How the NFL kept Vikings vs. Rams playoff game out of Los Angeles fires

Matthew Giacelli got the phone call he was expecting Thursday morning. With wildfires raging in Los Angeles, the NFL moved the Rams' playoff game to Arizona, and the league needed 200 gallons of paint right away.

Monday's game between the Rams and the Minnesota Vikings will be held at State Farm Stadium outside Phoenix, and it will have to look and feel like it would be played at SoFi Stadium, the Rams' usual home. I had to. This included painting the field with team and league logos and colors. But the home Cardinals didn't have some of the necessary shades on hand, including the Rams' blue and yellow.

Giacelli's company, World Class Athletic Surfaces, in Leland, Michigan, provides paint for most NFL teams and top college teams. Within hours, he and his colleagues loaded five-gallon buckets of nine custom paint colors and a stencil of the NFL playoff logo into a truck and set off on a 1,500-mile trip to Arizona on Thursday afternoon.

“It's really unfortunate what's happening in California, but we're happy to be able to meet their needs,” said Giacchelli, vice president of production and distribution.

Ensuring proper paint coverage is the result of hundreds of details that have been coordinated by the league, the Rams, Vikings, host Arizona Cardinals and ASM Global, which operates State Farm Stadium, since the NFL decided to change the wild-card round games. It's just one of the things.

In recent years, the NFL has canceled preseason games and postponed or postponed regular season games due to hurricanes, snowstorms and other disasters. However, there had not been a winner-take-all playoff showdown since 1936, when the championship game was moved from Boston to New York to increase ticket sales.

Massive numbers of people were mobilized at short notice, from front office employees to training staff to thousands of game-day employees. Each game, especially the playoffs, generated tens of millions of dollars in profits for television networks, advertisers and stadium operators, and with the season in its final weeks, there was little margin for error.

“If you can play, you play, and in this case, you can play in Glendale,” said Joe Buck, who will call the game on ESPN on Monday. “We're in the playoffs right now, and the pressure is on to finish this first round before Kansas City and Detroit, who got byes in the first round, come back.”

Scarcity is a big reason why the NFL is the most valuable league in the world. With 272 regular season games and only 13 playoff games, each game is very important for the 32 teams. (By contrast, Major League Baseball plays about 400 games each month during the season.) Not only for the owners of these teams and leagues, but also for the broadcast networks, sponsors, and other companies that spend billions of dollars a year. , these matches are very important. To connect your business and brand to the NFL

Monday, less than a year after one of those companies, State Farm, announced it would not renew 30,000 homeowners policies and 42,000 commercial apartment policies in California. The fact that his name was featured on the nightly broadcast did not escape attention. (The NFL donated $5 million to Los Angeles relief efforts.)

With so much interest in each contest, the NFL does everything in its power to put on every game every year. When the league develops its season schedule each spring, it develops a contingency plan that includes alternate venues for each game. In 2022, when heavy snowfall hit Western New York, the Buffalo Bills played their home game at Ford Field in Detroit.

During the pandemic, the league was forced to postpone several games due to outbreaks in locker rooms, but none were cancelled. As the pandemic situation worsened in Santa Clara County, California, the San Francisco 49ers moved to Arizona for a month and played three home games at State Farm Stadium. Arizona was also the Chargers' backstop in 2003 when their home game against the Miami Dolphins was rescheduled due to the San Diego fires.

This time, the fire spread so quickly that the league decided to reschedule the game five days before kickoff. Rams President Kevin Demoff said the team was in constant communication with Los Angeles officials and initially thought the game could be held at Inglewood's SoFi Stadium, which was unaffected by the fire.

That all changed in midweek when a fire broke out near the team's training facility in Woodland Hills, forcing some players and staff to evacuate their homes and cutting one practice short. . Demoff said he didn't want players or staff to be distracted, and he didn't want city or county resources to be diverted to the game when they could be used to help those in need. .

The change to the game was “simply a recognition that there are some things bigger than football, and it's our duty to our community to make sure this game is played safely and without distractions.” ” Demoff said Friday.

ESPN also stopped broadcasting. Four of the production trucks were on their way from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles on Wednesday night when the league told networks the game could be moved to Glendale. Staff members spent the night in Kingman, Ariz., and planned to set up at both stadiums Thursday in case the league waits until Saturday to decide on a venue for the game. So a truck headed to Los Angeles and another truck left for Glendale. After the NFL announced the game change on Thursday, the first batch of trucks arriving in Ontario, California, turned around and arrived in Glendale with plenty of time to spare.

The Cardinals also helped the Rams in ways beyond just renting out their stadium. Team owner Michael Bidwill sent two team planes to Los Angeles to help the Rams transport entourage and equipment to Arizona.