Minnesota Vikings player Chad Greenway said he hoped fans are drunk while watching his team's Sunday game against the Chicago Bears, sparking controversy over his odd comment.

The Vikings currently stand at 6-6 and Sunday's game against the Bears (8-4) will be the turning point to break that tie. The Bears are tied with Green Bay atop the standings and the former beat the Vikings in Chicago two weeks ago. The fact that the game's kickoff is at 12 p.m. did not stop Greenway from encouraging viewers to have a drink beforehand.

"We have to play accordingly and our fans have to show up accordingly, which we know they will," Greenway said after Sunday's loss to Green Bay, 14-23. "Hopefully, they're super- duper drunk. ... So drink liquor, not beer."

"I would say morning drinking," he added. "Why not? You could pull an all-nighter. Then you'd have the drunk, tired guys who will really be obnoxious."

The 29-year-old on Thursday said in an interview with ESPN 1000 in Chicago that he may have went too far with the "drunk" comments, and that he only said it based on his college experience.

"Obviously, I could have used some more responsible words. I think the people that know me, the beat writers included, know that I said that sort of tongue-in-cheek," Greenway said. "I just wanted the fans at home to be loud like they always are. I played football at the University of Iowa and all I knew was that they started drinking at about 5 o'clock at those games for tailgating so I thought it would be OK to say it [but] obviously I just went a little far."

The Vikings go against the St. Louis Rams on Dec. 16 at 1 p.m. ET.

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Vikings, NFL.