Does the NFL want the best teams playing on Christmas Day or the most deserving?

The NFL schedule makers did America a disservice on Christmas Day by pairing the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans for the NFL’s global holiday showcase on Netflix. Although the picture quality was great, the quality of play on the field was anything but.

The Chiefs easily defeated the Steelers 29-10 in a game that wasn’t even that close. Then the Houston Texans brought shame to the AFC South and all of its fans with an embarrassing 31-2 defeat to the Ravens. Tennessee football fans had it rough enough watching the Volunteers get blown out last Saturday by Ohio State. Now they have to watch one of their beloved divisional allies do the same in the pros? Sad.

Yes, the NFL has never been more popular. But their incredibly high ratings and billions of dollars in revenue are easy things to hide behind when it comes to the terrible job done by the league in scheduling these games on such a marquee holiday.

Yes, the Texans and Steelers may have deserved the showcase because of the wins they have put up this season. But you can’t hide just behind wins. You have to look at the schedules that these teams have played. When you do that, you’ll easily find that they were not the best teams.

The Steelers not only got to play the Browns twice this year (which they even lost one of), they played both New York teams. Do you realize how lucky that is to get both the Jets and Giants on your schedule in the year of our Lord 2024? The non-division schedule of the Steelers is an embarrassment to everyone in professional football. They should be ashamed that they even took the field on Christmas Day and let the world watch Russell Wilson trying to compete with Patrick Mahomes.

And let’s talk about the Texans. After the terrible injury to Tank Dell last week, the NFL should have pulled the team from playing on Christmas Day. You just can’t have a team at less than full strength being put in such a prime position, no matter how many games they have won or whatever division they may lead. Florida State fans will tell you that. Roger Goodell should have replaced them with the best team available.

Who would that be? The San Francisco 49ers of course.

Sure, the 49ers may have had some losses this season where they haven’t looked their best. But there’s no denying their talent and star power. Have you seen this team walk off the bus? Christian McCaffrey, Nick Bosa, Deebo Samuel, Brock Purdy, Trent Williams, the list of stars goes on and on. They were in the Super Bowl last year. If that isn’t worth five or six mulligans, then what is?

Although they sit 6-9 on the season and in last place in the NFC West, the 49ers have proven time and again over the years that they are one of the BEST teams in the NFL. They were ranked third in the ESPN NFL Preseason Power Rankings for a reason. And that’s just something you can’t ignore, no matter what the box scores may tell you.

Surely, the 49ers would provide a more competitive and entertaining game than the Texans or Steelers. As long as you ignore the fact that they have lost five of their last six games, there’s no reason why the NFL shouldn’t have completely bent the rules and gotten them involved. It’d be like leaving Alabama out of the College Football Playoff. Crazy.

But the worst thing about all of this is that the NFL media will just let this Christmas Day debacle go and pretend that this is business as usual. As if there will be a playoff at the end of the season that teams qualify for to actually decide who the champion should be based on winning games. Who does that?

Where are the reality checks? Where is the criticism? Where is the truth-telling that the sport that America loves is falling apart before our eyes and in a true crisis? Someone get Kirk Herbstreit and Paul Finebaum in here so we can talk some sense into these NFL people!