TEMPE, Ariz. — As coach Sean McVay addressed the Los Angeles Rams — the day after the NFL introduced it was shifting the workforce’s dwelling playoff sport in opposition to the Minnesota Vikings to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona — he held up a paperweight.
It was white with black letters that learn “BUILT FOR THIS.”
McVay used the message as an example the adversity his workforce has confronted this season, none of it larger than the circumstances the Rams are at present going through as wildfires ravage the Los Angeles space, forcing the relocation of Monday’s sport in opposition to the Vikings (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC).
“[McVay] gave us the reassurance and the boldness to say that we have been via a lot already,” security Quentin Lake mentioned.
“For him to indicate that message, it was very empowering. And realizing that, I do know the fellows are going to be able to go come Monday evening as a result of, like I mentioned and like he mentioned, we’re constructed for it.”
The change in venue is nearly unprecedented. According to ESPN Research, this would be the second playoff sport in NFL historical past not performed at a workforce’s dwelling stadium, excluding Super Bowls. The different was the 1936 NFL championship sport between the Green Bay Packers and former Boston Redskins, which was performed on the Polo Grounds in New York due to low ticket gross sales at Fenway Park. A number of days after the sport, Boston’s franchise was moved to Washington.
For the Rams, the sport’s location shortly turned secondary to what has been taking place of their dwelling metropolis, the place three fires burn and greater than 12,300 buildings have been destroyed as of Sunday evening.
“There’s some issues larger than soccer, and we owe this to our neighborhood to guarantee that this sport might be performed safely and never be a distraction,” Rams workforce president Kevin Demoff mentioned. “Heaven forbid a single dwelling or automotive, or God forbid, a human life was misplaced as a result of some asset was diverted to SoFi Stadium. Or {that a} firefighter who’s been working nonstop for 10 days needed to keep on the entrance line to cowl for a firefighter who needed to go to SoFi Stadium. Or … a fireplace get away through the sport and other people get an evacuation discover on their telephone.
“It’s simply not the precise place to be holding the sport.”
THE FIRST FIRE started in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday morning. With the Santa Ana winds gusting as much as 100 mph in locations, the fireplace grew to an introduced 2,921 acres that evening. On Tuesday night, a second fireplace, the Eaton fireplace, began burning in Eaton Canyon and shortly unfold to close by Altadena and Pasadena.
By Wednesday night, a number of extra fires have been burning, together with the Hurst and Sunset fires.
The Rams continued with their scheduled apply and media availability on Thursday, saying that they had been monitoring the air high quality and had explored the opportunity of shifting their practices to SoFi Stadium if vital.
That day at their apply facility in Woodland Hills, the Rams have been hopeful they might have the ability to play Monday at SoFi Stadium and re-create what occurred in 2018 — once they performed on “Monday Night Football” within the aftermath of the Woolsey fire and beat the Kansas City Chiefs. The workforce invited first responders to that sport to honor their efforts.
“We knew that if we may simply get the fires to settle down, get folks to begin to return their houses, that having a sport at SoFi Stadium could be an unbelievably highly effective therapeutic expertise and technique to carry our neighborhood collectively the identical manner the ‘Monday Night Football’ sport was in 2018,” Demoff mentioned.
While in the end it might be the NFL’s determination to maneuver the sport to Arizona, there have been two standards the Rams have been monitoring forward of Monday evening: Whether the sport might be performed safely and whether or not the air high quality could be inside the threshold decided by the NFL and the NFLPA.
Through Thursday morning, the group believed it was heading in the right direction with each marks. But shortly earlier than the beginning of the Kenneth fireplace, which broke out within the West Hills space about 5 miles from the power on Thursday afternoon, “We had a dialog with native public security officers they usually started to specific doubt about whether or not they may adequately employees the sport,” Demoff mentioned.
And extra importantly to Demoff, he mentioned, “You may hear the ache, the battle of their voices.
And it was fairly clear that the precise factor to do was to not play the sport [at SoFi Stadium].”
After that public security name, the Rams spoke to the league and advisable the sport be moved. While the NFL had initially needed to attend till Saturday morning to decide based mostly on the standing of the fires, it shortly turned clear that an earlier determination was wanted.
“We’re holding 500 rooms for the Minnesota Vikings and NFL officers and our workforce for the sport,” Demoff mentioned. “That room can go to evacuees in the event you make this determination now. And this was the precise determination.”
RAMS OFFENSIVE TACKLE Rob Havenstein was standing on the apply area in Woodland Hills on Thursday when a teammate identified the smoke from the Kenneth fireplace.
“You search for there and you are like, ‘Oh man, one other one,'” Havenstein mentioned on Friday. “And then you definately’re like, ‘Wait a second. I stay over there.'”
Havenstein would not get cell service at his home, and the facility had been out, so he had no manner of getting in contact with anybody at his dwelling about evacuation.
On the apply area, McVay defined the scenario to the workforce and informed the gamers in the event that they wanted to go away to test on anybody, they may.
Havenstein ran out to the car parking zone, nonetheless in his cleats, to make calls. His spouse was of their neighborhood, so he could not attain her or his dad, who was at Havenstein’s dwelling alongside together with his canine and cat.
“I can not attain her, so I’m getting voicemail, voicemail, Find My Friends factor, that is not working as a result of it is no service up there,” Havenstein mentioned. “So simply type of made a break up determination that it is simply one thing I could not go away to likelihood.”
Havenstein obtained into his automotive and began driving dwelling earlier than he obtained the decision that his household was secure. He circled and went again to apply. The Rams then canceled media availability to permit gamers and employees to get dwelling shortly. Some left, whereas others had their households meet them on the workforce facility.
Havenstein was considered one of a number of gamers and coaches whose houses have been a part of the evacuation zone for the Kenneth fireplace. McVay’s household — his spouse, Veronika, and son, Jordan — additionally needed to evacuate and got here to the workforce facility in Woodland Hills. McVay mentioned he noticed them each proper as he got here off the apply area.
“That was all I wanted,” he mentioned. “As quickly as I knew Veronika and Jordan have been good, I used to be good as effectively.”
During that apply on Thursday, the league formally determined to maneuver the sport from SoFi Stadium to State Farm Stadium. The Rams knowledgeable their gamers, coaches and employees and the Vikings in regards to the relocation earlier than shortly informing the their ticket employees.
Demoff mentioned the staffers, who work out of the franchise’s workplace in Agoura Hills, have been informed at 3 p.m. PT of the change in plans and that they “must begin to get within the mindset of how we’ll inform our season-ticket members, begin to presale, do all of that.”
Thanks for opening your doorways to us, @AZCardinals. 🫶 pic.twitter.com/9zgyUabQdk
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) January 12, 2025
“And then quarter-hour later as they’re beginning to work on that, they’re informed, ‘You’ve obtained to get out of the constructing,'” Demoff mentioned. “And that was scary.”
That afternoon and night have been a whirlwind, because the Rams scheduled a Zoom name for 9 p.m. PT with gamers and their households to speak in regards to the journey to Phoenix.
“There was no manner we have been going to take gamers and employees with out their households,” Demoff mentioned.
The Rams may have practiced at dwelling on Friday and Saturday earlier than flying to Phoenix, however they determined to go away for Phoenix on Friday evening after apply.
“[Vice president of football and business administration] Tony Pastoors put it greatest: ‘Hope isn’t a method,'” Demoff mentioned. “Watching [Thursday] in the midst of apply when all hell broke free, these gamers cannot focus. And they can not focus with their households behind and having them have to choose between do I concentrate in a gathering, do I concentrate or do I fear about my household? That’s an untenable place to place anyone in.”
THE RAMS’ TRAVELING celebration on Friday evening comprised 335 folks and two canine.
“We obtained Noah’s ark going over to Arizona at this time,” tight finish Tyler Higbee quipped on Friday after apply.
Arizona Cardinals proprietor Michael Bidwill let the Rams borrow two of his planes to assist take a bigger group than their common journey celebration for an away sport. The Rams additionally introduced in 100 folks on Sunday — together with their mascot, Rampage, and cheerleaders — to make the setting really feel as very similar to SoFi Stadium as doable.
The Rams obtained a variety of assist from the Cardinals, who opened their apply facility and helped put together State Farm Stadium for the sport.
While it will not bodily be a house sport for the NFC West champions, the workforce is doing the most effective it might to make it really feel like one. The Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford‘s spouse, Kelly, organized free charter buses for season-ticket holders and followers. They’ll go away on Sunday morning from SoFi Stadium and return after the sport.
The Rams will likely be sporting LAFD hats and shirts on the sideline through the sport — because the Los Angeles Chargers did Saturday forward of their 32-12 loss to the Houston Texans. The Rams will even maintain a 50-50 raffle with the proceeds going to the LAFD Foundation and American Red Cross.
The Kroenke household, which owns the Rams, donated $1 million to the LAFD Foundation. The Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans, Vikings and the NFL Foundation additionally donated $1 million every to assist native organizations aiding these affected by the fires.
On Saturday morning, a truck arrived at State Farm Stadium after a 1,500-mile journey from Leland, Mississippi, carrying 200 gallons of paint, principally in Rams blue and yellow, to make use of on the sphere.
And although the Rams are the house workforce, McVay requested to make use of the visiting locker room due to their familiarity with it. As a member of the NFC West, Los Angeles performs in Glendale as soon as a season.
On Saturday, the Rams practiced on the Cardinals’ coaching facility in Tempe, Arizona. After two days of apply, being in Arizona allowed the workforce to “have a transparent thoughts,” defensive finish Kobie Turner mentioned. Being in Woodland Hills, Turner mentioned, “was very eerie” with the smoke seen from the sphere.
“The greatest manner I can put it’s, while you step into that constructing, it is purported to be a spot the place you may drop the whole lot on the door, the place you do not have to fret about an excessive amount of,” Turner mentioned.
While Turner mentioned the gamers and coaches had finished an excellent job getting ready for the Vikings amid the circumstances, he admitted it felt good to have the ability to “get away from all of these issues.”
“Just be current at this second, [but] there’s nothing regular about training within the Cardinals’ facility and the whole lot that is occurring,” extensive receiver Cooper Kupp mentioned.
“All the implications which can be going round, you continue to really feel that, however on the finish of the day, it is good to go be out right here with the fellows, have a process and have one thing to work for.”
And whereas the wildfires in Los Angeles will little question be on their minds as they play the Vikings on Monday evening, the Rams have additionally made it clear they know they’ve an necessary sport to play.
“At the top of the day, it is a playoff sport,” Turner mentioned. “And you aren’t getting too many of those.”
