Ladies and gentlemen, we are now mere days away from being able to see the Minnesota Vikings take the field for an actual football game once again.
Well, for something that somewhat resembles a football game. It’s a preseason game, but it’s the first time the Vikings have taken the field since they beat the Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 18 back in January, so it’s better than nothing. A whole lot better than nothing.
Now, the preseason schedule is always a bit different because the games are
carried by different channels in different areas, and there are different rules for the networks and those sorts of things. However, a recent development is going to make things significantly easier for out-of-market fans to catch preseason games. We’ll get to that momentarily.
First off, I want to point out that the Vikings are going to have one nationally televised preseason game, courtesy of the NFL Network. That will be their third preseason game against the Denver Broncos. That game, which had been listed as TBD, is now officially scheduled for Friday, 28 August at 8:00 PM Central time. For those in the Twin Cities area, the game should be available on FOX 9, and for those in the Denver area, it looks like NBC 9 is the local affiliate there.
As far as the other two preseason games, this coming Saturday against the New York Football Giants at MetLife Stadium and next Saturday against the Baltimore Ravens at U.S. Bank Stadium, you’ll first have to check your local listings to see if the game is on in your area. If they’re not, you can use the NFL+ app if you have it, and it used to be that was the only way to watch out-of-market preseason games.
However, thanks to the new partnership between the NFL and ESPN, you have a couple of other ways to get your preseason fix. The first way is to use the ESPN app if you have an ESPN Unlimited plan. You can simply log into your ESPN app with your phone or mobile device, find the game there, and watch the action.
But this next way is one that most out-of-market Vikings fans are probably going to be pretty happy with. . .and, as one of those myself, I can say that from firsthand knowledge.
If you’re an out-of-market fan, there’s a decent chance that you already have YouTube TV, because that’s where the NFL Sunday Ticket package lives now. If you do have YouTube TV, and ESPN is a part of your YouTube TV package (and there’s about a 99% chance that it is), then congratulations. . .you have access to ESPN Unlimited, free of charge. All you need to do is connect your ESPN account to your YouTube TV account, and you’ll be all set. Here’s a link to how you can do that if you haven’t already done so.
Now, keep in mind, neither NFL+ nor the ESPN app/ESPN Unlimited will work if the game is available over the air in your local area. The good folks from 506 Sports (who provide us with local coverage maps during the regular season) have a list of which networks are broadcasting each preseason game, so you’ll know which games are being shown where.
After checking my ESPN app earlier today and doing a search for “Minnesota Vikings,” it shows that Saturday’s game against the Giants is not available on the streaming service in my area (and a quick check of 506 Sports shows that the game is being shown on my local ABC affiliate, which explains that) but the game against the Ravens, at least as things stand right now, is going to be available for streaming. I don’t know if that’s going to change between now and the 22nd of August, but I guess I’ll find out.
So, if you were wanting to watch the Vikings’ preseason games live, you now have a least a couple of alternative ways of being able to do just that. Hopefully, they’ll be less costly than they’ve been in seasons past as well.
