<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="LOS ANGELES — Kevin Demoff was tired but hopeful. After weathering crisis after crisis for more than a week, the Los Angeles Rams’ executive vice president was only 48 hours away from knowing whether his organization had passed one of the biggest off-field tests any NFL team had faced in years.” data-reactid=”16″>LOS ANGELES — Kevin Demoff was tired but hopeful. After weathering crisis after crisis for more than a week, the Los Angeles Rams’ executive vice president was only 48 hours away from knowing whether his organization had passed one of the biggest off-field tests any NFL team had faced in years.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="“It was a fast and furious Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — a lot of sleepless nights,” Demoff told Yahoo Sports on the Saturday before the Rams’ Monday night showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs.” data-reactid=”17″>“It was a fast and furious Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — a lot of sleepless nights,” Demoff told Yahoo Sports on the Saturday before the Rams’ Monday night showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs.
That’s what being tasked with hosting an NFL game in only six days can do to the people who work for NFL teams. The Rams were asked to do that when their International Series game against the Chiefs was moved from Mexico City, all while working through the dreadful mass shooting that occurred in nearby Thousand Oaks, California, on Nov. 7 and wildfires that broke out less than 24 hours later.
“We’ll be honest — we’ve had a tremendously unique 10 days for an NFL organization,” Demoff said. “But it pales in comparison to those who have suffered the real tragedies in California over the past 10 days from the fires and the shootings.”
That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a significant test for the Rams, who ended up with an epic 54-51 win over the Chiefs at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.
The organization’s actions during this stressful time, and its ability to pull it all off without a significant hitch, made it easy for one to look at the enthusiastic, bombastic crowd that showed up to Monday’s era-defining classic and wonder: Will this go down as the moments the Rams, in the third season of their return to California, won the city of Los Angeles over again?
<h2 class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="2 tragedies rock region, team ” data-reactid=”42″>2 tragedies rock region, team
On the evening of Nov. 7, a gunman killed 12 people at the Borderline Bar & Grille, which is located only five miles away from the Rams’ practice facility at Cal Lutheran. The next day, two wildfires broke out in areas close to the facility, causing approximately 100 Rams players, coaches and staffers to evacuate their homes.
“All of a sudden, instead of wondering how you’re going to help the community, you’re wondering if you’re going to have a community,” Demoff said.
Staffers worked all night at the practice facility relocating families to hotels and houses across the region, and some even had to relocate multiple times as the local hotels they moved into were evacuated as well.
A practice was canceled so people could be with their families. After team owner Stan Kroenke covered all evacuation expenses for people in the organization, the Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at the L.A. Coliseum during a game in which the team raised over $26,000 for those impacted by the tragedies.
Demoff remembers a “surreal” feeling among many staffers afterward, since many couldn’t really go home. The wildfires were still raging and the team was about to practice in Colorado for a week to get accustomed to altitude before its huge Monday night game against the Chiefs, a contest that was set to be played more than 7,000 feet above sea level in Mexico City.
The next day, Kroenke chartered a second plane so families could be together in Colorado Springs. That’s when they learned of another crisis.
<h2 class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Mexico City’s screwup sends Rams scrambling again ” data-reactid=”49″>Mexico City’s screwup sends Rams scrambling again
Weeks before the Rams were scheduled to face the Chiefs in Mexico City, the Rams sent their own inspectors to Estadio Azteca to check out the field.
“When we were down there a couple weeks ago, the field was probably not optically pleasing, but it was very safe,” Demoff explained to Yahoo Sports. “All [the damage] was on the periphery of the soccer field.”
Demoff says the club learned after another field inspection on Nov. 12 that a concert the previous Wednesday had severely damaged it. There was a stage at midfield that ravaged the grass, and there was significant concern the re-sodded synthetic grass would not take root fast enough to be a safe playing surface.
“If that had happened in one of our [NFL] stadiums, we would have been able to fix it,” Demoff said. “Most systems [here] have a sod where you can get it, roll it down. But whatever it is about the synthetic system just doesn’t allow the roots to take hold [quickly].
“I’ve learned a lot more about grass in the last week than I [would have ever imagined],” Demoff added with a laugh.
So on Nov. 12, the Rams reached out to the University of Southern California — who they share the Coliseum with — to get permission to host the Chiefs game, since their lease with the school dictates they can’t host events on school nights. The Rams also reached out to Coliseum security, concessions and game staff to make sure they’d have enough people to work a game that could draw a crowd of at least 70,000. The following day, the NFL announced the contest would be moved to Los Angeles, giving the Rams six days to pull off the organization’s first Monday night game at the Coliseum since 1979.
The Rams saw an opportunity to further celebrate the first responders, firefighters and policemen who had kept the city safe over the several days, while potentially galvanizing a community that’s sometimes tough to unite.
“Los Angeles is such a unique place …. it’s a fiercely proud city, but it’s a city of transplants — it adopts of lot of new people each year, and it’s got a fabric,” said Demoff, who grew up in Los Angeles. “Bringing it together is really hard in many ways; a lot of different backgrounds, geographically it’s large, a lot of people. But sports have always had the power to do that here, and you see it in big games, big moments.”
Now they just had to make it work.
<h2 class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="‘It was good for the city’ ” data-reactid=”83″>‘It was good for the city’
There were hundreds of things to figure out. How much would they charge for tickets, since they would basically be pulling prices out of thin air? What about parking? With the game in less than a week, they couldn’t send 20,000 passes out via FedEx or mail.
The Rams ultimately used the same pricing model they did for the Thursday night game against Minnesota they hosted in September, and they made the parking lots first-come, first-serve and cash only.
But there were a hundred of other little things to figure out, from printing up credentials, to locking down an anthem singer.
Much of this work had to be done by staff members displaced by the wildfires. People in ticket operations who worked in the Rams’ Agoura Hills business office, located in the evacuation zone, worked out of the team’s draft room and coaches’ office at the practice facility at Cal Lutheran.
“And a lot of [community and communications] folks have worked from home, or Starbucks, or coffee shops, or the parks,” Demoff said. “They just found a way to make it work. It’s been all over the place.”
Demoff needed to see the final product on Monday night before he could get a good night of sleep. The crowd of 77,002 wasn’t a sellout for the 93,607-seat stadium, but it was the Rams’ best turnout of the year, and many of those fans furiously waved their white rally towels — emblazoned with “LA Together,” the team’s theme for the game — to the exciting finish in an environment that several players eagerly called a playoff atmosphere.
“It was just cool, man, obviously a last-minute game and everybody coming out to support,” Rams running back Todd Gurley said. “[We] had families here, had the responders. So, it was just a great overall crowd. It was good for the city tonight.”
The latter is what Demoff is most proud of. He hoped the whole nation would see something special, not only a showcase of good football but also a unification of city and team that was strengthened by the recognition of families affected by the tragedies.
Based on fans’ response, he believes that’s how it came across.
“The emails we got … people felt proud about their city,” Demoff said. “We wanted to help inspire the community to shine bright and celebrate Los Angeles, and hopefully the game did just that.”
That’s why Demoff, finally, slept well after the game.
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