Report: NFL to cut preseason schedule in half

The National Football League is once again being affected by the COVID-19 epidemic and, at least for now, it’s only changing the games that don’t count.

Pro Football Talk is reporting that the NFL will be eliminating two games from the preseason schedule. Specifically, PFT is reporting that the Week 1 and Week 4 preseason games have been scrapped.

If this turns out to be the case, both of the Minnesota Vikings’ preseason contests for this year will be on the road. The preseason schedule currently has them traveling to take on the Cincinnati Bengals in the Week 2 of the preseason, and then travelling to take on Kevin Stefanski and the Cleveland Browns in what was to have been the All-Important Third Preseason Game™ but now appears to be the preseason finale instead.

The Vikings were scheduled to host the Houston Texans in Week 1 of the preseason and finish the slate of games that don’t count against the Seattle Seahawks at U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 4.

The official announcement of this is not scheduled to come until tomorrow, and if something changes from the parameters that we’ve laid out here, we will bring you an update. In any event, it appears as though we won’t be seeing the Vikings back at U.S. Bank Stadium until the regular season opener. . .if even then, at the rate things are going.