According to the folks at Access Vikings, the Week 13 game between the Chicago Bears and the Beloved Purple will still be a prime-time game on NBC.
The NFL announced today that the Vikings-Bears game on Nov. 30 will be played at 7:15 p.m. as previously scheduled. That game had the potential to be bumped from the NBC Sunday night game to an afternoon slot that day because of the flexible schedule the league has put in after Week 10 of each season. But with the teams tied for first-place in the NFC North, along with the Green Bay Packers, the league and network saw no reason to make a move. Especially, when one considers the size of the Chicago market.
And, really, there was no reason for the league to change this game. The Vikings and Bears are still part of a three-way race for the NFC North Division title, and this game will go a long way towards deciding that. They also played a shootout earlier this year in Chicago, and while I wouldn't expect another 89 points to go on the board in the next game, it should still be a very close contest.
Yes, I know that the Williamses will more than likely not be there, as they'll probably be serving the legallized raping that they'll receive from Roger Goodell for taking a substance that the NFL had approved for use. . .maybe they should have just stuck to minor drugs like cocaine (which is, apparently, only a three-game suspension) and codeine (which, apparently, carries no penalty at all, even if you possess enough of it to put a brontosaurus to sleep for a month). . .but outside of that one game, the Bears haven't exactly been explosive on offense, and just got shellacked by the Packers by 34 points.
But, the network also obviously sees an opportunity to put the NFL's best player and potential league MVP on in prime-time, and they'd be crazy to refuse that chance. As much as I hate waiting for later games, it's sort of nice knowing that NBC thinks enough of this matchup to have not replaced it with somebody else.