For the second time in just the first nine days of 2025, a major football game is moving due to unforeseen events.
The NFL announced Thursday that it is moving Monday’s Vikings-Rams NFC Wild Card Game from Los Angeles to Arizona due to the deadly wildfires affecting Los Angeles County. The game will remain in its Monday night window on ESPN/ABC.
The game will be the first modern NFL postseason contest relocated to another city, but not the first Monday Night Football game relocated to Arizona due to wildfires. In 2003, a Dolphins-Chargers Monday night game moved from San Diego to Arizona due to wildfires in San Diego County. That game is perhaps best remembered for then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger bellowing “Go Chargers Go” midfield pregame.
In what has been an inauspicious start to the new year, Vikings-Rams will be the second major football game in the first two weeks of 2025 rescheduled due to a local emergency. The Sugar Bowl was pushed back a day due to a New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14.
Beyond the football game, the Los Angeles wildfires have also resulted in the postponements of home games for the NHL Kings and NBA Lakers. The Lakers have only home games scheduled the next two weeks and the Clippers have several home games upcoming as well, making it possible that multiple games could be postponed. (The Kings are headed out onto a road trip and should be largely unaffected.)
Going back more than 30 years, the 1992 Los Angeles riots resulted in the Lakers and Clippers postponing playoff games and moving them out of the city. It is not clear whether moving games to another location — Las Vegas for example — is an option.
