As the California wildfires continue, the NFL has moved the upcoming Wild Card Round game between the Rams and Vikings. The NFL announced that Monday’s game, which was intended to be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, has been relocated to State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals. The game is scheduled for the same start time.
In the statement, the NFL said the move was made “in the interest of public safety.” The statement also said the decision was made “in consultation with public officials, the participating clubs and the NFLPA.”
As NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero passes along, this will mark only the second time in league history that the NFL has had to change the location of a playoff game (excluding Super Bowls). The other instance happened in 1936, when the NFL had to move the Championship Game matchup between the Boston Redskins and Green Bay Packers from Fenway Park in Boston to the Polo Grounds in New York. This was due to owner George Preston Marshall’s dissatisfaction with local fan support, and it preceded the team’s move to Washington in 1937.
The NFL revealed their contingency plan earlier this week, with State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona representing the league’s targeted venue.
“The NFL’s priority is the safety of the Los Angeles community,” that previous statement read. “We are grateful for the tireless efforts of the first responders. Our hearts are with Los Angeles and everyone affected by the fires.”
According to ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry, the Rams canceled their post-practice locker room scrum today so players could tend to their families and homes. Several players and coaches live in the area of the active Kenneth fire.
Well Arizona is a part of the Tri State Area….why didn’t they move it to the Rams former home St Louis?
Cause the reason the rams left St. Louis was over a new stadium being built.
Because STL doesn’t have an NFL-caliber stadium. That’s why they left in the first place.
It also makes sense to give the Rams the best possible opportunity for a home-field advantage.
Obviously the game couldn’t happen anywhere too close to LA, and I get that Arizona makes sense, but kinda grotesque to move this game on account of the fires and move it to a stadium named for an insurance company that abruptly refused to renew home coverage in some of the areas hit hardest by the fires less than a year ago.
Incredibly tone deaf.
Hmm an insurance company won’t cover a flammable object that’s in a flammable area that was put in the same spot after another flammable object just burned down a year ago? Who would’ve thought?
It’s not like these are largely brand new homes burning down where their predecessors burnt down recently.
Maybe 3rd time will be the charm and they won’t rebuild there again now?
Again, these are not largely newly built homes burning down where their predecessors burnt down any time recently, but thanks for gracing me with your terrible personality.
Thanks for being incredibly tone def.
I hate State Farm, but if I were them, I wouldn’t insure any homes in the line of fire of deliberate governmental mismanagement.
As natural disasters become more intense and unpredictable, private insurance companies opting out of taking any real risk is going to screw over millions of people.
I wonder how many homes the federal government could rebuild that are destroyed due to natural disasters with the billions of dollars they’ve sent to Ukraine and other foreign nations the last 20 years or so.
Probably wouldnt even need private home owner insurance if our government was truly about supporting its citizens first.
Definitely feel like that as a home owner who pays taxes we should have government sponsored home owners insurance for times like these.
There is, it’s just not all that good. If only the government bailed out individuals the way it bailed out and subsidized corporations that still pay people off and use the money on stock buybacks.
We agree. Government is awful at money management.
See you down in Arizona Bay.
We love an Aenima reference.
*Aenema
Learn to swim
Somewhere Roger Goodwell is probably sulking because he wasn’t allowed to move the game to Mexico or Brazil 🙂
Somewhere Gary Bettman is trying to figure out how he can move a playoff game to Phoenix.
and the RT price for flights between Minneapolis and Phoenix literally doubled within minutes of the announcement.