For the first time in NFL history, there’s going to be a game on Thanksgiving Eve, and it’s going to be an NFC showdown with the Los Angeles Rams hosting the Green Bay Packers on Netflix. The matchup marks the first time in the Super Bowl era that the NFL has held a Wednesday game in November.
The NFL has been playing games on Thanksgiving for more than 100 years, but this season marks the first time that the league scheduled a game to be played the night before Thanksgiving (Nov. 25). This tradition will likely be sticking around, with Netflix signing a deal to stream the game for the next four seasons (2026-29).
With the game being played on a Wednesday, the expectation is that the Rams and Packers will both get a bye in Week 11, as the NFL’s scheduling guru, Mike North, revealed last month.
“We talked to a handful of clubs about that Wednesday night,” North said of Thanksgiving Eve. “It’s a scheduling challenge, as you can imagine. You know, Sunday to Thursday is clearly a short week. We don’t play Sunday to Wednesday. So, anybody playing that Wednesday of week 12 would have a week 11 bye.”
The Rams and Packers will kick off at 8 p.m. ET from SoFi Stadium, and the game will be one of five that stream on Netflix this year.
Netflix began airing NFL games in 2024, when it landed a Christmas doubleheader. Netflix then streamed two more Christmas games last year, but this season the streaming company will get more games as part of a new contract with the NFL.
Netflix’s 2026 package of games
The Thanksgiving Eve matchup will be one of five games that Netflix will stream in 2026, and that total will include two Rams games.
Here’s a look at the full list:
Week 1: 49ers vs. Rams in Australia
Week 12: Packers at Rams (Thanksgiving Eve)
Week 16: Christmas Doubleheader (1 p.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. ET)
Week 18: Saturday, 1 p.m. ET
The teams playing in the other three Netflix games will be revealed when the full schedule comes out on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.
The Saturday game in Week 18 is a new window that the NFL is adding this year. The league started scheduling a Saturday doubleheader during the final week of the season back in 2021, and now, that final Saturday will be a tripleheader with the early game on Netflix and the final two games on ESPN/ABC.
Netflix’s deal with the NFL
Netflix originally signed a three-year deal with the NFL back in 2024 that allowed the company to stream a Christmas doubleheader each year, but now, there’s a new deal in place that will run through the 2029-30 NFL season. As we mentioned, the streaming company will show five games in 2026, but after that, Netflix will stream four games per year for the duration of its deal.
Here’s the full list of games:
- Week 1 game
- Thanksgiving Eve
- Christmas (one game)
- Week 18 (one game)
Netflix will also be the new home of NFL Honors, the league’s annual awards show that airs on the Thursday before the Super Bowl.
