Sir Charles Barkley has spoken, and he's not happy with the NFL. Barkely, 62, unloaded on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the league for scheduling three games on Christmas Day, a holiday traditionally reserved for the NBA, where Barkley played for 16 seasons. "I mean, it is tremendous because you got five games," Barkley said of the Christmas NBA slate on Thursday, December 25, during ESPN's Inside the NBA. "There's nobody else playing. You know, the NFL got greedy and started adding Christmas games. We used to have this day to ourselves, but [NFL commissioner Roger Goodell] and them pigs at the NFL always wanna hog every day of the week now." Barkley's criticism, which drew laughs from the rest of the Inside the NBA crew, is rooted in truth. Not only did the NFL play multiple Christmas Day games for the fifth year in a row in 2025, it has extended its calendar well beyond the Sunday afternoon to Monday night format it held when Goodell, 66, assumed his role in 2006. Charles Barkley Recalls Phone Call That Ended Friendship With Michael Jordan Thursday Night Football began its run the same year Goodell became commissioner. The NFL also expanded its coverage to Black Friday in 2023, extending its reign as the premiere sport on Thanksgiving for an extra 24 hours. Though the NFL's tradition of playing games on Saturdays during December - with college football mostly dormant except for bowl games - predates Goodell, it has also rubbed Barkley the wrong way. "Roger Goodell trying to hog every day of the week," he said. "They're on Saturday now. On Friday too... stay in your lane, Roger." The NFL on Christmas Day is a fairly new phenomenon, but the NBA has made it a fixture since the league's second season in 1947. The 2025 Christmas schedule included five games, featuring some of the league's biggest brands, including the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers. Charles Barkley Slams 'Loser' Football Fans Who Complain About Taylor Swift "Christmas is an NBA day," Barkley said. Never one to hide his opinion, Barkley has made plenty of headlines lately for his outspoken nature. In October, the Hall of Famer blasted the players and coaches involved in a gambling scandal that rocked the league in the early portion of the season. "This ain't got nothing to do with addiction," he said on Inside the NBA. "These dudes are stupid." He continued, "Under no circumstances can you fix basketball games. Under no circumstances. I love to gamble, the notion, [Terry] Rozier makes $26 million. Him betting, giving people information or taking yourself out of games, how much is he going to benefit taking himself out of the game to get unders? He's making $26 million." In 2024, he weighed in on the ill-fated relationship between Scottie Pippen's ex-wife Larsa Pippen and Michael Jordan's son Marcus Jordan. "I feel bad for Michael. I feel bad for Scottie. That is so messy," he said in an appearance on Shannon Sharpe's "Club Shay Shay" podcast. "I don't like messy because when it's messy everybody has an opinion on it." He continued, "Everybody has an opinion and you know the Internet is not a place for messy. And you have to understand that there's a lot of kids involved and people are mean."