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    Why Are the Rams and Vikings Playing in Arizona? The Tragic Reason Why the NFL Moved the Wild Card Game

    The Vikings and Rams are playing a Wild Card game in Arizona -- the NFL moved the game due to the devastating wildfires in California.

    The Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams are playing their Wild Card game on Monday night in Arizona. The switch to a neutral-site game became a necessary contingency plan amid the devastating wildfires affecting Southern California.

    The two teams will face off at State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals.

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    Tragedy Strikes Southern California Causing Wild Card Game To Be Moved to Arizona

    This is the second time in the history of the NFL that a playoff game was moved to a neutral site. The first time was in 1936 when Boston could not sell enough tickets for the NFL Championship.

    ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported earlier in the week that the Cardinals have lent two of the team’s planes to the Rams. They have also made their practice facility available. They gave the Rams a set of keys and carte blanche to use whatever they needed.

    Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell knows even though it is a neutral-site game, the stadium will be filled with mostly Rams fans. Reportedly, Rams fans have been buying up all the tickets, and they will be well-represented.

    O’Connell prepared his team for a road playoff game. Whether they play the game in Los Angeles or Glendale, they are still on the road and away from home.

    “Like we’ve said all along, we’re getting on a plane to go play a road playoff game and our fans travel well,” O’Connell said Saturday.

    This is almost the second playoff game the Vikings are playing. Last Sunday night, they traveled to Detroit to play the Lions. The winner got the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Minnesota lost, but they learned how to play a must-win game in a hostile environment right before the playoffs.

    “We know that. We’ve seen that all season long and we’ve got to go into it knowing that the environment and the circumstances, especially coming off of last Sunday (at Detroit) where we got to feel it at a pretty significant level and work through it,” O’Connell said. “Hopefully, we can extract that experience and apply it to being a road playoff team.”

    Minnesota finished the season with a 14-3 record. They will be the fourth team to finish with 14 wins and play a road playoff game.

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