The Chicago Bears played on Saturday because the NFL sometimes schedules select late-season games on Saturdays for national TV and playoff-focused matchups, instead of the usual Sunday slate.

NFL scheduling basics

  • The standard NFL game day is Sunday, but the league regularly uses other days (Thursday, Sunday night, Monday night) for national broadcasts.
  • Late in the season (usually after the college football regular season ends), the NFL adds Saturday games to create more standalone, high‑ratings windows.

Why the Bears specifically played Saturday

  • For 2025, the league highlighted the Bears in several special slots, including a Black Friday game and other nationally featured windows, showing growing interest in the team’s national draw.
  • The Bears’ Saturday game was part of this featured scheduling: a late-season matchup with playoff implications that fit well in a national Saturday TV window once college football had mostly cleared out.

How the league chooses Saturday games

  • The NFL looks for games with playoff stakes, big markets, and compelling storylines to move into Saturday to boost national ratings.
  • By late December, Bears games were tied to seeding and division races, making them attractive choices for a special time slot rather than being buried in the crowded Sunday afternoon window.

TL;DR: The Bears played on Saturday because the NFL shifts some late‑season, high‑interest games (like key Bears matchups) into special national TV slots once college football winds down, and Chicago fit that profile in 2025.

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