National Football League

Favre will start vs. Bears in snow

Published Dec. 20, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Snowy weather doesn't come as much of a surprise in Minnesota, but in an unforseen move, the Vikings announced that Brett Favre will start against the Chicago Bears.

Earlier in the day, the Vikings had upgraded Favre to questionable, leading to questions about his availability.

Favre didn't practice all week because of a sprained throwing shoulder. The injury kept Favre out of last week's loss to the New York Giants and ended his NFL-record 297 straight regular-season starts.

According to multiple media outlets, All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson is inactive for the game.

A snow emergency has been declared in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., focusing more attention on the already heavily debated conditions for the Monday Night Football game between the Vikings and Bears, Minneapolis' Star Tribune reported Monday.

The snowy conditions could make the game even more of a "trainwreck."

About 7 inches of snow could hit Minneapolis by the end of the night, which doesn't bode well for an on-campus stadium that wasn't already up to par in some players' eyes before the latest forecast.

Vikings punter Chris Kluwe said on Twitter he hopes "no one gets catastrophically injured" during the "the trainwreck that's about to take place (Monday) night." His comments were reported by myFOXtwincities.com after a walkthrough practice Sunday at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium.

The Vikings can't play in their home stadium because the Metrodome's roof collapsed Dec. 12. The NFL decided early last week to move Monday's nationally televised game to the university's stadium, so officials hurriedly cleared snow and prepared the outdoor venue for an NFL game.

Toss in a game-time temperature expected to be in the mid-20s and winds that might reach 20 mph, and it appears the players will be in for a long night.

"I find it interesting that the NFL can claim an emphasis on player safety and then tell us the field is fine. It's beyond hypocritical," Kluwe said, adding that the turf field was rock hard.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.