NFL adds 17th regular season game; Vikings face Chargers
Football fans get an extra week of regular season action beginning next season as the NFL confirmed Tuesday that it has shortened the preseason from four to three games and added a game to the regular season.
The Vikings' Week 18 opponent will be the Chargers, with the game in Los Angeles. All AFC teams will be the home team this season.
NFC North teams will face teams from the AFC West, with the matchups based on where each team finished in their division the previous season. Minnesota and the Chargers finished third in their respective divisions last season.
Here's the Vikings' 2021 opponents (the official schedule has not been released):
The 8 home opponents:
- Detroit Lions
- Chicago Bears
- Green Bay Packers
- Los Angeles Rams
- Seattle Seahawks
- Cleveland Browns
- Pittsburgh Steelers
The 8 road opponents:
- Detroit Lions
- Chicago Bears
- Green Bay Packers
- Arizona Cardinals
- San Francisco 49ers
- Baltimore Ravens
- Cincinatti Bengals
- Carolina Panthers
- Los Angeles Chargers
The season will still start Sept. 9, but the regular season has been extended to Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022.
There won't be an extra bye week for every team, though there will now be two weeks between the end of the preseason and the start of the regular season.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.