GREEN BAY, Wis. 00 Mike McCarthy might be able to travel a little lighter than usual when the Green Bay Packers board the plane on Saturday for Minneapolis.

He can leave the headache medicine behind now that the Minnesota Vikings are no longer playing in the Metrodome.

"It definitely leads the away games for taking Advil after it," McCarthy said Wednesday.

McCarthy said he liked the Metrodome. And why wouldn't he? He was 5-3 in that building as the Packers head coach, including wins in three of their last four trips there. But few visitors enjoyed the noise, which teams long accused the Vikings of piping in through the speakers.

"The crowd noise, real and not so real, I thought really beats you up by the end of the day," McCarthy said. "But the environment in there was incredible. I mean, you think about all the Packer fans that are at the game, it was always exciting to play in the Metrodome. I definitely enjoyed it. I thought it was unique. It was a unique home-field advantage for the Vikings. I'm not going to say I've missed it, but I enjoyed playing there."

Count Packers guard Josh Sitton among those happy the Vikings are playing outdoors at TCF Bank Stadium while their new stadium is under construction.

"I don't enjoy dome games," Sitton said. "They're loud and the turf sucks, so I'm not going to miss the Metrodome at all."

But the Vikings brought some of the same game-day staples, including the horn.

"They still have that thing out there?" receiver Jordy Nelson said.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers joked: "It'll still be annoying, I'm sure."

Rodgers was more curious how Ragnar, the Vikings' human mascot, will ride his motorcycle on to the field like he did indoors.

"I'm just wondering how they're going to do it with the motorcycle Viking, if he's still going to be in full effect," Rodgers said. "Maybe they'll get a parade cart for him to come out on. I don't know if that's safer or not. If the field is pretty icy, he's just going to have to be careful revving that thing up too much."