Playing on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day has only been a possibility for the Chicago Bears since the 1980s.
Why? From the league’s start in 1920, the NFL season required fewer regular-season games and its championship usually concluded before or avoided altogether the December holidays.
That changed in April 1971, when it was announced four playoff games would take place on Dec. 25-26. This arrangement — with two games each day — meant all four games could be broadcast nationally.
As the holidays drew nearer, however, fans became vocal.
“I enjoy football, but is it really necessary to play on Christmas Day?” an angry caller told Joe McGuff, then the sports editor for the Kansas City Star. “This is a religious day, a family day. But apparently it makes no difference to the people who run professional football.”
When NFL executive director Jim Kensil was asked in early December 1971 why the two games scheduled for Christmas Day couldn’t be played the following week, he cited that several college bowl games were already planned “and we would have been in conflict with those.”
The Dallas Cowboys whipped the Minnesota Vikings 20-12 in the first game broadcast on Dec. 25, 1971.
“We beat them at their own game, said Mike Ditka, Cowboys tight end and former Bear. “We took the ball away from them and stuffed it down their throats.”
The second game, however, wasn’t decided as easily. The AFC divisional game took 82 minutes, 40 seconds for the Miami Dolphins to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24.
Garo Yepremian, Miami’s left-footed soccer-style kicker, sailed a 37-yard field goal with 7:20 left in the second overtime to give the Dolphins their first playoff victory. It’s still the longest game in NFL history.
It would be 18 years before the NFL planned another game for Christmas Day.
The Bears played on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) for the first time in 1989 and Christmas Day (Dec. 25) in 2005.
This season, they’ll face the Arizona Cardinals at 3:25 p.m. Christmas Eve at Soldier Field.
Here’s a look back at the results for each of the team’s previous games.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
Sources: Tribune reporting and archives; Pro Football Reference
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