Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell recalls childhood fears of wildfires in ‘near and dear to my heart’ California
MINNESOTA Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell has seen first hand the devastation that wildfires in California have caused.
O’Connell, 39, grew up on the West Coast and played college football at San Diego State.
He also spent to years with the Rams as offensive coordinator in Los Angeles, a city that has been ravaged by wildfires.
“Southern California is near and dear to my heart,” O’Connell told select UK reporters this week.
“I’ve got so many relationships from the Los Angeles Rams and from growing up there.
“There’s a couple friends of mine who did lose homes.
“Having lived it, there were a couple of times in my early childhood there were some pretty significant fires in my home town.
“In my senior year at San Diego State we had a game postponed for 10 days maybe even two weeks because of fires.
“For many people that watch the news and see the clips, this is hard to imagine.
“But for people in Southern California it’s something they’ve experienced before and a tragedy.”
“My thoughts and prayers have been with everyone impacted.”
O’Connell was preparing his Vikings for a playoff trip to Los Angeles to face the Rams Monday night.
That game has been moved by the NFL to Glendale, Arizona due to the fires.
At least 11 people have died and more than 150,000 evacuated by the blazes in LA.
“As I told our team, we’re going to get on a plane and then play a football game, it’s just where is the plane going to land?
“The expression ‘you could play these games anywhere, anytime’ is being validated this week and that’s truly the the mentality your team needs to have.”
Minnesota last week missed out on securing the No. 1 seeding in the NFC playoffs with a 31-9 defeat against the Detroit Lions.
NFL Wild Card Weekend schedule
Saturday, January 11:
- No. 5 Los Angeles Chargers at No. 4 Houston Texans, 4:30 pm ET (CBS, Paramount+)
- No. 6 Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 3 Baltimore Ravens, 8:00 pm ET (Prime Video)
Sunday, January 12:
- No. 7 Denver Broncos at No. 2 Buffalo Bills, 1:00 pm ET (CBS, Paramount+)
- No. 7 Green Bay Packers at No. 2 Philadelphia Eagles, 4:30 pm ET (Fox, Fox Deportes)
- No. 6 Washington Commanders at No. 3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 8:00 pm ET (NBC, Peacock, Universo)
Monday, January 13:
- No. 5 Minnesota Vikings at No. 4 Los Angeles Rams, 8:00 pm ET (ESPN, ABC)
They instead finished with the fifth seed, meaning they likely face three road games to reach the Super Bowl.
That’s despite racking up 14 wins – tied for the third most across the whole league.
“We all know the rules when we report to training camp,” O’Connell said.
“We did not win our division. We had a chance to do so and we were unable to get that done.
“We landed at around 4.30/4.45am local time after Detroit and I still brought the players in a few hours later.
We’re going to get on a plane and then play a football game, it’s just where is the plane going to land
Kevin O'Connell on the Vikings/Rams game being moved from LA to Arizona
“We have a 24-hour rule that we apply where we process and acknowledge the reality of what happened.
“We used that Monday to really put it to bed and I ended the day with a team meeting.
“We’ve talked about being 1-0 every week from training camp until now, so there’s nothing we haven’t already created or accomplished than I’m asking of our guys of being who we’ve been all season long.
“We’re in the tournament with an opportunity for 60 minutes to continue our season.”