The Baltimore Ravens have one major scheduling anomaly in 2024 that even the NFL appears to regret saddling them with.
For the second year in a row, the Ravens will play on Christmas in 2024. They traveled to face the San Francisco 49ers on the road the previous season, and this time they will take on the Houston Texans on the road.
NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North acknowledged that the league had been a touch harsh to the Ravens by assigning them back-to-back Christmas road games during an appearance on the podcast “The Season with Peter Schrager.”
“Looking back, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to ask the Ravens to play on the road on Christmas two years in a row. North stated, via Ryan Mink of the Ravens’ official website, prior to Schrager’s intervention.
North did clarify that the NFL would unavoidably want to play major games on holidays, and the league would prefer that the top teams compete in such contests. As of right now, the Ravens are a part of that, however the venues may have needed additional attention.
“Our largest games are scheduled for our largest windows. “Those Christmas tentpoles turn into such fantastic narratives for us and fantastic outcomes for our media partners,” continued North. “Over and over again, you’re going to discover the excellent teams—the teams you believe will be postseason relevant—in those larger periods. We’re absolutely interested to watch what the Ravens do on Christmas this year, but we probably shouldn’t send them on the road again the following year.
The Kansas City Chiefs are playing on Christmas Day as well, so the Ravens are not the first club to do so. But in those two years, all other teams have played at least one home game.
The league has erred in scheduling before, and this is not the first occasion. It’s probably safe to say that in 2025, the Ravens won’t be traveling on Christmas Day for a game.
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