ClutchPoints
On Monday evening, the Chicago Bears will kick off their 2025 season when they host the divisional rival Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football live from Soldier Field. The game will be a good opportunity for the team to showcase their supposed improvement under head coach Ben Johnson for a national audience.
Just one problem: the turf on Soldier Field is an absolute disaster with less than two hours remaining until kickoff.
“Several members of the field crew at Soldier Field are surveying the turf right now and placing a sand/seed mix in areas that need to be filled on the playing surface,” reported Courtney Cronin of ESPN on X, formerly Twitter. “The field was re-sodded after a stretch of five concerts at the end of August.”
Meanwhile, Chris Hawkeye of KFAN provided a look at the awful field conditions leading up to kickoff.
A look at the turf of @SoldierField from the @vikings booth pic.twitter.com/GhQHjMmisU
— Chris Hawkey (@Chris_Hawkey) September 8, 2025
The one thing the Bears certainly don’t want to have happen is to showcase their organization’s incompetence in having an unplayable field in front of a national audience on Monday night despite having an extra day to prepare for the game.
Assuming the hard workers at Soldier Field do indeed get the turf conditions under control, the Bears will have a big opportunity to make an early-season statement against a Minnesota Vikings team that won 14 games a year ago.
As previously mentioned, Chicago hired former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to be their new head coach this offseason, and the hope is that Johnson will help rising sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams eliminate some of the erratic parts of his game while still keeping the skills that allowed him to be the number one overall draft pick last year.
They’ll have to do so against a tough Vikings defense that was among the league’s best units a year ago. Of course, fixing the turf will also be crucial in preventing potential non-contact injuries for both teams.
In any case, the Bears and Vikings are scheduled to kick things off at 8:20 PM ET from Soldier Field in Chicago.
The post Soldier Field crew scrambling to conquer dastardly turf monster before Bears-Vikings game appeared first on ClutchPoints.
