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Kansas City Chiefs Christmas Day History: Record, Statistics, & More
Traditionally in American sports, Thanksgiving was reserved for football, Christmas for basketball. No longer, as the NFL appears determined to force its way into the viewership landscape on Christmas Day with with a record fifth-straight year of Christmas Day games coming to your televisions and streaming devices this year.
Four teams will play this year, starting with the Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the Kansas City Chiefs, followed by the Houston Texans hosting the Baltimore Ravens.
Honing in on Kansas City, here's how they've fared in Christmas day games in the past.
Chiefs' Christmas Day Record
Coming into 2024's matchup against the Steelers, the Chiefs are even at 2-2. Kansas City was actually one of the first teams to ever play on Christmas, taking part in a Christmas Day divisional round game against the Miami Dolphins in 1971. It wound up being the longest NFL game in history, with the Chiefs losing 27-24 in double overtime.
Decades would pass before Kansas City's next Christmas game in 2004 when the Chiefs beat the Raiders 31-30. Then, they beat the Broncos 33-10 in 2016. Last year, Kansas City lost to the Raiders 20-14.
The fact that the Chiefs were involved in the first-ever day of Christmas games also pushes them toward the top of the ladder in total franchise games played on Christmas. Only one team (Dallas Cowboys) has played more games with five. Seven other teams have played four games on the holiday.
Chiefs Christmas Day Stats
Here's how the Chiefs and their opponents have performed in key stats in their four Christmas day games.
Stat | Chiefs average | Opponents average |
|---|---|---|
Points scored | 25.5 | 21.8 |
Passing yards | 260.3 | 173.5 |
Rushing yards | 158.8 | 116.0 |
Defensive turnovers | 2.3 | 1.5 |
These games have spanned decades and been led by various different coaches and players, so these stats are more of historic interest than predictive of how future Christmas day games will go.
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Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.