Jackson to play on Monday:

[VC15]

Jackson: Knee not 100 percent, but good enough for Monday:

espn.com

Tarvaris Jackson says his injured right knee, which he sprained during the preseason, is not yet back to 100 percent. But that's not enough to keep him off the field when his Minnesota Vikings open the NFL season against the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.

"I'm playing Monday regardless," he told reporters on Tuesday.

Jackson sprained the medial collateral ligament in his right knee against Baltimore on Aug. 16 and did not play in the Vikings' remaining preseason games.

But he practiced Tuesday and says the knee feels much better. Whether he will wear a knee brace will depend on how he feels at game time, he said.

"Nobody is 100 percent," Jackson said. "Once the season starts the only day you're probably 100 percent is the first day of training camp. After that, you're going to have nicks and bruises and stuff like that."


The Vikings have enough confidence about Jackson's knee that coach Brad Childress couldn't resist having some fun with the situation in his briefing with reporters on Tuesday.

"Scouting report-wise, he's looking like a pirate with a wooden leg right now, out there moving around," Childress joked. "He's kind of making spot throws and standing in one place. He really has no movement skills to speak of at all. It looks like he has cement shoes on."

Later, a more serious Childress said he is not too concerned about Jackson's mobility.