They are playing NFL games on Saturday because the league is allowed to move onto Saturdays once most high school and college football have wrapped up, and TV partners want more nationally televised windows late in the season.

Quick Scoop

The real reason Saturdays open up

  • A U.S. law called the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 blocks the NFL from nationally televising games on Fridays and Saturdays during most of the high school and college seasons (from the second Friday in September to the second Saturday in December).
  • Once that window ends in mid‑December, the restriction lifts, so the NFL can legally put games on Saturday without stepping on high school and college attendance.

Why the NFL wants Saturday games

  • Saturday games give the NFL extra national TV windows late in the year when playoff races heat up, which means more viewers and more advertising money.
  • With all 32 teams usually past their bye weeks by December, there are more games to spread across different days, making it easier to feature multiple matchups in stand‑alone slots like Saturday tripleheaders.

How the current schedule trend looks

  • In recent seasons, the NFL has regularly added December Saturday games, often a tripleheader in Week 15/16 plus more games in Week 18, as part of its TV deals.
  • Newer broadcast agreements and streaming deals have pushed the league to experiment even more with special Saturday slates, especially around holidays like Christmas when schedules get shuffled.

TL;DR: They play NFL games on Saturday mainly in late December because the legal blackout tied to high school and college football ends, TV partners want more premium windows, and playoff drama sells.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.