Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears: Is The Playing Field Dangerous?

The Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears are about to play one of the most historic Monday night football games in a long time; however, there has been much criticism over the venue of the game. 

It is the first outdoor professional football game in Minnesota in 29 years.

The NFC North rivals will play at TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota, but the field is not designed to handle outdoor games in the frigid temperatures of winter in Minnesota.

The Bears are used to playing in Chicago's cold weather, but were dominated in every phase of the game last week by the Patriots in the snow last week.

As a member of the Big Ten conference, Minnesota's regular season ends in mid-November, therefore a field suitable to handle frigid temperatures is not needed.

The field does not have a heating system underneath it, therefore the only way to defrost the playing surface is to heat it from above. 

The only problem with heating the field from surface is once the game starts, the field cannot be heated anymore and will slowly freeze, causing danger to the players.

The worry of the Bears and Vikings coaches and players is the field will become so frozen, that if anyone hits the ground hard with their head, the chances they would suffer a concussion could be greater than if the game was played indoors.

According to ESPN's Ed Werder, the Vikings players will be trying on as much as three pairs of cleats on the field during pregame to get a sense of field conditions. 

The reason the game is being played at TCF Bank Stadium, and not at an indoor venue like Ford Field in Detroit or Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, is the Vikings season ticket holders need to be given the amount of home games they paid for.

They have already lost last week's home game vs. the New York Giants to Ford Field after the Metrodome incident, and taking away another home game would have meant reimbursing season ticket holders.

Along with the ticket fiasco, another storyline of tonight's game is its impact on the NFL playoff picture: The Bears are 9-4 and with the Green Bay Packers losing last night to the New England Patriots, a Bears win would give them the NFC North division title.

The Bears are concerned over the field conditions, and some players believe the conditions may damage their chances of winning, thus hurting their playoff seeding. 

We'll have to wait and see how well the grounds crew has thawed the field, and how frigid it will become after the heating process is ended once the game commences.

The conditions will be freezing, but the energy will be there. The game is expected to sell out, and thousands of fans are lining up to buy tickets.

There is a lot to win tonight, and the Bears must forget about the snow and focus on winning the NFC North.