Amid wildfires in Los Angeles, the Rams’ playoff hopes continue in Arizona

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  • Sarah Barshop, ESPN staff writerJanuary 13, 2025, 6:22 AM ET

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      Sarah Barshop covers the Los Angeles Rams for ESPN. She joined ESPN in 2016 to cover the Green Bay Packers for ESPN Milwaukee. She then moved to Houston to cover the Texans. She joined ESPN after working as a writer and editor for Sports Illustrated. You can follow her on Twitter @sarahbarshop.

TEMPE, Ariz. – When coach Sean McVay spoke to 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 lettering that read “BUILT FOR THIS.”

McVay used the message to illustrate the adversity his team has faced this season, none greater than the circumstances the Rams currently face as wildfires ravage the Los Angeles area, forcing the postponement of Monday’s game against the Vikings (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) /ABC).

“(McVay) gave us the reassurance and confidence to say we’ve already been through so much,” safety Quentin Lake said.

“For him to show that message, it was very empowering. And knowing that, I know the guys will be ready to go 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 to be played in a team’s home stadium, excluding Super Bowls. The other was the 1936 NFL Championship between the Green Bay Packers and former Boston Redskins, which was played at the Polo Grounds in New York due to low ticket sales at Fenway Park. A few days after the game, Boston’s franchise was moved to Washington.

For the Rams, the location of the game quickly became secondary to what has happened in their hometown, where three fires are burning and more than 12,300 structures have been destroyed from Sunday evening.

“There are some things bigger than football and we owe it to our community to make sure this game can be played safely and not be a distraction,” Rams team president Kevin Demoff said. “Him forbid a single home or car or God forbid a life was lost because some asset was diverted to SoFi Stadium. Or that a firefighter who has worked nonstop for 10 days had to stay on the front lines to cover for a firefighter who had to go to SoFi Stadium Or … there was a fire during the game and people get an evacuation message on their phone.

“It’s just not the right place to hold the game.”

THE FIRST FIRE began in Pacific Palisades Tuesday morning. With Santa Ana winds gusting up to 100 mph in some places, the fire grew to an announced 2,921 acres that night. On Tuesday night, another fire, the Eaton fire, started burning in Eaton Canyon and quickly spread to nearby Altadena and Pasadena.

On Wednesday night, several fires burned, including the Hurst and Sunset fires.

The Rams continued with their scheduled practice and media availability Thursday and said they had been monitoring air quality and had explored the possibility of moving their practice to SoFi Stadium if necessary.

That day at their practice facility in Woodland Hills, the Rams hoped they would be able to play Monday at SoFi Stadium and recreate what happened in 2018 — when they played on “Monday Night Football” in the wake 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 subside, get people to start returning to their homes, that having a game at SoFi Stadium would be an incredibly powerful healing experience and way to bring our community together in the same way Monday Night Football’s game was in 2018,” Demoff said.

While it would ultimately 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 set by the NFL and NFLPA.

Through Thursday morning, the organization believed it was on the right track with both brands. But shortly before the start of the Kenneth fire, which broke out in the West Hills area about 5 miles from the facility Thursday afternoon, “we had a conversation with local public safety officials and they started expressing doubts about whether they could adequately staff . the game,” Demoff said.

And more importantly for 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 play the game (at SoFi Stadium).”

After the public safety call, the Rams spoke with the league and recommended that 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 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 it was the right decision.”

RAMS OFFENSIVE TACKLE Rob Havenstein was on the practice field in Woodland Hills Thursday when a teammate pointed out the smoke from the Kenneth fire.

“You look up there and you think, ‘Oh man, another one,'” Havenstein said Friday. “And then you say, ‘Wait a minute. I live over there’.”

Havenstein doesn’t get cell service at his house, and the power had been out, so he had no way to contact anyone at his home about evacuation.

On the practice field, McVay explained the situation to the team and told the players that if they had to leave to check on someone, 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 father, who was at Havenstein’s home with his dogs and cat.

“I can’t reach her, so I get voicemail, voicemail, Find My Friends stuff, it doesn’t work because there’s no service up there,” Havenstein said. “So 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 getting the call that his family was safe. He turned and went back to training. 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 joined the team in Woodland Hills. McVay said he saw them both right when 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 too.”

During that practice 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 of the move before quickly informing their ticket staff.

Demoff said employees who work out of the franchise’s office in Agoura Hills were told at 3:00 PM PT about the change in plans and that they “need to start thinking about how we’re going to tell our season ticket members, start presales, do all that.”

“And then 15 minutes later, when they start working on it, they’re told, ‘You’ve got to get out of the building,'” Demoff said. “And it was terrifying.”

That afternoon and evening was a whirlwind as the Rams scheduled a Zoom call at 9pm 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 said it best: ‘Hope is not a strategy,'” Demoff said. “To see (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 them and having to make a choice between whether I should pay attention to a meeting, have to do I pay attention or do I care about my family? That’s an untenable position to put someone in.”

RAMS’ TRAVELS the Friday night party included 335 people and two dogs.

“We got Noah’s ark on the way to Arizona today,” tight end Tyler Higbee said 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 tour group to an away game. The Rams also brought in 100 people 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 will leave Sunday morning from SoFi Stadium and return after the game.

The Rams will be wearing LAFD hats and shirts on the sidelines during the game — as the Los Angeles Chargers did on Saturday prior to their 32-12 loss to the Houston Texans. The Rams will also hold a 50-50 raffle with proceeds going to the LAFD Foundation and the American Red Cross.

The Kroenke family, who own 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 help those affected by the fires.

Saturday morning a truck arrived at State Farm Stadium after a 1,500-mile journey from Leland, Mississippi, with 200 gallons of paint, mostly in Rams blue and yellow, for field use.

And even 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’ practice 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 walk into that building, it should be a place where you can drop everything at the door, where you don’t have to worry too much,” Turner said.

While Turner said the players and coaches had done a good job preparing for the Vikings under the circumstances, he admitted it felt nice to be able to “get away from all that stuff.”

“Just be present in the moment, (but) there’s nothing normal about practicing in the Cardinals’ facility and everything that’s going on,” wide receiver Cooper Kupp said.

“All the implications that go around, you still feel that, but at the end of the day it’s nice to go out here with the guys, have an assignment and have something to work for.”

And while the Los Angeles wildfires will no doubt be on their minds when 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.”