Friday, Dec. 17, 2010
2:47 PM
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com
The state of TCF Bank Field is looking more and more like there will be football in the great north on Monday night, according to individuals at the University of Minnesota.
But the issue of whether or not the Bears will play the Minnesota Vikings there now may be working in the Vikings favor, possibly to a significant degree.
The growing sense around the Bears is that this whole mess is in the heads of the players, and that is a potential disaster for a team possibly one victory away from a division championship. It may be in Vikings heads as well but the Bears are the ones with something to lose Monday night besides their health.
It isnt the number of media queries directed at players feelings on the situation. It isnt that players answer the questions; they do that, usually very accommodatingly. Its literally the length of the answers that is troubling.
Normally players, and anyone for that matter, are short and dismissive of non-issues or things not worth the attention. But the safety concern with this gameand it is absolutely warrantedis in peoples heads almost the way you might expect an opponent would want to be after delivering a blow intended to intimidate.
NFL
Man, its like a huge fight, a big ordeal all year about concussions and the NFL saying, What can we do to protect the players: Lets send them out to Minnesota on the potentially frozen surface, linebacker Lance Briggs said with more than a touch of disgust. Some things make me want to scratch my head all the time...
But whats the point of playing there if Adrian Peterson goes down with a career-ending injury? Hes a running back. Guys are going to be sliding all over the place. You never know. It could cost you in a bunch of different ways."
Hes not alone.
This is the year were cracking down on players safety and concussions and stuff like that, cornerback Charles Tillman added. You want to fine guys 75,000 for blows to the head, but are we going to play on this frozen field? I dont know. It doesnt really make too much sense to me.
Make no mistake: These are not soft people. They are some of the voices who have spoken about the realities of this sport, that it is rough and people do get hurt. But this situation is getting to even them.
I dont want people to get the wrong idea that guys dont want to play outdoors, said safety Chris Harris. We play outdoors here. We just played in 6 inches of snow Sunday. So guys dont have a problem playing outdoorsdont have a problem with the weather, with the wind, with snow, with any of it.
We dont care about weather, we really dont. We can play in zero-degree weather; it doesnt hurt us. Its more the playing surface than the actual weather.
But the issue is safety. Thats a field thats not equippedMinnesotas not equipped for playing outdoor games. A stadium thats been under snow for a month in those temperaturesits been minus-degree weather up there. The field will be icy. It just doesnt make for a safe environment.
And Harris, like Tillman, Briggs and others, goes on extensively about their concerns, without a whole lot of prodding from anyone. If the Bears are talking about this in the locker room and not as much about the Vikings, that is when a bad slip and fall could definitely occur.
I mean, Im talking about it now, and when we get out there obviously were going to check it out, Briggs said. But once the whistle blows, its time to play football.
That would be a good thing.
Stupid consideration
The one truly inane element filtering through various discussions of venue for the Bears-Vikings game is Minnesotas concern that playing in Detroit or Indianapolis or St. Louis renders this too much of a home game for the Bears. Those cities are too easy for Bears fans to reach and turn support into an advantage.
Suggestions ranging from Atlanta to New Orleans to wherever have taken this to a different level of stupid.
So the idea is that the Vikings, if they cant have the game in front their home fans would rather have it at a neutral site where no one in the host city cares about the two teams? If the NFL stands by and allows that logic to enter into the discussion, then it deserves even more criticism than it is getting already for letting the decision (and misguided work) on TCF Bank Stadium drag on and on and on.
The Bears already have been distracted and inconvenienced enough by a situation brought on through zero fault of their own. To make any decision based on keeping the game away from a huge pool of interested fans would simply make the situation just a little more ridiculous than it already is.
Backup QBs rule
While the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers turn to reserve quarterbacks out of necessity brought on by injuries, the Washington Redskins reportedly are benching starter Donovan McNabbb for the rest of the season and turning to Rex Grossman as their starter.
And just noodling here, but before the talk goes much further on how lucky the Bears are to be facing backup quarterbacks this season, its possibly worth remembering that Michael Vick was a backup coming into this season. So was Tom Brady in 2001. So was Brett Favre in 1992. So was Matt Cassel. So was Lou Gehrig.
Joe Webb probably isnt the next name to go on that list. But backups are dangerous because they know the value of opportunities when they arent handed to them.
John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.