MINNEAPOLIS — The executive vice-president of the NFL stood at the edge of snowy TCF Bank Stadium on Thursday and vowed that it will be the site of next week’s Vikings-Bears game despite concerns about player safety on its frozen field.
“We are planning on playing here,” NFL VP Eric Grubman said as behind him hundreds of workers continued to clear snow and ice from the outdoor facility. “If we can’t, at that point we’ll figure out what we’ll do next.”
Despite an offer from the Indianapolis Colts to host the Monday night matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium, and concern from several members of the Chicago Bears, Grubman called football a “cold-weather sport” and noted that several other NFL teams including Buffalo and Kansas City play in outdoor stadiums with no heating systems to keep their fields warm.
Grubman was in Minneapolis to tour the University of Minnesota stadium — which he described as “terrific” after laying eyes on it — and to view the snow-damaged Metrodome, where repair work was temporarily halted because of unsafe conditions after a fourth roof panel collapsed Wednesday night under heavy snow and ice. Three other panels collapsed early Sunday after a blizzard.
Grubman declined to talk about backup plans or deadlines for a final decision because, he said, they wouldn’t come into play unless TCF is deemed unsuitable. He said ESPN, the game’s broadcaster, had signed off on TCF Bank Stadium and Colts chief operating officer Pete Ward said the NFL had not spoken to the team about the possibility of playing the game in Indianapolis.
The plan, however, isn’t exactly going over well in Chicago.
Bears safety Chris Harris said he understood why the Vikings want to play their home finale in Minnesota “but at the end of the day you’ve got to be safe.”
“The NFL is cracking down on all this player safety and fining people $75,000, $50,000 for a hit because they want the game to be safer,” Harris said.
“I don’t think it’s very safe to play on a frozen field.”
Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, who suffered a concussion in a game earlier this season, said the condition of the field was “the main concern with the guys in the locker-room.”
“We don’t want to go out there and play on a concrete-type surface,” Cutler said.
A spokesman for the NFL Players Association said the union will monitor the issue and that “the health and safety of our players is paramount,” director of communications Carl Francis said.
Bears kicker Robbie Gould, the team’s union representative, said no formal complaint was planned.
“There will be no protest,” he said. “The bottom line is as players we want to make sure that it’s a safe environment to play in. So as long as the environment is safe and the conditions for the field are safe, then obviously the show must go on.”
Rookie Vikings quarterback Joe Webb, who may start the game, said he hasn’t played in freezing conditions before.
“They say we play at that Minnesota stadium, you’re just going to have to live with it,” said Webb, who played college ball at Alabama-Birmingham. “If God wants to change the weather on me, then that would be fine, too.”
Grubman and university officials said turf experts would be working on getting the field into softer shape, and that one possibility is a tarp over the field with a heating element underneath.
TCF Bank Stadium seats 50,000 fans, which means about 14,000 ticket-holders could be out of luck on Monday. The Vikings said ticket-holders would be seated on a first-come, first-served basis until the stadium is full. No alcohol will be served.
At the Metrodome, officials halted repair work until they could resolve what director of facilities and engineering Steve Maki called “an unsafe situation.” He said there was concern that still more panels could collapse under snow and ice still sitting atop the deflated roof.
Maki said there was no estimate yet of how long the repair work would take or how much it would cost, but officials were still hoping they could simply repair the damaged panels instead of replacing the entire roof.