Wildfires raging across Los Angeles County have already destroyed thousands of homes, businesses, and other structures, claiming at least five lives. These fires are among the most devastating in recent memory and much of the fires remain uncontained. As a result of the fires, many in the area were forced to evacuate their homes, and an NFL head coach was among those.
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay was among those who were forced to evacuate from his home along with his family. And during his press conference this week, he stressed that the most important part was reuniting with his loved ones.
“Here’s what it’s like,” McVay told reporters on Friday according to Pro Football Talk. “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.”
This all comes as the Rams prepare for a playoff showdown with the Minnesota Vikings that was supposed to be played at home in L.A.’s SoFi Stadium. However, as a result of the fires, the game was moved to State Farm Stadium in Arizona on Monday night.
It’s certainly been a challenging week for the Rams given everything that’s happened, and McVay was not shy about acknowledging that.
“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.”
Bt McVay thinks the team is handling it about as well as they could, given the situation.
“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.
We’ll have to see how the Rams are able to perform on the field on Monday night.
