Jason Kelce Went on a Viral Rant About the NFL Schedule. Here’s Why Travis Kelce’s Rebuttal Was Right

Kelce made some fair points about the changes made in the NFL schedule this season, but Travis’s rebuttal is more realistic.

Jason Kelce is worried the NFL is drifting too far away from playing a full slate of games on Sundays. | New Heights/Screengrab

The NFL schedule was released earlier this month, and let’s just say that the 2026 season will include some interesting primetime games played on days or holidays, or in different locations, that the NFL is not used to playing on. For instance, the league is introducing the first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game on a Wednesday night. Additionally, there’s a record nine international games planned for this year, including a first-time appearance scheduled in Australia.

The NFL is constantly making changes each season to stay fresh it seems, but it’s getting to the point where the games are played on almost every day of the week and on so many different streaming services—it’s getting difficult to enjoy football the same ways fans are used to.

One person who has had enough of the schedule changes is retired Eagles star Jason Kelce. The Kelce brothers spoke about the addition of more international games, along with introducing games on weekdays like the Thanksgiving Eve contest, during last week’s episode of New Heights. The elder Kelce brother went on a now viral rant about why the NFL should stop shifting away from playing games on Sundays, the traditional football day of the week. Here’s what he had to say:

“This is the one thing that I think the NFL needs to hold on to that I feel like we’re starting to drift away from. I don’t think we’re there yet. Sunday is the day of football,” Kelce said. “Outside of going to church in the morning, if you’re still religious and you do that, Sunday is like where so many games happen and that’s what you grow up, and you gear your entire week around watching football on Sunday. It’s an institution at this point, the NFL playing games on Sunday.

“With every day that we keep adding in there, we’re getting away from that just a little bit. I think the game got big, one of the reasons it got so popular and big was because it was an event: Sunday is the NFL. And everybody set their week apart to tune into games that were happening on Sunday. ... I worry that we’re getting away from that just a little bit by building too many of this.”

Travis Kelce, on the other hand, is all for the new schedule changes. As a current player, Kelce said it’s exciting to play in front of new crowds, in new countries or on new weeknights throughout the season. Regardless of where the game is played or when it’s played, Kelce is just excited for the opportunity to play in a primetime game.

“I hear what you’re saying, but I think they’re very few and far in between outside of the holidays. There’s not just like a random Wednesday game in September,” Kelce responded. “I just looked at [the Chiefs’] schedule, and we got four games that aren’t on Sunday. And, we probably have the higher end of that not playing on Sunday.

“I think it’s awesome, I honestly do. ... I think it’s fun, man. I don’t think it’s as taxing as it may seem because it’s the NFL, you’re living out your dream. If there’s a chance to play on a f---ing primetime game, which all these one-off games are that aren’t on Sunday, I’m f---ing getting so excited for those opportunities.”

The younger Kelce makes a good point. There’s only two scheduled Wednesday games this season—the 2026 season opener showcasing the Super Bowl LX rematch between the Seahawks and the Patriots, then the Thanksgiving Eve game between the Packers and the Rams. The only reason the season opener is being played on a Wednesday is due to the Australia game between the Rams and the 49ers, which is set for Thursday, Sept. 10. So, both of these Wednesday games are special cases, meaning that it hopefully won’t become a tradition to start the NFL season on a Wednesday night instead of Thursday.

As for the two other “non-football” days of the week—Tuesday and Friday—there’s zero Tuesday games and four Friday games taking place on Black Friday and Christmas Day. As Kelce said above, these both land on holidays.

While Jason makes very fair points about there being a concern the NFL is starting to drift far away from a Sunday showcase of games, it all seems to be for holiday, or special event-based, reasons. The real concern will be if or when the NFL chooses to play games on random weekdays just for the heck of it, which doesn’t appear to be what’s happening this year. NFL Sundays are sacred, and we don’t want those to change. But, it is fun to plan for more NFL watch parties on different nights throughout the season.

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