The Kansas City Chiefs have a unique schedule for the 2024 season, as the reigning back-to-back champions are set to play every day of the week except Tuesday with plenty of short weeks, primetime matchups, and holiday games. The predominant television play-by-play voice for the Chiefs in ’24 will likely be Jim Nantz, half of CBS’s primary NFL crew alongside color commentator Tony Romo. After the schedule was released, Nantz shared his thoughts regarding the hurdles the Chiefs will have to clear in their quest to three-peat.
Nantz discussed the intricacies of the Chiefs’ schedule with Rich Eisen on The Rich Eisen Show, and Eisen began by asking Nantz how many Kansas City showdowns he believed he’d be calling this season. It’s not set in stone, but Nantz expects to be on the mic for plenty of Chiefs games in 2024.
“I’ve got probably five of them at least,” Nantz said. “Eight Chiefs games are on CBS during the season, so let’s go through it: Week 2 [vs. Bengals], yes. Week 4 [at Chargers], yes. Possibly Week 10 [vs. Broncos]. Week 11 [at Bills], yes. Right now, Week 12 [at Panthers], believe it or not, that’s our primary game on a regional week, is KC at Carolina. And then probably the game at Denver on Week 18, who knows, that’s a crapshoot, but I just rattled off five that I would say are pretty certain.”
Then the conversation moved to the challenges of the Chiefs’ schedule. Eisen noted that the Chiefs are the first team to be scheduled to play six days of the week in one season since the 1927 New York Yankees. (No, not the 1927 baseball Yankees who finished the year 110-44-1 and won the World Series. The 1927 football Yankees who finished 7-8-1.) Eisen noted that NFL teams and coaches generally dislike anything to derail their typical in-season routine, while the Chiefs may not even be able to claim much “routine” in 2024.
“I’m sure Andy Reid is not happy with that schedule,” Nantz said. “Particularly, as you get late in the season, you mentioned it, the Saturday the 21st to have a game against
Houston and then to turn around and play on Christmas Day — for the second straight year, by the way, they play on Christmas Day — Tony and I were there for the Raiders at KC on Christmas Day this past season, but then they’ll be at Pittsburgh this year, that’s not gonna be a whole lot of fun. I would think that this is not something that would be ideal for Kansas City. Everybody’s out to get them, they get everybody’s best shot, and you know, it’s all about — particularly late in the year — it’s about recovery time. How do you get your body healthy after all the pounding of months and months of being able to stay upright all that time, and you’ve got… I don’t know, we’ll see. Listen, the stats show that the frequency of injury does not go up with a shorter week. That’s not what I’m talking about, I’m just talking about rest more than anything. Just the rest to be able to be at peak performance. But listen, they’re the Chiefs! They figure it out! They really do. And we’ll be gratefully there to see a lot of those games unfold.”
