The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will play their first game of the 2026 NFL regular season in Melbourne, Australia.
The 49ers are planning to arrive one week ahead of time to adjust to the 17-hour time difference. The Rams, however, are waiting until the very last minute, as ESPN’s Dan Graziano wrote in his training camp notebook on Tuesday.
“The Rams are handling the trip differently than the 49ers, flying in the day before the game and flying out right after. It’s similar to what they did for a game last year in London, when they arrived the morning of the game, beat the Jaguars and got right back on a plane to go home,” Graziano wrote.
As it turns out, this isn’t a random decision by LA, but something they calculated and explored.
“The Rams actually had people from their organization fly from Los Angeles to Melbourne and back, tracking when and how much they felt the effects of the jet lag. They came to the conclusion that the best way to handle it would be to prepare at home, fly as close to the game as possible, let adrenaline carry them through the game and then fly right home and rest up on the back end,” Graziano added.
The Rams vs. 49ers showdown will be the first-ever NFL regular-season game played in Australia, so there should be plenty of attention, although it is a very interesting decision by LA to travel so late.
The good news is that the Rams face the New York Giants in Week 2 on Monday Night Football in Inglewood, so they will have plenty of time to recover from the trip.
