The league has already claimed Christmas. Now it works backward through the calendar.
Professional football has long understood that Americans do not simply watch games — they organize their lives around them. The NFL's announcement of a first-ever Thanksgiving Eve matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams, streaming exclusively on Netflix, is less a scheduling curiosity than a quiet cultural claim: the league is now present not just on holidays, but in the hours that precede them. In partnering with Netflix, the NFL continues its migration away from traditional broadcast toward platforms that follow viewers wherever they have gone.
- The NFL has identified yet another holiday threshold to occupy, launching its first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game and betting that the night before the feast is as valuable as the feast itself.
- Netflix — already airing a Week 1 international game, two Christmas matchups, and a Week 18 Saturday contest — is rapidly transforming from entertainment platform into a serious sports destination.
- The Packers arrive as heavy favorites, having won 16 of 21 meetings with the Rams since 1992 and 10 of their last 11, a dominance underscored by a 24-19 road victory as recently as October 2024.
- The Rams, hosting back-to-back games on their own turf against Green Bay, must reverse a lopsided rivalry trend on one of the most watched nights the NFL has ever attempted to create.
The NFL has found another corner of the American calendar to call its own. This year, the league will stage its first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game — Green Bay Packers against the Los Angeles Rams, streaming exclusively on Netflix — extending professional football's reach into the hours just before one of the country's most communal holidays. The move follows the league's earlier conquest of Black Friday and its long-established ownership of Christmas, suggesting a deliberate strategy to make football inseparable from the holiday season itself.
The rivalry being revived carries its own weight. Since 1992, the Packers have won 16 of 21 meetings with the Rams, including 10 of the last 11. Their most recent encounter, in October 2024, saw Green Bay pull away 24-19 despite a late Rams push — Tucker Kraft hauling in a 66-yard touchdown among the highlights. The two teams skipped 2025 entirely, making this Thanksgiving Eve game a meaningful renewal, though one in which Los Angeles enters as a decided underdog on their own home field.
Netflix's role in all of this is no footnote. The platform has secured a significant slice of the NFL's schedule, including a Week 1 game broadcast from Australia, two Christmas Day contests, and a Week 18 Saturday game. The Thanksgiving Eve matchup adds another piece to a larger repositioning — one in which streaming is no longer a secondary option for sports fans, but increasingly the primary destination. For the NFL, it is simply the next frontier.
The National Football League has discovered yet another calendar slot to colonize. On Wednesday, the league announced it would stage its first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game this year, pitting the Green Bay Packers against the Los Angeles Rams on Netflix—a move that extends the NFL's creeping dominion over American holidays and signals the deepening marriage between professional football and streaming platforms.
The timing is deliberate. A few years back, the NFL recognized that Black Friday could draw viewers. Now it has turned its attention to the evening before Thanksgiving itself, betting that hometown bars will fill with people eager to watch football the night before they gather around dinner tables. It is another frontier claimed. The league has already become synonymous with Christmas; now it is staking a claim on the day before the holiday itself.
The Packers and Rams have met regularly in recent seasons, facing off every year from 2020 through 2024—though their 2020 encounter came in the playoffs. They did not play in 2025, making this Thanksgiving Eve matchup a renewal of a rivalry that has tilted heavily in Green Bay's favor. Since 1992, the Packers have won 16 of 21 meetings between the two franchises. More striking still: they have won 10 of their last 11 contests. The Rams enter this game as decided underdogs.
Their most recent meeting, on October 6, 2024, illustrated the gap between them. Tucker Kraft scored twice for the Packers, including a 66-yard touchdown reception. The Rams mounted a fourth-quarter push but fell short, losing 24-19 on the road in Green Bay. Interestingly, the four meetings before that one all took place in Wisconsin, but this matchup and the previous one both occur in Los Angeles—back-to-back contests on Rams territory.
Netflix will handle the broadcast, continuing its expansion into live sports. The streaming service has already secured a substantial piece of the NFL's schedule: it will air the Rams' Week 1 game against the San Francisco 49ers from Australia, two Christmas Day contests, and a Week 18 Saturday game. The Thanksgiving Eve game is one more piece of a larger puzzle, one in which Netflix is positioning itself not just as an entertainment platform but as a destination for major sporting events. The NFL, for its part, has found in streaming a new avenue for growth, a way to reach audiences beyond traditional television and to fill the calendar with programming that keeps fans engaged year-round.
Notable Quotes
The NFL has found yet another day to take over.— Implicit in league's scheduling strategy
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does the NFL need a Thanksgiving Eve game? Isn't Thanksgiving Day itself already packed with football?
It is, but the league saw an opening. The night before is when people are traveling, gathering in bars, settling in before the holiday rush. It's a captive audience that didn't have a dedicated game before.
And why Netflix specifically? Why not broadcast this on traditional television?
Netflix has money and reach, and the NFL is testing how far streaming can go. This is part of a larger bet—the league wants to know if its audience will follow it to these platforms.
The Packers have dominated the Rams lately. Does that make for compelling television?
On paper, maybe not. But the Rams are at home, and there's always the possibility of an upset. The real story is that the NFL is willing to put a lopsided matchup on a premium night because the novelty of the time slot matters more than the competitive balance.
What does this say about how the NFL views holidays now?
That they're not sacred anymore—they're real estate. The league has already claimed Christmas. Now it's working backward through the calendar, finding every pocket of time when people might be watching.
Will this become an annual tradition?
Almost certainly. If the viewership is decent, the NFL will make it permanent. It's another game, another revenue stream, another reason for fans to stay plugged in.