Los Angeles Rams embrace their role as a beacon of light for their fire-ravaged home city

When disaster strikes and people are hurting, sports can seem so small and unimportant. In the grand scheme of things, a game on a field or court is nothing compared to the task of losing a loved one or rebuilding a life after losing it all.

When disaster strikes and people are hurting, sports can seem so small and unimportant. In the grand scheme of things, a game on a field is nothing compared to the task of losing a loved one or rebuilding a life after losing it all. But the magic of games is that they can be a salve on painful wounds. A team can become a city’s light in a dark time. In sports-mad Los Angeles, the Rams are embracing that role as wildfires sweep across Southern California. “All you guys did – you represented exactly what we wanted to be about, men. A city that’s f**king going through a lot of different stuff that can look to you guys and say, ‘I’m proud of that group,’” head coach Sean McVay told the team in the locker room after a stirring win over the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card round of the playoffs. On the field, the Rams’ challenge gets steeper on Sunday when they play the NFC East champion Eagles on the road in Philadelphia. Off the field, it’s hard to imagine a team playing through a more difficult circumstance. Players and coaches, including McVay, have had to evacuate their homes. One of the fires began only miles from the organization’s practice facility in Woodland Hills, California. And in the interest of safety, the NFL moved the team’s game against the Vikings from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, to State Farm Stadium outside Phoenix, turning what would have been a home playoff game into a neutral site contest in which both Rams and Vikings fans turned out in big numbers. Team president Kevin Demoff said on X that team staff did their best to make it feel like a home game, arriving days ahead of time to install graphics. The Rams also arranged buses from SoFi Stadium to bring LA season ticket members down to the Valley of the Sun for the game. He also reposted a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter on X that said the Arizona Cardinals sent two planes to pick up the Rams’ players, coaches, personnel, families and pets and bring them to Glendale for the game.