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Last night, the Packers defense recorded the first shutout of the NFL season, 34-0 over the Saints (5-10). Now 11-4, Green Bay has clinched a playoff berth for the second consecutive season since trading Aaron Rodgers. Maybe the Jets should try that?

Today: We’re covering your Christmas playoff stakes, holiday cheer in Washington and a quick fantasy preview

Christmas NFL Guide: Tomorrow, Netflix presents …

… the need for another subscription to watch the NFL. Before we explore the latest chapter in streaming, a quick look at the holiday schedule:

Wednesday, December 25 (ET)

• 1 p.m.: Chiefs at Steelers (Netflix)
• 4:30 p.m.: Ravens at Texans (Netflix)

Thursday, December 26

• 8:15 p.m.: Seahawks at Bears (Prime Video)

Earlier this year, Netflix reportedly spent $75 million per game for the exclusive rights to stream these two matchups, plus Christmas games in 2025 (a Thursday) and 2026 (Friday). The league is calling it a “new global holiday tradition.”

Why now? As Richard Deitsch wrote at the time, Netflix wants to scale ad sales, and there are few content plays better then live NFL action — it’s no surprise that Netflix sold out all ad inventory for the two games. But the streaming behemoth hopes these will be more than just football games; Beyonce is performing at halftime in Houston, while Mariah Carey takes the pregame stage in Pittsburgh.

What to expect? The most analogous Netflix-produced live stream is the recent Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, which experienced major technical issues. Hopefully, Netflix has figured that part out. Otherwise, they’re not taking any chances tomorrow — they outsourced production of these games to CBS and the pre-, halftime and postgame shows to NFL Media.

Per Richard, Netflix also paid between high five figures and low six figures each for one-day contributions by the enormous list of on-air talent, including Fox’s Greg Olsen (calling Ravens-Texans), “Up & Adams” host Kay Adams, ESPN’s Mina Kimes, former players, comedians and even NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson.

We’ll see how this goes. Like it or not, a successful Christmas Day on streaming could foreshadow the future of sports consumption, something the NFL has dominated since the 1960s.

Now, the implications of the games themselves: