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It won’t be long now, folks! After a long, painful, and really boring bye week, the Minnesota Vikings will be back on the field less than 24 hours from now. Yes, even though we’ll have to wait through most of Sunday to get to it, the Vikings will be on Sunday Night Football to do battle with the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. This game was flexed into the prime time position, so here’s hoping that we get ourselves a good football game. . .that ends with the Vikings winning, of course.
So, how can you follow along with all of the action on Sunday night? Well, here’s everything you need to know.
Television Info
Since this game is going to be on Sunday Night Football, that means it’s going to be on NBC, which is KARE-11 in the Twin Cities. Outside of the Twin Cities? Do you have a television set? Does it get NBC? Good! Then you have access to the game! Kickoff is scheduled for 7:20 PM Central time, and your announcers will be Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth.
For everyone in Canada, it looks like this one is going to be on TSN.
If you’re going to be watching this one from the United Kingdom, it’s going to be an early morning for you. This one will be shown live on Sky Sports, specifically Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Main Event. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 AM Monday morning UK time.
For our men and women in uniform overseas, well, it’s going to be an early morning for most of you, too. This game will actually be shown live on the American Forces Network, specifically on AFN Sports. Kickoff is scheduled for 0100Z on Monday morning, which works out to a 0200L kickoff in Central Europe, 0530L for everyone in Afghanistan, and 1000L for viewers in Japan and Korea.
Radio Info
If you’re not going to be anywhere near a television for this one, you’ll be able to hear the call from Paul Allen and Pete Bercich on the Vikings Radio Network. That link goes to a list of Vikings Radio Network affiliates across the Upper Midwest. See if yours will be carrying the game. There are a couple of other places you can find it online as well, including the TuneIn radio service as well as the KFAN site (if you’re on a desktop or laptop computer only. . .it won’t work on phones or tablets).
For those that have satellite radio, you can find the Vikings Radio Network feed on Sirius Channel 81. If you have XM Radio, you can hear the game on XM Channel 226. If you should prefer it, there will also be a “neutral” broadcast from Westwood One on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Channel 88. If you’re using the SiriusXM Online App, the Vikings’ permanent home there is Channel 819.
Referee Info
According to the folks from Football Zebras, the officiating crew for this big NFC North showdown will be led by John Parry. The Vikings have actually not seen Parry since 2014, which seems a little strange, but there you go. The last game involving the Vikings that Parry worked was their 17-3 loss to the Detroit Lions at TCF Bank Stadium.
Weather Info
Looking at the forecast from our friends at WeatherNation, it looks like it’s going to be a little on the cool side on the shores of Lake Michigan on Sunday night. Temperature at kickoff will be right at the freezing mark, and should stay right around there for the duration of the game. The forecast for the early hours of Sunday morning is showing a “wintry mix” of precipitation, but that should be gone by gametime. It will be interesting to see how that affects the cow pasture. . .er, playing surface. . .at Soldier Field.
Streaming Info
With this being a Sunday Night Football game, you’ll be able to stream things legally at NBC Sports.
There are several other legal subscription services that are available in order to stream the game legally. Among them are Fubo.tv, USTVNow, and Sling TV. If you’re overseas, your best bet is going to be NFL GamePass.
Since it has recently been brought up, I want to make it perfectly clear that streams from Reddit or other places are not. . .I repeat, not. . .legal. If you’d like to argue about that, you can argue it somewhere else, because the moderators won’t listen to that garbage. Until Reddit, or anywhere else, has a deal with the National Football League, those streams are illegal and not welcome to be put up on this site. If you want to use them, go find them on your own and don’t be plastering them in the comments section here unless you’d rather not be in the comments of the Game Thread. . .or any other thread. . .here at DN.
That should be all of the information you need in order to keep track of all the action from Soldier Field between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football. We’ll have our Open Thread for the first quarter up about an hour before kickoff or so, and we hope that you’ll join us here for all of the fun!