If ever there was any question that the business end of the National Football League (NFL) 2024/25 regular season is being played, all doubts were laid to rest in Week 12, where some of the endings played out as if they were Hollywood scripts, and some of the results were almost incredulous.

Those most worthy of highlight are the Cleveland Browns (3-8) taking down the Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3) last week Thursday, 24-19, in a relative snowstorm. Then last Sunday, the Tennessee Titans (3-8) outlasted the Houston Texans (7-5) 32-27; in a massive upset, the Minnesota Vikings (9-2) needing overtime to barely scrape past the Chicago Bears (4-7) 30-27; in an absolute dogfight, the Dallas Cowboys (4-7) getting the better of the Washington Commanders (7-5) 34-26; in an all-out thriller and, not to be outdone, the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs (10-1) had it all to do in getting past the lowly Carolina Panthers (3-8), on the last kick of the game, for a 30-27 victory.

The aforementioned kick was a 31-yarder by rookie Spencer Shrader, who joined the team just two weeks ago, and was three-for-three on field goal attempts and three-for-three on extra point attempts for the game. Shrader was brought in because starter Harrison Butker was placed on injured reserve due to a knee injury and, considering the low touchdown production of the Kansas City offence this year, his performance must be a comforting sight for the Chiefs. Unfortunately, Shrader reported an injury after the competition of the game and the Chiefs may be in the market to replace the replacement.

Which leads to the Week 13 assignment for the two-time defending champion as they embark on a historic outing this afternoon, when they welcome the Las Vegas Raiders (2-9) into Arrowhead Stadium for the first-ever “Black Friday” game for these teams, and the second-straight for the league. And while the Raiders have the worst record in the NFL — shared with the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Giants — after the end of last weekend, having lost to the Denver Broncos, they were the last team to defeat the Chiefs on the way to their back-to-back Super Bowl title. Of course, the Chiefs did exact revenge for that loss in Week 7 with a 27-20 win, so that motivation should not be a factor.

Last year, the NFL added another matchup to the league’s traditional Thanksgiving Day, three-game package, with the first Black Friday game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets, where the Dolphins won 34-13. In 2021, Amazon reportedly paid US$11 billion to broadcast Thursday Night Football for 11 seasons — at 17 games per season, that’s US$58.8m per game — but for the Black Friday game, a whopping US$100m was paid for the broadcast rights, to coincide with its biggest shopping day of the year.

The NFL has largely stayed away from Friday and Saturday regular season games, owing to an obscure law that predates the merger of the NFL and American Football League (AFL) in 1970. The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 provided the NFL and other leagues a broadcasting antitrust exemption, which states that there can be no professional football games on Friday nights after 6 pm or any on Saturday from the second weekend of September through to the second weekend of December. It applies to any professional games that are within 75 miles of a high school or college football game taking place the same weekend. This is why there are no Saturday games on the NFL schedule until late in the season.

However, a loophole in the rule allows for the NFL to schedule a Friday game as long as a substantial portion of the game is completed by 6 pm local time. Hence why the first Black Friday game kicked off at 3 pm last year and it’s also why the Chiefs and Raiders will be kicking off at the same time this afternoon. The NFL had previously played games on Fridays, but those were on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, since 1999. The league did have a pair of Friday games on New Year’s Eve in 1993, which was also a holiday.

Prior to the opening week this season, where the Philadelphia Eagles played the Green Bay Packers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the first NFL game in South America, the last time the NFL played games on a Friday that wasn’t on a holiday was in 1986, six days before Christmas Day. And the last prior NFL game that was played on a Friday, that wasn’t in December, was September 18, 1970, when the Los Angeles Rams played the St Louis Cardinals to open the season — a game that started at 11 pm.

While this will be new territory for both teams, the Chiefs have played 10 games on Thanksgiving Day and are 5-5 in those encounters. They most recently played in 2006, when they defeated the Broncos, 19-10, in what was the debut of Thursday Night Football. The Raiders have played on Thanksgiving Day eight times and are 4-4 in those matchups. They most recently played in 2021, where they beat the Dallas Cowboys, 36-33, in overtime.

As for today’s game, not a lot of opposition is expected from the Raiders as their record truly reflects the disappointing performance of the team this year. This, compounded by the fact that they lost starting quarterback Gardner Minshew for the season, after he broke his collarbone in the loss to the Broncos last Sunday, has prompted JustBet to make Las Vegas the highest NFL underdog this weekend, thereby making Kansas City the highest favoured to win.

In reality, the odds are stacked much higher for the Raiders as the Chiefs have received a massive boost ahead of today’s game in the form of Isiah Pacheco. Reportedly, the running back, who hasn’t played since Week 2 after fracturing his fibula, has been working his way back from injury and may be available today. Of course, this is the NFL and, considering the events of last Sunday, where the stat-sheets had very little relevance in many instances, don’t be surprised if the ‘black and silver’ spring a shocker and mine some gold on Black Friday.

Today’s game aside, the NFL welcomes December with a slate of 12 games on Sunday, including: the Cincinnati Bengals (4-7) vs Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3), Baltimore Ravens (8-4) vs Philadelphia Eagles (9-2), and Buffalo Bills (9-2) vs San Francisco 49ers. There’s a lot to see this weekend and every game has play-off implications, for those teams with play-off aspirations. Are you ready for some football?

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Super Bowl LIX Champion–February 9, 2025

Team Odds

Detroit Lions 3.75

Kansas City Chiefs 5.60

Philadelphia Eagles 7.40

Buffalo Bills 7.80

Baltimore Ravens 8.00

Green Bay Packers 17.00

Minnesota Vikings 20.00

Pittsburgh Steelers 30.00

Los Angeles Chargers 30.00

Houston Texans 35.00

*Only Top 10 odds are shown (see website for full list)

Note: Odds are subject to change