Giants-Vikings postponed until Monday night
A blizzard that ripped through the Twin Cities has forced the Giants and the NFL to call an audible.
The Giants' flight to Minneapolis Saturday was diverted to Kansas City, where the team spent an unplanned night. The game itself against the Vikings, originally scheduled for 1 p.m. EST today, then was changed to a spur-of-the-moment Monday nighter.
League and team officials were putting the finishing touches on the change of plans last night, and NFL.com announced that the game officially had been postponed until Monday night. A time and TV arrangements had not been decided as of 10:30 p.m. EST last night.
"Due to the severe weather conditions and on the recommendation of Metrodome officials, the Giants-Vikings game will be moved to Monday night,'' the NFL said in a statement. "The kickoff time at the Metrodome and television arrangements will be announced as soon as they are determined.''
The primary concern that prompted moving the game to Monday was the accumulation of dangerous amounts of snow on the roof of Mall of America Field, a league source said last night.
The area, usually stoic in the face of even severe storms, came to a standstill Saturday and will spend most of Sunday digging out from several feet of snow. Temperatures are not expected to go above zero.
The Giants already had changed their travel plans, leaving Saturday about three hours earlier than they usually do in an effort to beat the snow to Minneapolis. That decision was made Friday. Obviously, they did not leave early enough; several feet of snow fell on the Minneapolis airport, which closed all four of its runways at about noon yesterday. That left the Giants in Kansas City.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello had said in a statement Saturday evening that the NFL would "continue to closely monitor the weather in Minneapolis and remain in regular contact with both clubs and local public safety authorities."
Playing a 1 p.m. EST game in Minnesota after traveling from Kansas City only hours earlier could have put the Giants, who would have had a 7 a.m. wakeup call, at a competitive disadvantage in a game that several players have called a "must-win." The Giants enter the day tied with the Eagles for first place in the NFC East.
"Because the flight is less than one hour, the game could begin as scheduled," the NFL statement had said. "If conditions in Minneapolis dictate otherwise, we will move the kickoff to later in the day and announce it soon as we have the information."
If the Giants had gotten off the ground in Kansas City and into Minneapolis as planned, they would have landed at about 10 a.m. EST. That would have given them approximately three hours to not only get the players to Mall of America Field - which would have been the easy part - but also unload and set up all of the players' gear plus the electronic and video equipment used in the game.
Vikings quarterback Brett Favre, who was limited in his only practice of the week and sat out two others with a strained SC joint in his throwing shoulder, was scheduled to wait until pregame warm-ups to see if he could start his 298th consecutive regular-season game.
The Giants had figured all week that Favre would start. But they never figured on making their final preparations for him in Kansas City.
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