The NFL has moved Monday’s wild-card playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams to Arizona, it announced Thursday night, saying the decision was made in the interest of public safety as wildfires continue to ravage Southern California.
The game was originally scheduled to take place at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium in Inglewood at 8 p.m. on Monday. It now will be played at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals, at the same time Monday.
The league had said earlier this week that Arizona would be the contingency plan if Monday’s game had to be moved. In a statement Thursday, it said it came to the decision to go ahead with that move after “consultation with public officials, the participating clubs and the NFLPA.”
A few hours earlier, another fire broke out in an area several miles from the Rams’ training complex in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, leading the team to cancel its scheduled player media availability.
The league’s other Los Angeles-based team, the Chargers, also are readying for a playoff game this weekend, although they play on the road against the Houston Texans on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Both the Rams and Chargers practiced outdoors Thursday.
Smoke was visible from the field at the Rams team facility, and coach Sean McVay said while players, coaches and staff have been affected by the fires, “fortunately to my knowledge, nobody has been injured. And for that we’re grateful.”
The Chargers held their final practice ahead of Saturday’s game. The scene was dystopian at their facility in El Segundo: The skies were burnt orange, ashes flew around the field and many players, including outside linebacker Khalil Mack, tackle Joe Alt and quarterback Taylor Heinicke, wore masks.
The Chargers do not have an indoor practice facility. Coach Jim Harbaugh said he followed the suggestions of “experts” in altering practice, so players were outside for roughly 45 minutes, which is half the typical time they practice outside. Harbaugh said they didn’t consider flying to Houston early and practicing there.
“Our guys did a great job with improvising and adjusting,” he said. “And really, we were able to get as close as we possibly could to what a normal practice would look like.”
Harbaugh also said that his daughter Grace evacuated from her home in the Hollywood area Wednesday night and is staying with him.
Outside linebacker Joey Bosa said he lives close to an evacuation zone and his fiancée and dog went to Houston early. Bosa said he slept with his phone notifications on loud Wednesday night in case he would have to evacuate.
“Hoping when I get back to LA, I have a house to go to,” Bosa said.
Speaking before the NFL announced the location change for Monday’s game, Vikings defensive lineman Harrison Phillips, the team’s player representative to the NFLPA, said the league should be conscious of the optics of playing the game in Los Angeles, juxtaposing it with the NBA postponing the Lakers’ game against the Hornets scheduled for Thursday night in downtown Los Angeles. Phillips noted that the Lakers play in an indoor facility, and SoFi is an open-air stadium.
“When a hurricane hits a certain location, or if a tornado came through and devastated a community, you want to be very cautious of the optics.,” he said. “And again, I strictly say this from a human standpoint, not as a Minnesota Viking who wants a better competitive advantage. That’s not where it’s coming from.”
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, who is from the San Diego area, said he reached out to McVay to show support.
“There’s really no words you can say other than you’re thinking about them, praying for them, and just hoping that things start to turn here,” O’Connell said.
The Vikings, who opened as a 2.5-point favorite at ESPN BET but saw the line fall to -1, again are favored by 2.5 points after the announcement to move the game from Los Angeles to Arizona.
Information from ESPN’s Sarah Barshop, Kris Rhim and Kevin Seifert was used in this report.