Two out of three Vikings’ preseason games to air live on NFL Network

For those of us that live far enough outside of the Twin Cities that local affiliates won’t pick up the Minnesota Vikings’ preseason games, the announcement of which games are going to be aired live is a pretty big deal.

Today, the NFL Network has announced their schedule of live preseason games, and in the words of late-20th Century American philosopher Meat Loaf, two out of three ain’t bad.

Yes, two of the Vikings’ preseason contests will be aired live on the NFL Network, part of what will be a record 23 live broadcasts for the league’s official channel this preseason.

The first of those two games will be the Vikings’ preseason opener at U.S. Bank Stadium against the Denver Broncos. That game takes place on Saturday, 14 August, and will kick off at 3:00 PM Central time.

The other game that will be aired live on the NFL Network is what we still believe to be the All-Important Third Preseason Game™ as the Vikings travel to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the defending AFC Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. That game happens on Friday, 27 August, and will get underway at 7:00 PM Central time.

The game that’s sandwiched in the middle, where the Vikings will host the Indianapolis Colts at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, 21 August, will not be shown live outside of the Twin Cities. However, there will certainly be replays of it on the NFL Network, and once we know when those will be happening we will let you know.

Again, for those of us that live outside of the areas where preseason games are picked up by local affiliates, this is pretty damn good news. I’m very much looking forward to watching at least two of the Vikings’ preparatory games for the 2021 season at the same time that everyone else gets to see them.