TEMPE, Ariz. — As coach Sean McVay addressed the Los Angeles Rams — the day after the NFL announced it was moving the team’s home playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona — he held up a paperweight.
It was white with black letters that read “BUILT FOR THIS.”
McVay used the message to illustrate the adversity his team has confronted this season, none of it greater than the circumstances the Rams are currently facing as wildfires ravage the Los Angeles area, forcing the relocation of Monday’s game against the Vikings (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC).
“[McVay] gave us the reassurance and the confidence to say that we’ve been through so much already,” safety Quentin Lake said.
“For him to show that message, it was very empowering. And knowing that, I know the guys are going to be ready to go come Monday night because, like I said and like he said, we’re built for it.”
The change in venue is almost unprecedented. According to ESPN Research, this will be the second playoff game in NFL history not played at a team’s home stadium, excluding Super Bowls. The other was the 1936 NFL championship game between the Green Bay Packers and former Boston Redskins, which was played at the Polo Grounds in New York because of low ticket sales at Fenway Park. A few days after the game, Boston’s franchise was moved to Washington.
For the Rams, the game’s location quickly became secondary to what has been happening in their home city, where three fires burn and more than 12,300 structures have been destroyed as of Sunday night.
“There’s some things bigger than football, and we owe this to our community to make sure that this game can be played safely and not be a distraction,” Rams team president Kevin Demoff said. Heaven forbid a single home or car, or God forbid, a human life was lost because some asset was diverted to SoFi Stadium. Or that a firefighter who’s been working nonstop for 10 days had to stay on the front line to cover for a firefighter who had to go to SoFi Stadium. Or … a fire break out during the game and people get an evacuation notice on their phone.
“It’s just not the right place to be holding the game.”
THE FIRST FIRE began in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday morning. With the Santa Ana winds gusting up to 100 mph in places, the fire grew to an announced 2,921 acres that night. On Tuesday evening, a second fire, the Eaton fire, started burning in Eaton Canyon and quickly spread to nearby Altadena and Pasadena.
By Wednesday evening, several more fires were burning, including the Hurst and Sunset fires.
The Rams continued with their scheduled practice and media availability on Thursday, saying they had been monitoring the air quality and had explored the possibility of moving their practices to SoFi Stadium if necessary.
That day at their practice facility in Woodland Hills, the Rams were hopeful they would be able to play Monday at SoFi Stadium and re-create what happened in 2018 — when they played on “Monday Night Football” in the aftermath of the Woolsey fire and beat the Kansas City Chiefs. The team invited first responders to that game to honor their efforts.
“We knew that if we could just get the fires to calm down, get people to start to return their homes, that having a game at SoFi Stadium would be an unbelievably powerful healing experience and way to bring our community together the same way the ‘Monday Night Football’ game was in 2018,” Demoff said.
While ultimately it would be the NFL’s decision to move the game to Arizona, there were two criteria the Rams were monitoring ahead of Monday night: Whether the game could be played safely and whether the air quality would be within the threshold determined by the NFL and the NFLPA.
Through Thursday morning, the organization believed it was on the right track with both marks. But shortly before the start of the Kenneth fire, which broke out in the West Hills area about 5 miles from the facility on Thursday afternoon, “We had a conversation with local public safety officials and they began to express doubt about whether they could adequately staff the game,” Demoff said.
And more importantly to Demoff, he said, “You could hear the pain, the struggle in their voices.
And it was pretty clear that the right thing to do was not to play the game [at SoFi Stadium].”
After that public safety call, the Rams spoke to the league and recommended the game be moved. While the NFL had originally wanted to wait until Saturday morning to make a decision based on the status of the fires, it quickly became clear that an earlier decision was needed.
“We’re holding 500 rooms for the Minnesota Vikings and NFL officials and our team for the game,” Demoff said. “That room can go to evacuees if you make this decision now. And this was the right decision.”
RAMS OFFENSIVE TACKLE Rob Havenstein was standing on the practice field in Woodland Hills on Thursday when a teammate pointed out the smoke from the Kenneth fire.
“You look up there and you’re like, ‘Oh man, another one,'” Havenstein said on Friday. “And then you’re like, ‘Wait a second. I live over there.'”
Havenstein doesn’t get cell service at his house, and the power had been out, so he had no way of getting in touch with anyone at his home about evacuation.
On the practice field, McVay explained the situation to the team and told the players if they needed to leave to check on anyone, they could.
Havenstein ran out to the parking lot, still in his cleats, to make calls. His wife was in their neighborhood, so he couldn’t reach her or his dad, who was at Havenstein’s home along with his dogs and cat.
“I can’t reach her, so I’m getting voicemail, voicemail, Find My Friends thing, that’s not working because it’s no service up there,” Havenstein said. “So just kind of made a split decision that it’s just something I couldn’t leave to chance.”
Havenstein got into his car and started driving home before he got the call that his family was safe. He turned around and went back to practice. The Rams then canceled media availability to allow players and staff to get home quickly. Some left, while others had their families meet them at the team facility.
Havenstein was one of several players and coaches whose homes were part of the evacuation zone for the Kenneth fire. McVay’s family — his wife, Veronika, and son, Jordan — also had to evacuate and came to the team facility in Woodland Hills. McVay said he saw them both right as he came off the practice field.
“That was all I needed,” he said. “As soon as I knew Veronika and Jordan were good, I was good as well.”
During that practice on Thursday, the league officially decided to move the game from SoFi Stadium to State Farm Stadium. The Rams informed their players, coaches and staff and the Vikings about the relocation before quickly informing the their ticket staff.
Demoff said the staffers, who work out of the franchise’s office in Agoura Hills, were told at 3 p.m. PT of the change in plans and that they “need to start to get in the mindset of how we’re going to tell our season-ticket members, start to presale, do all of that.”
Thanks for opening your doors to us, @AZCardinals. 🫶 pic.twitter.com/9zgyUabQdk
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) January 12, 2025
And then 15 minutes later as they’re starting to work on that, they’re told, ‘You’ve got to get out of the building,'” Demoff said. “And that was scary.”
That afternoon and evening were a whirlwind, as the Rams scheduled a Zoom call for 9 p.m. PT with players and their families to talk about the trip to Phoenix.
“There was no way we were going to take players and staff without their families,” Demoff said.
The Rams could have practiced at home on Friday and Saturday before flying to Phoenix, but they decided to leave for Phoenix on Friday night after practice.
“[Vice president of football and business administration] Tony Pastoors put it best: ‘Hope is not a strategy,'” Demoff said. “Watching [Thursday] in the middle of practice when all hell broke loose, those players can’t focus. And they can’t focus with their families behind and having them have to make a choice between do I pay attention in a meeting, do I pay attention or do I worry about my family? That’s an untenable position to put anybody in.”
THE RAMS’ TRAVELING party on Friday night comprised 335 people and two dogs.
“We got Noah’s ark going over to Arizona today,” tight end Tyler Higbee quipped on Friday after practice.
Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill let the Rams borrow two of his planes to help take a larger group than their regular travel party for an away game. The Rams also brought in 100 people on Sunday — including their mascot, Rampage, and cheerleaders — to make the setting feel as much like SoFi Stadium as possible.
The Rams got a lot of help from the Cardinals, who opened their practice facility and helped prepare State Farm Stadium for the game.
While it won’t physically be a home game for the NFC West champions, the team is doing the best it can to make it feel like one. The Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford’s wife, Kelly, organized free charter buses for season-ticket holders and fans. They’ll leave on Sunday morning from SoFi Stadium and return after the game.
The Rams will be wearing LAFD hats and shirts on the sideline during the game — as the Los Angeles Chargers did Saturday ahead of their 32-12 loss to the Houston Texans. The Rams will also hold a 50-50 raffle with the proceeds going to the LAFD Foundation and American Red Cross.
The Kroenke family, which owns the Rams, donated $1 million to the LAFD Foundation. The Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans, Vikings and the NFL Foundation also donated $1 million each to help local organizations aiding those 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, mostly in Rams blue and yellow, to use on the field.
And though the Rams are the home team, McVay requested to use the visiting locker room because of their familiarity with it. As a member of the NFC West, Los Angeles plays in Glendale once a season.
On Saturday, the Rams practiced at the Cardinals’ training facility in Tempe, Arizona. After two days of practice, being in Arizona allowed the team to “have a clear mind,” defensive end Kobie Turner said. Being in Woodland Hills, Turner said, “was very eerie” with the smoke visible from the field.
“The best way I can put it is, when you step into that building, it’s supposed to be a place where you can drop everything at the door, where you don’t have to worry about too much,” Turner said.
While Turner said the players and coaches had done a good job preparing for the Vikings amid the circumstances, he admitted it felt nice to be able to “get away from all of those things.”
“Just be present at this moment, [but] there is nothing normal about practicing in the Cardinals’ facility and everything that’s going on,” wide receiver Cooper Kupp said.
“All the implications that are going around, you still feel that, but at the end of the day, it’s nice to go be out here with the guys, have a task and have something to work for.”
And while the wildfires in Los Angeles will no doubt be on their minds as they play the Vikings on Monday night, the Rams have also made it clear they know they have an important game to play.
“At the end of the day, it’s a playoff game,” Turner said. “And you don’t get too many of these.”
