With the NFL playoffs off to a great start, the first round was supposed to be concluded by a Monday night game in Los Angeles, with the LA Rams hosting the Minnesota Vikings at their home field, the SoFi Stadium. But, just days before, it was announced that the game would be relocated to the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
In early January 2025, LA faced unprecedented fires, causing chaos in its path. The fires devastate the city, as people lose their homes and face danger. Firefighters and others in the area are doing everything they can to help, but it is currently not safe to host sporting events due to the unsafe conditions in the area.
This brings us to the NFL playoffs. With the Rams’ good record, they earned themselves the right to home-field advantage, playing the first round against the Vikings. However, due to concerns about public safety, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced and explained in detail the high-level coordination needed to make a change.
The game was moved to the home field of the Rams’ division rivals, the Arizona Cardinals. Considering the situation, the Cardinals fans reconciled and welcomed the LA fans with open arms to their city, showing that this was more than a game.
Moving the game on such short notice is no small feat. The Cardinals dispatched two of their planes for the Rams team, along with the Rams using one of their own. The relocation came to have a total of 355 people, six dogs and two cats. It would be an understatement to call this short notice, as relocation was within 24 hours of the decision to move stadiums. The Cardinals did their best to make the Rams feel at home, even emptying 74 player lockers to load the Rams equipment. Rams star quarterback Matthew Stafford would have his equipment stored in the Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray’s locker. The next step was transforming the stadium itself to look as close to the Rams as possible. This is no easy task, as the Cardinals team colors are red and white, which is a theme that can be seen throughout State Farm Stadium, while the Rams are blue and gold.
“We have preparations for what we call contingency plans, [which] includes two stadiums every week, and this was a perfect fit as far as the location for the Los Angeles Rams fans,” said Goodell in an interview with ESPN.“I’m proud to say 45,000 of them made the trip over here, which is just extraordinary to me,” Goodell said.
The Cardinals turf manager arranged for 200 gallons of the Rams’ iconic blue and gold to adorn the field and end zones. The north end zone read “Los Angeles,” and the south “Rams,” with the team logo at midfield. The stencils were shipped from Los Angeles.
Games have been relocated before due to major events such as Covid-19 and other wildfires, but never for a postseason matchup. This is a big difference because teams are not only playing all season for a spot in the postseason, but they are instead playing for the home-field advantage. Ironically, the Rams would earn their home-field spot by beating the Arizona Cardinals in the final regular season game of the season. Playing away in the playoffs makes the game immensely harder because the higher the stakes, the louder the fans are. Out of the five playoff games played so far, the only team to win while playing away was the Washington Commanders.
Despite the chaotic turn of events, everyone’s thoughts are on the people in Los Angeles. The Rams are among many other teams donating to the relief efforts.
“For us, at least we know how we can help,” Rams Chief Executive Kevin Demoff said. “We can put on the best entertainment we can to provide the distraction and bring the city together for three hours.”
The Rams came out victorious with a score of 27-9, not only winning their spot in the next round of playoffs but also winning for the city of Los Angeles.
To support the people affected by the 2025 California wildfires, visit redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767), or text the word CAWILDFIRES to 90999 to donate. Your gift enables the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to, and help people recover from these disasters.
