It is not easy to be Sean McVay. In the past 72 hours, the Rams head coach has been forced to deal with a multitude of issues besides simply showing up and "doing football."
Despite having a heavily scrutinized playoff game waiting for him, McVay has had to turn his attention to a series of events outside of anyone's control.
The Rams' home playoff game has been moved to Phoenix due to the Los Angeles wildfires. The team had to quickly leave Los Angeles on Friday, and his family had to evacuate their home on Thursday. The Kenneth Fire was approximately five miles away from the team's training facility. Oh and to top it all off, the Rams are still set to play one of the best teams in the NFL.
Despite everything, Sean McVay and company have remained focused on the tasks at hand. McVay spoke about his team's concentration on Saturday stating his team had a different sense of focus. Expounding, McVay said “I think there was a clear mind knowing that those are the things that the most important thing is taken care of. Now, I can be totally and completely present and focus on that. I thought really each of the last two days I felt that even though we didn't get here yet. Yesterday just knowing what was ahead in terms of their families being with them, I felt like these last two days the guys have done a great job.”
McVay detailed the team's resiliency, explaining “The biggest challenge really was making sure that everything… first and foremost [was the] health and safety of our people, family, friends and things like that are taken care of. It's really just making sure that you don't peak until game time and being able to go through our normal rhythm and routine. I think there are a lot of people that deserve a ton of credit for allowing this to be as minimal in terms of the distractions as possible. I think our players deserve a ton of credit for being able to lock in and they love football. They love this opportunity. They know it’s been an earned opportunity to be able to get into the tournament. They're going to go swing and we're looking forward to it.”
The Rams are a battle-tested team, making the postseason twice after slow starts to the 2023 and 2024 season. To maintain some familiarity, the team will be using the visiting locker rooms at State Farm Stadium but will be using the home sideline for the game.
Ensure you follow on X (Twitter) @RamsInsideronSI and @MNSToday and never miss another breaking news story again.
Please let us know your thoughts when you like our Facebook page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/rams/ as Sean McVay Preaches Focus Ahead of Massive Playoff Game.