday, Jan. 18, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The coup de grace, however, is the scheduling of the Super Bowl on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.

Fortunately, there are no football games scheduled for the Fourth of July or Labor Day, but don’t worry, Major League Baseball has those covered. They’ve also got Flag Day and Father’s Day.

So, what’s the big deal about scheduling games on holidays? Let’s begin with the reason we have holidays in the first place. It’s not to give us random days off throughout the year. Holidays exist to give us time to pause, reflect, and respect certain events or people. When we have games on those days, they remove or deflect the focus of the day. That’s not to mention the tens of thousands of people who have to work those games, either directly or indirectly.

With our holidays saturated with football games – especially Thanksgiving and Christmas – we lose not only focus on the meaning of those days, but also very valuable family time. Families sacrifice so much throughout the year that taking away even more time is harmful to our most essential relationships. Football widows and orphans are a real thing and taking over holidays exacerbates the problem.

I understand that watching a favorite football team can also be a bonding time for some people, but there are plenty of other non-holiday weekends for that. Let’s restore the sanctity of our holidays and respect our culture and families and back off on the scheduling.

Of course, the reason the NFL and UFL are scheduling holiday games is pure greed. The more nationally televised games they can have, the more money they make. That’s why the NFL has taken over Monday and Thursday nights and pushes into Saturdays when the college football season ends. That’s why the football season has gone from September to January now from August to February.

Speaking of football greed, the NFL has priced out the average fan from attending games in person. Only the wealthy pack NFL stadiums anymore. It used to be that the games were free on broadcast television stations. Now you have to subscribe to numerous streaming services to get the games you want. They are taking our time and our money and not giving us anything substantial in return.

Maybe I’ve become a grouchy old man and this rant is for nothing. But I believe if the football leagues are left unchecked, they will consume more of our time, our money, and ultimately damage our families and culture. So please, NFL and UFL, give us a break.