Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown expressed his frustration on his podcast about the NFL scheduling his team to play on both Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2025, making two major holidays where he’d be working. As a Lions player, he accepts the annual Thanksgiving games but questions adding Christmas, especially with the travel to Minnesota and the risk of missing family time.
Explaining his reasoning, he empathized with fathers unable to watch kids open gifts, noting he’d be “even more pissed” if he had children. Despite a knee injury and recent loss, St. Brown was expected to play in the vital game against the Vikings for a chance at the playoffs.
Laying out his objections, the NFL star stated, “The two biggest holidays I feel like in the United States, we played on both of them. And I don’t even have kids yet. If I had kids, I’d be even more pissed. Like, you can’t be spending it with your family, get to see your kids open gifts. I feel like that’s something that a lot of parents love to see and can’t wait for.”
Frankly laying out his feelings, Amon-Ra St. Brown added, “I don’t even like it, and I’m not even a f—ing father yet. Us traveling, it’s like, damn.” Later in the same podcast, he noted, “This is like Christmas day during the week, yeah, I’ve never played on Christmas day like this. How do I feel? This is our third (Thursday night game), and we had Thanksgiving. I’m not a fan. We’ve got two of the biggest holidays in the United States, and we played on both of them.”
Similarly, Detroit Lions offensive lineman Penei Sewell expressed his own displeasure about playing on Christmas Day 2025 away against the Minnesota Vikings, in addition to the traditional Thanksgiving game. “I’m going to be brutally honest. I’m not happy,” Sewell responded.
“We already have Thanksgiving,” he added, “We already play on Thanksgiving, and the fact that we have to play on Christmas (and) away, is something I wouldn’t want to do. So yeah, not fun, but it is what it is. It comes with the job. I’m going to do it.”
Reactions to these staments on social media were mixed. One comment was understanding: “Amon-Ra St. Brown not being happy about playing on a Holiday or both Thanksgiving & Christmas doesn’t bother me. Just because he’s paid a lot doesn’t mean he likes to work. Also, as I’ve gotten older I don’t like watching games on Holidays either.”
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Another positive comment added, “I agree with Penei Sewell. They’re already having to be away from family to play on Thanksgiving, the NFL could easily find 20 other teams to do Christmas games so one team isn’t having to play on both major holidays.”
However, others blasted the athletes and entitled. A tweet read, “Seriously ridiculous… Amon-Ra St. Brown signed a 4 year, $120M contract with $77M guaranteed to live out a dream. It’s cartoony and insulting to complain about playing on Christmas or Thanksgiving.”