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Biggs: Could Packers' meeting with Favre be moved?
by Brad Biggs
September 19, 02009
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The NFL and Major League Baseball could be tussling over a lot more than viewers in Minneapolis in a few weeks.
How about a fight over who gets to use the Metrodome on Oct. 5?
Brett FavreAPIf the Twins tie the Tigers in the American League Central, a one-game playoff could pose a scheduling conflict at the Metrodome Oct. 5 when the Vikings and Brett Favre are set to host the Packers.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that there is a potential conflict for use of the building named after Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. That is the scheduled date for an ESPN “Monday Night Football’’ tilt that is one of the network’s better matchups, on paper at least, with the Green Bay Packers invading to face Brett Favre for the first time. It’s also the date that a possible one-game playoff could occur to determine the winner of the American League Central.
Currently, the Twins trail the Detroit Tigers by three games. However, Minnesota has 11 games remaining and five are vs. the Tigers, including one today and one Sunday. The Twins were involved in a one-game playoff last season when they tied atop the Central with the Chicago White Sox. The Sox captured the play-in game to the playoffs in Chicago after winning homefield advantage by the flip of a coin.
Here is where it gets really interesting. The Star Tribune reports that the NFL and MLB are both staking claim to the building for the night.
“The NFL is fully aware of it," Katy Feeney, a senior vice president for MLB, told the newspaper. “That's one of the reasons they schedule those as intradivision games, so they can flip (home sites) if they need to.’’
It’s as easy as that, huh? Just swap the Oct. 5 game that is supposed to be in Minnesota for the Nov. 1 game at Green Bay?
Not so fast. The Star Tribune reports “an NFL source with knowledge of the lease said there is no chance the Vikings game gets moved. That's because the NFL team's lease states it has priority over the Twins for any game other than a World Series game.’’
What are the chances the Twins forge a tie with the Tigers for the division? Remote. Even then, the Twins would then have to be awarded the home game for this showdown to advance past the point of some good speculation.
A baseball-football conflict in Minnesota has happened in the past. The Twins were in the World Series in 1987 and that forced a Sunday game with Denver to be moved to Monday night, giving the NFL a doubleheader that evening. The same thing happened 10 years later in 1997 when a Chicago game at Miami was pushed to Monday to avoid conflict with Game 7 of the World Series between Cleveland and Florida.
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