Cardinals owner breaks silence on hosting Rams playoff game

State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., will still be rocking Monday night, even though the Cardinals are not in the playoffs. The The Cardinals will host the Rams vs. Vikings Wild Card game on Monday night as a result of the fire in Los Angeles. The Rams were originally scheduled to host the Vikings at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell told NFL Insider Ian Rapoport about what it will look like host a playoff game for a division rival.

“It might be a little painful to hear: ‘Whose house? Rams House!” Bidwill joked. “But our hearts are breaking with what is happening.” … That’s what’s best for the league, that’s what’s best for the team, and we have to do everything we can to make sure we have a great game.”

Bidwell says he was thinking about the lessons his father taught him when the league approached him about a possible contingency for this game.

“It’s always a good time to do the right thing,” Bidwill said. “If there’s anything we can do to help… maybe this is the only thing we can do.” Let’s put our energy into that and try to focus on that and make it a great experience, whether it’s for the players, their families or the coaches.”

The Cardinals immediately jumped into action when the league officially asked for their help. One of the first steps they took was to send two Boeing 777s to pick up Rams personnel and their families.

“It was good to be able to do it on such short notice,” Bidwill added.

The Cardinals wasted no time getting State Farm Stadium ready for the Rams against the Vikings

Bidwell and the Cardinals jumped into action before the NFL officially told the team to begin preparing.

“I talked to the team later that morning and said, ‘Look if this is going to happen, let’s take it,'” Bidwill said. “Let’s get ready and start thinking about everything we’re going to have to do to make this happen.”

Bidwell noted that he had to speak with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell several times to discuss logistics. That included figuring out the ticket situation. LA uses Ticketmaster, but Arizona uses SeatGeek.

“We shifted all of our attention even before the announcement to making sure we were ready to go,” Bidwill said. “We knew people in their organization were going through enormous stress, with their families and friends losing everything, and we wanted to be as careful as possible.” And then we realized that families were coming. It was like, OK, that’s a whole other layer to this.”

Bidwell even asked his staff to compile lists of everything the Rams might need. This included lists of active babysitters and even cake shops.

“We tried to think of everything,” Bidwell concluded.

Rams vs. Vikings kicks off Monday at 8:15 PM ET.