By now, the San Francisco 49ers have to be growing accustomed to playing on short weeks.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan's squad endured three games over a 13-day stretch to close out the regular season, capped off by a Week 18 loss to the Seattle Seahawks that got scheduled on Saturday night instead of the usual Sunday.
At least the Niners went 2-1 during that period, albeit losing to the Hawks 13-3 in a tilt that ultimately decided who'd get the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in the NFC playoff picture.
As a result, Shanahan and Co. had to travel east and take on the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field as a Wild Card team, coming away with a thrilling upset win to advance to the divisional round.
And, another date with Seattle, this time at Lumen Field.
Unfortunately, after already handing San Francisco a tough stretch to close out the regular season, the NFL schedule makers are back at it, giving the 49ers yet another short week in advance of the divisional-round tilt against the top-seeded Hawks.
NFL continues to screw 49ers over with short-week games
Hours after the conclusion of the NFC's Wild Card bouts, the league announced Seattle and San Francisco would square off on Saturday, Jan. 17 at a time to be announced later (either 4:30 or 8 p.m. ET).
While there is some sense to this, particularly with whatever top seed getting the Saturday game, it's unfair to the point where two other NFC squads, the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams, played on Saturday during the Wild Card round.
It would have been easy to simply schedule their matchup on Saturday and to schedule the 49ers and Seahawks the following Sunday instead.
NBC Sports analyst Tony Dungy wasn't a fan. At all:
NFL playoff scheduling is not fair. It might produce good ratings but it’s not fair.
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) January 12, 2026
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
"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," Dungy posted on Twitter/X. "Now we create that disadvantage. The Wild Card round should be three games on Saturday and three games on Sunday. Then try to schedule the divisional games so the teams have equal rest.
"Don’t force San Francisco, Buffalo and Houston or Pittsburgh to play the most important game of their season on a short week just for TV ratings. That is not fair!"
The Hawks, meanwhile, probably don't care much after enjoying the first-round bye. And it does make some moderate sense to give further disadvantages to Wild Card teams.
But, it seems as if those aren't exactly distributed equally or any sort of known consistency. Even Shanahan hoped the divisional round's game would be scheduled for Sunday, as told during his postgame presser.
Again, a banged-up Niners squad will have to play a top rival on a short week.
It could have been avoided easily.