On Thursday night, the NFL made the decision that the Wild Card playoff game for Monday night between the Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota Vikings — supposed to be played in L.A. — would instead take place at State Farm Stadium in Arizona because of the wildfires in southern California.
From there, the huge logistical lift began between the league and multiple NFL organizations to pull off a playoff game in a different place, all with the backdrop of devastation a few hundred miles to the west.
“It’s one of those deals that almost doesn’t feel real, but it certainly is real to the people that are affected,” Rams coach Sean McVay said on Thursday. “It’s one of those deals that gives you perspective. And so hopefully (we) get this stuff under control. It’s been a unique week. Fortunately for us, there’s been some people that have been affected in regards to outages, recommended evacuation. A couple of our staff members did have their homes affected. But fortunately, to my knowledge, nobody has been injured, and for that we are grateful.”
The Rams were to leave Los Angeles after practice on Friday, with the plan to practice and use the Cardinals’ facilities at the Dignity Health Training Center in Tempe on Saturday.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, engaged their entire organization, running multiple meetings with their counterparts with the Rams to set up Monday as close to a home game as can be accomplished in the short window and offering support in all aspects.
That included the Cardinals sending two of their Boeing 777 airliners from Gridiron Air to California to pick up the Rams players, coaches, staff and families — around 350 people — and bring them to Arizona.
“Many thanks to the #AZCardinals, Michael Bidwill and his family for jumping in to help ahead of Monday’s game,” Rams president Kevin Demoff said in a message over X (formerly Twitter.)
