Good morning from Arizona, where the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams have convened to conclude Wild Card Weekend tonight on Monday Night Football.
The Vikings (14-3) are the No. 5 seed and have more wins than any Wild Card participant ever, and the Rams (10-7) are the No. 4 seed as the NFC West Champions.
This game would have been in Los Angeles, but wildfires in the L.A. area prompted the relocation to the home of the Arizona Cardinals.
The winner of tonight’s game will visit Philadelphia in the Divisional Round.
The Vikings and Rams (and Chargers and Texans and NFL) worked together on a $5 million donation to help the recovery efforts, and I first want to pass along hopes that everyone affected will receive the support they need and be able to channel an inner strength, from the first responders who serve with courage to the victims who are rebuilding and repairing.
Very proud of being associated with [Vikings Owners] Mark and Zygi [Wilf] making the donation they did,” Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell said Saturday during his end-of-week press conference. “Everybody knows the effect, the impact that Southern California [had on me] and where I hold it near and dear to my heart. To know that our organization was so generous donating to something so important and so impactful, made me very proud to be associated with this team, as well as the Arizona Cardinals for what they’ve done opening up their home not only for the Rams but allowing us to have a pretty seamless transition to play a playoff game in Arizona.
“It’s been a lot of work, a lot of great work by a lot of people from the league to the Rams, to the Cardinals, and obviously a lot of our folks here in the house,” O’Connell added.
He made sure to mention Vikings Director of Team Operations Paul Martin and Vice President of Operations and Facilities Chad Lundeen and the ops staff “for making it easy on me to focus on football, knowing that they’ve made it seamless for us.”
“I think the league did a great job communicating throughout the week and working through that decision with the Rams and us to allow everybody to have total clarity so that we can make it about the game and most importantly as well just knowing that all those folks out in Southern California on our on our minds and in our hearts,” O’Connell said.
Personally, I’m always impressed with the Vikings ops staff and how skilled they are at navigating challenges and changes.
That group adjusted on the fly when the Week 18 game was slotted for the final game of the regular season. Because playoff matchups were not determined until Week 18, the group did due diligence to prepare if the Vikings wound up going to Los Angeles, Seattle, Tampa or Atlanta before responding to Thursday’s relocation of this game.