The NFL has scheduled four teams to play on Christmas Day. Patrick Mahomes quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, is unhappy about their decision. Mahomes played in one of the holiday games last year, but because Christmas is on a Wednesday this year, The Chiefs will be forced to play 3 games in 11 days. This will leave the team less time to prepare for the next game and increase the risk of injuries.
Mahomes who was already annoyed about losing two holidays in a row vented his frustration. “It’s not a good feeling,” Mahomes explained to reporters Wednesday. “You never want to play this amount of games in this short of time. It’s 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.”
He said he’s never played games so close together. “All you can do is focus on the game. The practice you have that day,” Mahomes added. “I try to prepare my body all year long for this stretch. That’s tailoring my workouts, tailoring how you practice and prepare. The star quarterback believes that “And the coaches do a great job of taking care of us on the practice field. We practice as hard as anybody, but they know how to dial it back when needed.”
Mahomes has been explicit about his deep faith. Before his latest Super Bowl appearance he said “My Christian faith plays a role in everything that I do. I always ask God to lead me in the right direction and let me be who I am for His name. So, it has a role in everything that I do. Obviously, we’ll be on that huge stage in the Super Bowl that He’s given me, and I want to make sure I’m glorifying Him while I do it.”
He added, “I feel like I’ve grown in my faith these last few years, and I think that’s given me more sense of who I am and why I play the game. It just kind of relieves the pressure of playing a football game because I know that I’m on that football field to glorify Him before everything. ..It’s about going out there and being the best that I can in His name.”
Wednesday games are rare in the NFL for all the reasons Mahomes has mentioned. The most recent occurrence was in 2020 when the Ravens and Stealers had their game pushed back because of a COVID-19 scare. In 2012, another game was pushed to a Wednesday to accommodate President Barrack Obama’s address to the Democratic National Convention. Before that, the last game played on a Wednesday happened in 1948.
Coach Andy Reid acknowledged how bizarre the situation is. “It’s a unique situation. You just have to manage it,” said The Chiefs coach “It is what it is. You make the best of it.” We went on to explain that the holiday game still has major ramifications for the postseason. While the Chiefs have won their division, they still covet the No.1 seed and the first-round playoff bye that comes with it.
Reid explained his strategy in an additional statement. “The main thing is you get guys ready for the game. Give them a chance to get ready for the game. They’re going to do whatever you present to them. You try to help them out with that. Right now we have a normal week right here. We have to take care of business here.” It’s still an open question if Reid’s plan will lead to a victory on December 25th.
Featured image: All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons