Something to watch as Monday approaches
By now, you’ve almost certainly heard or seen something about the wildfires that are raging across southern California. They started yesterday and went through the night fueled by the hot, dry Santa Ana winds and the resulting fires have been incredibly destructive so far. Above all else, we want to send our thoughts and prayers to all of those people in the area that are being affected by the fires.
Far down on the list of priorities is the fact that Los Angeles is supposed to host an NFL playoff game on Monday night when the Minnesota Vikings head to SoFi Stadium to take on the NFC West champion Los Angeles Rams. There are obviously concerns with the fires happening now, both concerning the proximity of the fires to SoFi Stadium and potential issues with the air quality in the Los Angeles area.
NFL spokeman Brian McCarthy said on Wednesday that the National Football League is closely monitoring developments with the fires and is in contact with both the Vikings and the Rams as well as with the NFL Players Association.
This has raised the possibility that Monday’s game might need to be relocated. Obviously, there’s no chance that the game would get moved to Minnesota, as that would amount to punishing the Rams for something that isn’t their fault. If the game is moved, the most likely candidates would be Arizona or Las Vegas, I would assume, giving Rams fans at least a slightly better opportunity of getting to Monday’s game.
I’m not entirely sure how far in advance the league would have to pull the trigger on a decision to move Monday’s game. When the roof collapsed at the Metrodome back in 2010, the decision was made in relatively short order to move everything to Ford Field in Detroit, but that was a more spontaneous sequence of events. Given that this is also a playoff game with more complicated logistics, if the game does have to be moved I would expect that an announcement would come sometime soon.
We’ll keep monitoring the news to see if anyone says anything about Monday’s game being relocated
