The first Monday night game in Ford Field history saw the home team get beat handily. Thankfully, in this case the Lions were not involved in this one-sided affair favoring the road team, as the Minnesota Vikings were the ones that suffered a 21-3 loss to the Giants at Ford Field.
With the Metrodome's roof collapsing, Ford Field became the Vikings' home for tonight. Their logo was painted at midfield and "Vikings" was spelled out in the end zones. Minnesota's cheerleaders made the trip to the game, as did Ragnar, its mascot.
Approximately 46,000 people showed up for the game, according to the official attendance. According to some people who were at the game, the number was much higher than that, but whatever the case it was a strong showing for Detroit-area football fans. They got to take in a non-Lions game for free (unless they were forced to buy a ticket because of the dbags that scalped the freebies) and got to have a good time without worrying about which team was winning.
Perhaps the most memorable thing about this game is that Brett Favre did not play. He was inactive, snapping a streak of 297 consecutive starts for No. 4. It looks like his career could be coming to an end, and at this point it seems unlikely that Favre will play in a few weeks when Minnesota returns to Ford Field to take on the Lions in the season finale for both teams. I suppose you should never say never with Favre, but I just have a tough time seeing a situation where he comes back from his shoulder injury.
The next NFL game currently scheduled to be played at Ford Field is Detroit's aforementioned season finale against the Vikings on Jan. 2. It's always possible the Vikings could be playing here in Detroit again next Sunday, though, as it's unlikely that the Metrodome will be even remotely close to being ready to host a football game. If the Vikings decide to not move the game to TCF Bank Stadium (the University of Minnesota's home field), then I'd bet on them coming back to Detroit next Sunday.