The NFL is giving fans a present on Christmas, with two high-profile matchups between AFC contenders with a lot of playoff implications.

The Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers play at 1 p.m. ET, and the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans play at 4:30 p.m. ET, with both games streaming exclusively on Netflix.

After many had streaming issues during the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight in November, Netflix is under a lot of pressure to ensure their viewers don’t have any issues watching the games. 

One Netflix subscriber even filed a lawsuit against Netflix for “breach of contract” because of constant glitches during the fight, per TMZ. 

This will be the first time an NFL game has been streamed exclusively on Netflix, and no matter how the viewing experience is for fans on Wednesday, it won’t be the last game they see on the streaming service.

The NFL and Netflix announced in May that they agreed to a three-year deal where the streaming service will broadcast at least one Christmas Day game over the life of the deal. 

Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction series and sports, said the company learned from what went wrong in the Tyson-Paul fight.

“The sheer tonnage of people that came to watch was incredible. And for all the testing that the engineering team had done ahead of that, and I think they’re the best in the business, the only way to test something of that magnitude is to have something of that magnitude,” Riegg said.

PATRICK MAHOMES PLAYS THROUGH ANKLE SPRAIN TO LEAD CHIEFS TO VICTORY VS. TEXANS

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson takes the field against the Cleveland Browns at Acrisure Stadium. (Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images)

“We never want to have technical issues or a disappointing experience for our members. There was a subset of people that were watching that struggled with that and we acknowledge that. The good news is they stress-tested the system to such a degree that there’s a lot of these fixes and improvements that they realized that they could make, and they’re applying all that stuff.”

Netflix’s first test will be a showdown between the Chiefs (14-1) and Steelers (10-5). 

The Chiefs have already secured their ninth consecutive AFC West title and are now playing for the No. 1 seed in the AFC, which would grant them the all-important bye week. 

If the Chiefs were to win on Wednesday, they would have the No. 1 seed locked up before Week 18, giving head coach Andy Reid a chance to rest his starters during the final week of the regular season.

The Chiefs are coming off a 27-19 win over the Texans on Saturday, where quarterback Patrick Mahomes played well. The star quarterback threw for 260 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for 33 yards and a touchdown despite playing through an ankle sprain. 

RAVENS’ LAMAR JACKSON EAGER TO WATCH BEYONCÉ HALFTIME SHOW: ‘SORRY FELLAS’

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens breaks through the Bengals defense for a touchdown reception at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Dec. 1, 2024. (IMAGN)

The Steelers, on the other hand, are coming off a tough 34-17 loss against their arch-rival Ravens on Saturday. 

It looked like the Steelers were going to have a chance to come back after safety Minkah Fitzpatrick intercepted Lamar Jackson down 24-17 in the fourth quarter. 

However, Ravens’ cornerback Marlon Humphrey thwarted any chance of a Steelers’ comeback with a Pick Six off Russell Wilson on the ensuing drive, putting the Ravens up 31-17 and effectively sealing the win. 

The Steelers’ defense had a tough time handling running back Derrick Henry, who ran the ball 24 times for 162 yards in the win for Baltimore. 

For the Steelers, their game against the Chiefs is crucial to winning the AFC North. Pittsburgh has already clinched a playoff spot, but their loss on Saturday was a big blow to their chances of winning the division, as the Ravens are also 10-5. 

TEXANS COACH REVEALS EXTENT OF TANK DELL’S HORRIFIC INJURY

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey returns an interception for a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images)

Some good news for the Steelers is that wide receiver George Pickens has a “real chance” to play against the Chiefs, coach Mike Tomlin said on Sunday.

Pickens has missed the last three games, and he’s been sorely missed. In the three games without Pickens, the Steelers are averaging just 248.3 yards per game, almost 77 yards less than their season average of 324.9. 

As big a blow as the loss was for the Steelers on Saturday, the Ravens win over Pittsburgh was just as big a boost for them. 

The Ravens played well on Saturday, outgaining the Steelers 418-315 in terms of yards, with 220 of those yards coming on the ground. 

Jackson threw three touchdowns in the win, and will have a chance to make his MVP case with the whole world watching on Wednesday. 

The Ravens quarterback is having another fantastic year, as Jackson and Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen are considered the two favorites for the award. 

TEXANS ADD PRO BOWL WIDE RECEIVER DIONTAE JOHNSON AFTER DEVASTATING INJURY TO TANK DELL

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson throws against the Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images)

A win for the Ravens on Christmas would go a long way in their race against the Steelers for the AFC North crown.

The Ravens (10-5) are taking on the Texans (9-6) in the second part of the NFL’s Christmas doubleheader on Netflix. 

They are taking on a Texans team that just lost to the Chiefs. In addition to the loss, the Texans also lost second-year wide receiver Tank Dell for the season after he suffered a gruesome leg injury while catching a touchdown in the loss. 

The Texans also lost wide receiver Stefon Diggs for the season after the star receiver tore his ACL, leaving what was once a strong wide receiving corps now thin. 

A win over the Ravens on Christmas for the Texans would not only clinch them a playoff spot, but also the AFC South title and a home playoff game. 

Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud scrambles against Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. (Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images)

The Texans-Ravens matchup will also come with a special halftime performance by Beyoncé.

All four of the teams playing on Wednesday are playing their third game in 11 days.

With so many playoff implications, and a big halftime performance, Netflix will be under a lot of pressure from NFL fans and the “BeyHive” to make sure things go off without a hitch. 

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Santa Anita Park is opening its 90th season Thursday filled with the kind of cautious optimism that is common in most sports. Make no mistake, this is a big — some might say make-or-break — year for the storied Arcadia track that many consider the most beautiful horse racing facility in the United States.

The track is fighting for its future, struggling to get a foothold in a national racing landscape that is supported by supplemental gaming income. But not in California, at least not now.

This opening day has something the track hasn’t had in a while — the reigning Kentucky Derby champion. running . You have to go back to 1997 when Derby winner Silver Charm ran in the Malibu Stakes after winning the first two legs of the Triple Crown before finishing second in the Belmont. The difference? He was based at Santa Anita.

No doubt about it, Mystik Dan, winner of this year’s Derby, is the centerpiece for what is possibly the best day of racing during the almost six-month season. He’ll be going in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Malibu Stakes, one of six graded stakes on the 11-race card.

Getting Mystik Dan and trainer Kenny McPeek to commit to the race was a lot easier then actually getting the horse to Santa Anita.

Among racing’s many problems is that there are no dedicated air shipping companies that make moving horses around the country easy. Racing uses FedEx — yes that FedEx — which suspends horse shipping in early December so it can more easily move holiday packages.

“The logistics were complicated,” McPeek said. “The last and only plane was going out of Florida on Dec. 9 and we are based in New Orleans. We would have had to ship him to Miami and then Miami to L.A. We didn’t want to go that early and we weren’t committed to the race yet.

“I needed to get a gate workout out of him and needed to make sure he was good and in a routine.”

All of that worked out just fine, and Mystik Dan was headed to California with Santa Anita picking up the shipping costs.

Those who travel during the holidays are used to long trips, but only the hardiest would try a 1,900-mile van ride. Yet that’s how it worked out.

Assistant trainer Dermot Magner and Greg Morehead, director of operations for McPeek, took turns doing the driving for the first two days with a stopover at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M.

“He got a good night’s rest and then vanned the rest of the way the next day,” McPeek said, making sure to thank officials at Zia Park for their hospitality. “He’s a good traveler. It was easy. He had plenty of room to lay down if he wanted. He could eat, we had buckets and tubs [of food] in there. There was plenty of space. It was uneventful.”

Mystik Dan settled into Barn 54 at Santa Anita last Wednesday and on Sunday the colt did a three-furlong speed workout to ready him for the race. Barn 54 also is occupied by trainer Karen Headley. Her father, the late Bruce Headley, and McPeek were longtime friends and Headley’s barn is where McPeek would stable his horses when running in California.

The Malibu Stakes is an odd choice for the Kentucky Derby winner because of the low purse amount of $300,000, the minimum required for a Grade 1 race.

McPeek is looking at the long game.

“It’s the last Grade 1, 3-year-old race of the year,” McPeek said. “I think as a stallion prospect, a lot of people who breed want to see the horse be a fast sprinter. We’re pretty confident he has that kind of talent. He broke his maiden gong 5½ [furlongs] and he’s perfectly capable of sprinting. It takes a very good horse to do this. I think it’s a good opportunity to prove that he can.”

Mystik Dan hasn’t raced since the Belmont Stakes, the third Triple Crown races in five weeks. He won the Derby in a blanket finish by a nose then came back two weeks later to finish second behind Seize the Grey in the Preakness. Mystik Dan then finished eighth in the Belmont.

“He campaigned pretty steady for almost a year,” McPeek said. “Coming out of the Belmont, Brian [Hernandez Jr., jockey] didn’t think he liked Saratoga’s surface. So, we only had the Travers [at Saratoga] and Pennsylvania Derby to point to. So, I thought let’s give him a break and let him fill out. We’ll regroup and point him to later in the year.”

Mystik Dan has had nine timed workouts since returning to the track.

“I fully expect him to win,” McPeek said. “Absolutely he’s ready to run. He’s had a nice series of breezes. He’s been on a steady routine. He hasn’t missed a step. The hardest part of this trip was getting him there.”

Crazy as it sounds, Mystik Dan is not the most celebrated 3-year-old in McPeek’s barn. He also has Thorpedo Anna, a filly who won six of seven races this year including the Kentucky Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff. She is a lock to win the Eclipse Award for best 3-year-old filly and certainly has the résumé to win horse of the year.

Mystik Dan, if he wins the Malibu, is likely to make the final three for the Eclipse for 3-year-old male, although Fierceness is the favorite.

There is another Eclipse candidate in the McPeek barn and that is the trainer. The favorite for the award is Chad Brown, who has put up impressive numbers. But McPeek did something that hasn’t been done since 1952, winning the Kentucky Oaks for fillies and the Kentucky Derby on consecutive days.

“It would be a pleasant surprise,” McPeek said. “I certainly don’t have Chad Brown’s depth of talent and quality. What I’m most proud of is we don’t have million-dollar yearlings floating around all the time. We’ve been doing it with working-class horses. Thorpedo Anna was 40 grand and Mystik Dan was a homebred that I actually did the mating on.

“I do a lot of picking my own yearlings and I’m really proud we’ve been able to compete at the highest level.”

Bill Finley, a respected columnist for the Thoroughbred Daily News, even made the case for McPeek to win the Eclipse for top trainer. (The Times does not vote in the Eclipse Awards.)

“While he’ll never equal Brown’s numbers, McPeek had a year that was truly special, one that captivated the sport and reminded us there is more to this than raw numbers,” Finley wrote. “McPeek made every right move, many of which were ‘good for the game.’”

In a sport that retires its stars instead of running them, McPeek is very much looking forward to Mystik Dan’s 4-year-old campaign. The first possibility for Mystik Dan, providing everything works out well in the Malibu, is the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream, at $3 million the second-richest race in the U.S. behind only the Breeders’ Cup. But that’s chump change, if such a thing can be said of seven-figure purses, compared to the $20-million Saudi Cup and $12-million Dubai World Cup.

“We’re going to consider the Pegasus and the Middle East,” McPeek said. “We’ll let him tell us. He’s not run against older horses yet. We’ll wait and see.”

Mystik Dan’s racing career will end before McPeek’s training career. In fact, McPeek, 62, has a timetable.

“I’ve said all along, I’ll do this until I’m 70 or 72,” he said. “Maybe 10 more years. It’ll be 50 years of training if I do it until I’m 72.”

As for his bucket list before retirement, it’s extensive, with a strong international flavor.

“I’d like to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the Dubai World Cup, the Saudi Cup, the Arc de Triomphe, the English (Epsom) Derby and the English Oaks,” he said with a chuckle.

But if he had to pick one?

“I really do want to win the English Derby. I’ll do that before I retire.”

For now, he’ll be happy with a win Thursday.

Tennis stops for nothing. The ATP Next Gen Finals event rolls on in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, while various pre-Christmas exhibitions occupy players before the season resumes from December 27 with the United Cup in Perth, Australia.

There’s still time for some reflection on 2024, and The Athletic’s tennis writers Matt Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare are here for the first of two mailbags, answering your questions submitted earlier this month. This will focus on the season just gone; the next will focus more on 2025.

Read on for their views on how to challenge Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s game; the timeline for equal pay between the WTA and ATP Tours; whether or not tennis is getting boring and if the sport is embroiled in a doping crisis.

Anon: Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic put the grand slams in a headlock for 15 years. What will the current players do (and or can do) to prevent Sinner and Alcaraz from the doing the same? What lessons were learned?

Charlie Eccleshare: The ‘Big Three’ were freakish in their consistency. Even all-time greats ordinarily have off days, some of which result in them exiting a major or two per year prematurely. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic mostly avoided even that, but Alcaraz in particular looks prone to the odd upset (witness the U.S. Open this year, even if that was after a particularly gruelling run comprising two Grand Slam titles and an Olympic final).

Sinner currently has a higher floor and is far less prone to playing a few listless sets in a row; uncertainty of a different kind surrounds him because of the potential for a doping ban of up to two years. But should they both remain available and reasonably consistent, then the rest of the field has a major problem.

Casper Ruud summed it up at the ATP Tour Finals last month when he explained that the way Sinner and Alcaraz play has rewritten the book of tennis tactics that he grew up with. Patience is no longer an option with these two around: to beat them the chasing pack are going to have to teach themselves to be more aggressive even if it doesn’t come naturally. Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz look most up for the challenge of the current top 10.

Where Alcaraz and Sinner do recall the Big Three’s hegemony is how their extraterrestrial talent demands players to play outside themselves to beat them. It’s not enough to just hit big serves and forehands and hope that will do the job. Players need to claim the front of the court before Alcaraz and capture the baseline before Sinner — and throw in a bit of the opposite to keep them off balance. For an entire match at a time.

Matt Futterman: Right now, I don’t see Sinner and Alcaraz sharing all the Grand Slams for a decade. It’s a lot harder for two players to do that than three or four, and they are the only ones at their level — other than the version of Djokovic that won Olympic gold in Paris.

They’re going to have to deal with injuries. Sinner could get suspended for two years. Stuff happens. Others will hope to fill any voids.

Dana L: What will it take to have equal pay for the women on the tour? Why is there still such a wide discrepancy below the grand slam level?

MF: Short answer is the TV contracts. The women’s tour contracts bring in about one-seventh of what the men’s tour contracts do. Sponsorships are also a lot cheaper. In a lot of cases I chalk that up to poor management and marketing. The WTA takes low-hanging fruit and sells tournaments to locations where the attendance is terrible and the seats are empty. What media or marketing executive is going to turn on a match and say, “that’s where I want to be?”

CE: The short answer: a genuine commitment from tennis’ various stakeholders to deliver genuine equality. It’s amazing how quickly things can happen when there’s a will. The WTA has committed to achieving equal prize money at combined events by 2027 and non-combined by 2033, but this remains a really hot topic. When I spoke to Aryna Sabalenka at the WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia she cited the need for equal prize money as one of the sport’s biggest issues.

Max Y: Why is there so little variety on the ATP and WTA tours at the moment in terms of game style? The ATP Finals in Turin encapsulated perfectly just how similar and frankly boring the way the top players play nowadays: it’s all just big baseline games, consistent two-handed backhands and very little variety, making for a pretty dull competition.

MF: Take heart — it’s better than it was, at least on the ATP Tour. Alcaraz has forced everyone to start thinking about the entire tennis court, not just the area along the baseline. Also, with Alcaraz and Sinner playing so aggressively, players increasingly have to attack before they are attacked. That is going to force them to come into the court more and build variety.

As for the women, a lot of us wish Karolina Muchova could clone herself 50 times. That said, Sabalenka has increasingly been using a drop shot. Coco Gauff is working hard on getting better at the net. A wave of serve-and-volley players seems unlikely, but we will take what we can get.

Throw out Turin. It’s a one-off. Indoors, on a very fast court with no sun or wind to contend with, players can sit back and go bang. That won’t happen nearly as much in Australia and certainly not on the organic surfaces from April to mid-July. Single-handed backhands seem like a terrible idea until you watch Lorenzo Musetti thrive at Wimbledon with that killer slice and the ability to roll it at the last second. Plus, Alcaraz is a shotmaker. To borrow the basketball phrase, shooters have to shoot. As long as he is around he will be trying all kinds of mad stuff, and others will try to follow.

Karolina Muchova’s gamestyle captivated tennis fans when she played in 2024. (Pamela Smith / Associated Press)

Anon: When are we going to stop describing men’s tennis as boring baseline battles — variety (net approaches, drop shots, serve/volley, unexpected shot selections) seem to be the norm now, not the exception. Feel like no one’s acknowledging/celebrating one of the most exciting periods of men’s tennis play; all top players need to use the whole court now.

James Hansen: A dissenting voice is always welcome. The younger players in the top-15-40ish bracket do seem a little more willing to experiment, perhaps being less entrenched than the players mentioned above who grew up through Nadal and Djokovic’s total mastery of baseline tennis. Where we might disagree is the idea that top players need to use the whole court. They do — but most of them can’t and don’t, especially when under pressure. Sinner and Alcaraz’s ability to play the way they do in the tightest moments, particularly that stratospheric tiebreak in the China Open final in Beijing, is what sets them even further apart.

Christopher Z: Is there anyone who peaked this year that we expect to take a step back? Are Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz really top-5 players?

CE: That’s an interesting one. I kept thinking that Paolini would surely come back down to earth at some point last year, and yet she just kept on producing. Maybe she won’t have quite the same impact as she did this year, but I’d expect her to remain in the top 10 and challenge for a few titles.

As for Fritz, his progress feels very sustainable to me. He’s not someone who’s suddenly burst onto the scene, but instead has kept making incremental improvements. You can say 2024 was a breakthrough year for him, but he’s been knocking at the door for a while and it was striking to hear him say that he didn’t even think he’d played that well in reaching the U.S. Open final. It was more than an opportunity presented itself, and he was solid enough to take it.

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Forza, forza, forza: In tennis’ “big” era, Jasmine Paolini proves that a little can mean a lot

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Someone I’d expect to take a step back is Alejandro Tabilo, who began the year ranked world No. 85, achieved a career high of No. 19 and is currently at No. 23. During the first half of the year, the 27-year-old Chilean had one of those periods where everything seemed to slot into place, taking in winning the Auckland 250 in January as a qualifier and then knocking an ailing Djokovic out of Rome on the way to the Italian Open semis. I’d be surprised if he hits similar heights in 2025.

Jasmine Paolini had the best season of her career in 2024. (Julian Finney / Getty Images)

Parva S: Why is there a rise in doping in tennis or is it just a recency bias?

MF: As my colleague Charlie Eccleshare reported in November, testing numbers and the number of anti-doping rule violations have remained pretty steady over the last few years according to the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA). The agency sanctioned 12 individuals for doping offenses in 2022, compared with 13 last year, but two world No. 1s getting sanctioned in the same year is extraordinary. As testing becomes increasingly sophisticated and detects smaller and smaller amounts of foreign substances in blood and urine, it stands to reason that positive tests will rise.

GO DEEPER

Explaining Iga Swiatek’s doping ban, why it was kept secret and what it means for tennis

Katherine W: What’s your take on the Ultimate Tennis Showdown? Here to stay or fade away?

CE: I do think it has a place, and the players seem to enjoy it and feel like it’s useful fitness work because of how explosive it is. The chance to win thousands of dollars probably helps too. Fans also appear to like it and there’s something to be said for events that guarantee — or close to guarantee — seeing the players who are competing at the event, unlike in most ATP and WTA tournaments where there’s always a risk your favourite player could go out early or not be playing on a given day.

Some of the rules, like only having one serve, should also give tennis pause for thought about whether there are elements of UTS that would work well on the main tour. Co-creator Patrick Mouratoglou certainly sounds very determined to make a success of it, so I’d be surprised if it went anywhere anytime soon.

Patrick L: Is Andy Murray coaching Djokovic a one-off or are they looking for it to be a long-term arrangement?

CE: At the moment, the Murray-Djokovic partnership is a short-term arrangement, but if things go well in Melbourne it’s tough to imagine either party walking away. Certainly not Djokovic, but also Murray: can you really see someone as competitive as him turning his back on a winning ticket?

He would like a bit of time at home at some stage, but that was true when he accepted the chance to work with the 24-time Grand Slam champion and his longtime rival of the 2010s. I suspect that Murray will love the buzz of coaching and being back in a Grand Slam environment, especially if they reach the latter stages where Murray hasn’t been for coming up to eight years. Should things go badly, that’s another story.

(Top photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)