Vikings playoff game against the Rams moved to the Phoenix area because of wildfires in Los Angeles

The NFL relocated the Vikings' playoff game Monday night against the Rams to Glendale, Ariz., because of multiple wildfires that are burning out of control in the Los Angeles area.

“In the interest of public safety, Monday’s Vikings-Rams Wild Card game has been moved from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA to State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals,” the NFL announced Thursday night. “The decision was made in consultation with public officials, the participating clubs and the NFLPA.”

The game remains at its scheduled time of 7 p.m. Central on Monday.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public at 2 p.m. Central on Friday through Seatgeek.com. Rams season ticket holders will have the opportunity to buy tickets two hours earlier.

The NFL has relocated games before because of natural disasters or severe weather, but this is just the second playoff game to be moved to a different city. The first was in 1936, when the NFL Championship between Boston and Green Bay moved from Fenway Park to New York’s Polo Grounds to improve attendance.

Earlier Thursday, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, who grew up near San Diego and spent two years as the Rams offensive coordinator, was asked about the possibility of the game being relocated and said, “We’ll just be going to play the football game regardless of where our plane lands.”

The ongoing wildfires have killed seven people and displaced nearly 200,000 residents. Hundreds of thousands of customers were without power as of Thursday night.

“You feel helpless watching it from here and know how many people are being impacted,” O’Connell said. “Southern California I hold near and dear to my heart and have some friends that have lost homes and you just think about the impact it has on so many.”

O’Connell attended La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad, Calif., before playing quarterback for San Diego State. The recent fires “feel different,” O’Connell said, than the many seasonal wildfires that blaze through those areas. He recalled playing his last game for the Aztecs in 2007 against BYU, a game that had been postponed five weeks because of a wildfire.

O’Connell said he also connected this week with Rams head coach Sean McVay, who is among the people O’Connell is closest with from his time with that team.

“Just because I know about where he lives and a lot of those guys that I had relationships with live [in] the area we’re talking about,” O’Connell said. “I’ve had some dialogue with folks that lost everything, and there’s really no words you can say other than you’re thinking about them, praying for them, and you just hope things start to turn here.”

Quarterback Sam Darnold grew up in Orange County and starred at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Vikings safety Camryn Bynum has played in wildfire smoke before in California. During his freshman year at Cal in 2017, Bynum’s Golden Bears beat then-No. 8 Washington State when the air quality index reached a smoky 159 before kickoff because of fires north of Berkeley. Officials at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District later said the game shouldn’t have been played.

“You couldn’t see to the other side of the stadium,” Bynum said.

The Rams sent their players and staff home early on Thursday because a new fire broke out where many of them live near the team’s practice facility in Woodland Hills.

SoFi Stadium is about 15 miles southeast of the biggest fire in Pacific Palisades and it has a roof, but it’s open on three sides. Concerns over air quality and the allocation of public resources seemed to compel the move.

A few hours before the game was relocated, McVay told reporters: “We would like to be able to play the game at home in front of our fans. That’s the way that we’re operating, but I can’t control when that decision will be made. ... If it’s not in LA, then the game will still be played, and we’ve got to be able to get ready for that.”