Throughout the NFL regular season, the league is careful to give teams as much rest as possible.
Even as games have moved to Thursdays, Saturdays, and sometimes even Wednesdays and teams increasingly travel to Europe and South America to play, the NFL has specific rules about how the schedule works in those situations.
The Minnesota Vikings stayed in the United Kingdom for Weeks 4 and 5, playing back-to-back games in Dublin and London. The Kansas City Chiefs had several weeks between each of their three weekday games this season. Examples abound.
Yet in a long post on X on Monday, longtime NFL head coach and NBC Sports analyst Tony Dungy pointed out that the league is far less careful during the postseason, all seemingly for the express purpose of blanketing January weekends with games.
“NFL playoff scheduling is not fair. It might produce good ratings but it’s not fair,” Dungy wrote. “This late in the season recovery time is crucial and it is not given equally.”
As an example, Dungy showed how the Rams and Bears will get an extra day of rest between Saturday of the Wild Card round and Sunday of the divisional round, when they are next scheduled to play. On the other hand, San Francisco and Buffalo will play on a short week.
Dungy put the blame squarely on the league and ESPN for programming a Monday-night game during Wild Card weekend when the field expanded to 14 teams in 2021.
“Several years ago the league did away with Monday Night games in Week 18 of the regular season because it created a disadvantage if one of those teams made the playoffs. Now we create that disadvantage,” Dungy wrote.
“The Wild Card round should be 3 games on Saturday and 3 games on Sunday. Then try to schedule the Divisional games so the teams have equal rest.”
NFL playoff scheduling is not fair. It might produce good ratings but it’s not fair.
This late in the season recovery time is crucial and it is not given equally. Rams & Bears played Saturday games. They will face each other on Sunday with an extra day of rest. 49ers played on… pic.twitter.com/JSwYeZTAEX— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) January 12, 2026
The NFL has become more adventurous with its scheduling since expanding the regular season to 17 games and the postseason to 14 teams. The league tries to worm into every open weekend when college football is not played, as well as all potential holidays.
By constantly adding new broadcast partners, the NFL has dug itself into a hole trying to develop so many exclusive windows. Even in Weeks 17 and 18, huge games were played on Saturday nights in part to satisfy commitments to Peacock/NBC and ESPN/ABC.
The NFL shows no signs of stopping these trends. But Dungy clearly believes that by the time the divisional round comes up, the league should prioritize health and competitive equity over the incremental increases in fan engagement it might get from scheduling the way it does now.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.