Gaelic Gridiron’s Festive Football Viewing Guide
The festive season is finally upon us, and what better way to celebrate the most wonderful time of year than with some Christmas NFL action? You can already picture it – fire on, feet up tucking into the selection box on Christmas Eve as a full slate of American football action gives you an excuse to hide from the family. This year, December 24th falls on a Sunday, so it’s business as usual in the NFL and there are quite a few must watch matchups. But beforehand, we’ll have a rare Saturday game as the Steelers will attempt to sweep the Bengals at home on December 23rd, hopefully giving me an early present in the process. At 9.25 the next night, the Dolphins will host the Cowboys in a game that will surely have playoff implications as the end of the regular season approaches. The Seahawks and the Titans could also be an interesting one to keep an eye on as both teams will hope to still be in the mix. We’ll also have an NFC North duel between the Vikings and the Lions as Dan Campbell’s side look to make a post season push.
The seasonal serving of NFL games continue on Christmas Day with plenty of football to watch, so after you’ve stuffed yourself with dinner and opened a few presents, kick back and enjoy an AFC West showdown between the Chiefs and the Raiders. Oh, and if you fancy staying up late, the Ravens and 49ers will be doing battle in the late game at 1.15am Irish time! The Ravens could well be the #1 seed in the AFC, and this might be a crucial fixture down the stretch of the season.
New Year’s Eve also happens to fall on a Sunday this year, which means instead of going out like a normal person, I will be glued to the Steelers Seahawks game at 9pm! There’s another full slate of games to look forward to and the Broncos Chargers game could be a good one to keep an eye on, as could the Ravens and Dolphins and the Bengals against the Chiefs!! We really are spoiled for choice when it comes to watching football this Christmas.
As if there wasn’t enough NFL football on the telly, there’s also a host of quality college games to get stuck into as well! December is Bowl Season, and the aptly named New Year’s Six series of games kicks off on December 29th running right through to New Year’s Day. The big games are happening on January 1st, with the semi finals taking place in the form of the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl. The latter won’t kick off until 10pm Irish time so if you’re planning on staying up, be prepared for a late night! While we won’t know the participants until the dust settles on championship weekend it’s likely to be some combination of Georgia, Washington, Florida State and (God help us) Michigan who are squaring off. The National Championship game takes place on January 8th, marking the end of what has been a whirlwind college football season.
The football gods have been good to us this festive season, so plan your Christmas viewing carefully, throw on your favourite team jumper and get as many games in as possible!