So the Strib's Judd Zulgad has a speculative (but fun!) piece on the Vikes playing on Thanksgiving in 2010. Given the horridness of this year's games, we can only hope.
As Judd notes, Vikes can only play in the NFL Network's night game (which would be broadcast over-the-air here). That's because Detroit has to play an AFC team (for CBS to have the rights); Dallas is set for the Metrdome.
As NFL nerds know, the league schedule is all-but-set years in advance. Your team rotates through an AFC and NFC division each year -- this year, the Vikes have the NFC West and AFC North. Next year, it's the NFC and AFC Easts. The only two games not set in stone: one each against NFC divisions you don't play; there, you face the team that finished in the same place you did.
So who would Brett Favre face if he returns in 2010? Here's the list, via the
Johnny Roadtrip blog (which, by the way, has all the teams and out years, theoretically through 2017):
HOMEDallas
Giants
Buffalo
Miami
Arizona (not set, but they'll win NFC West)
AWAYNew England
Jets
Philly
Washington
New Orleans (all-but-certain NFC South winners)
In other words, next year is much tougher, at least in the crystal ball. I count three road games you'd fear -- Patriots, Iggles, Saints - and the only home game that looks cake-walky is Buffalo. That adds up to seven. Going into this year, there were only five nerve-wrackers (Steelers, Ravens, Panthers, Cardinals, Giants).
That's the virtue of playing the NFC West, which we don't get again until 2012, when Zygi's L.A. Vikings may be in that division, for all I know.