NFL admits Chiefs are league’s ‘bell cow’ for games on streaming services

Here’s a quick quiz: As the NFL has added games on streaming services, see if you can spot the common theme.

• When Amazon Prime became the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football” games, its first matchup was Chargers at Chiefs.

• When Peacock became the first streaming service to carry an NFL playoff game, it was the Dolphins at Chiefs Wild Card contest.

• And Netflix is the new home for Christmas Day games, and the first game will feature the Chiefs at the Steelers.

You see the connection, right?

These streaming services all wanted to make a splash, and what better way than by carrying a Chiefs game?

Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, admitted the league leans on the Chiefs when making the schedule.

“They’ve been our bell cow for a while, right?” North said of the Chiefs in an interview with ESPN’s Adam Schefter. “They’re kind of used to carrying our water for some of these kind of unique opportunities here. You think about that Peacock playoff game last year. If you want to make Peacock a destination for an NFL playoff game, well, put a Chiefs game there. If Amazon wants to continue to try to build Black Friday into an event, even though it’s not a national holiday, but can we turn it into one where instead of going to the mall, we’re gonna stay home and watch a game on television at 3 o’clock in the afternoon? Put a Chiefs game there.

“You want to make Christmas on Netflix a thing? Put a Chiefs game there. You can’t go to that well over and over again. There are only so many Chiefs games and, obviously, a lot of other really good teams and good stars and storylines in this league. But the Chiefs definitely were not surprised by their national television and some of the windows we decided to use them.”

The Chiefs were a hot topic for people who interviewed North following the release of the NFL’s 2024 schedule.

While on the SI Media With Jimmy Trania podcast, it was pointed out that the Chiefs play eight standalone games this season.

“Probably more if I counted them all up,” North said. “You think about all the ,Sunday afternoon games where CBS is going to have them as the lead for a (3:25 p.m.) game. They’re certainly maxed out in prime time: three NBCs, two ESPNs. Amazon was really pushing hard to try to get them to Black Friday, as we tried to shift consumer behavior.

“It’s not quite a national holiday, but maybe we’re getting there and, you know, to your point, kind of nothing moves the needle really like Kansas City right now.”

With quarterback Patrick Mahomes seen as the NFL’s best quarterback, coach Andy Reid a lock for the Hall of Fame and the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift romance, the Chiefs are the most popular team in the country.

Trania noted quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ injury on the Jets’ first drive last season and asked if the NFL worried about a similar situation happening with the Chiefs since the league is leaning heaving on KC.

“I sure hope Patrick Mahomes stays healthy,” North said. “I sure hope Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce stay together. There’s a lot riding obviously on our biggest brands.”

Because the Chiefs have won two straight Super Bowl titles and three in the past five seasons, the NFL would be doing its fans a disservice by putting Chiefs games in a Sunday afternoon window against multiple other games, North told Trania.

Giving the Chiefs a schedule that will have them play on six different days of the week will be fine, North believes. He expects the Chiefs to still make the postseason. And North once again brought up Swift’s name.

“You can give the Kansas City Chiefs the worst possible schedule, and some have been saying we did, right? They’re playing every day of the week except a Tuesday,” North told Schefter. “They’ve got multiple short weeks and catch Buffalo off their bye, and Taylor Swift is gonna be there. Like, we maybe gave the Chiefs the hardest schedule in the league. I suspect they’re gonna be there come playoff time, right?”