The wildfires that have ravaged the L.A. area have forced thousands to evacuate their homes. Rams coach Sean McVay and his family were among those who were required to leave.
“Here’s what it’s like,” McVay told reporters on Friday. “As soon as I knew that my wife and little boy were good — you don’t ever want that to happen, but if it did, those things can be replaced. Fortunately, they got those things under control, but as soon as I got off the practice field and because of where they were, I saw them right away. That was all I needed. It felt a lot more real — I don’t want to say that because you don’t want to minimize how important and how many people were affected, but when you can start to see it physically as the smoke rose up yesterday, there was a lot of guys that live in proximity and that hits home in a different way. As soon as I knew Veronica and Jordan were good, I was good as well.”
Through it all, the Rams have a playoff game to prepare for. They left for Arizona today. They face the Vikings at State Farm Stadium on Monday night. McVay explained how the team is balancing the personal situation against the upcoming competition.
“I think you acknowledge the personal stuff first and foremost [and] make sure guys are good,” McVay said. “Once you’re able to address and be aware of that, now let’s focus on what we can control in terms of being totally and completely present, having the right sense of urgency and enjoyment with our preparation. Like I was saying earlier, the biggest thing was as soon as I knew my wife and son were good — you certainly never want that to happen and you empathize with the amount of people that have been affected, but you do realize that the people are the most important thing and all the other stuff is replaceable if worst case scenario came to fruition. Not to fruition, but if it came to life.”
McVay praised the league for doing the right thing by moving the game, and he expressed appreciation to the Cardinals for opening their facilities to the Rams.
“What a unique circumstance, what a unique situation, but I do believe that this group has handled it as well as you could. Fortunately, nobody’s been injured in the process of everything that’s gone on,” McVay said.
While the catastrophic fires have created a major disruption, situations like this often result in the game becoming the escape, with players throwing themselves into the opportunity to get away from the stress of recent days and embrace a few hours of normalcy.
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