The Los Angeles Rams have the privilege of partaking in a premier Week 1 opener this season. The Rams will travel all the way to Australia to take on the San Francisco 49ers in a battle between NFC West foes in Oceania to begin the new season.
The NFL has made it a point to add more international games to its schedule. In 2026, there are nine international games ranging from Melbourne to Paris to Mexico City.
The Rams and 49ers are up first, as they open the season in Australia, and on Wednesday, fans learned of LAR’s itinerary for the trip to Melbourne. Their plan, however, did not go down well.
NFL Fans Stunned By Rams’ Travel Plan For Australia Game
On Wednesday, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter revealed when Los Angeles will travel Down Under.
According to Schefter, the Rams plan to fly in next Wednesday, right before the game, and leave immediately following the contest against the 49ers.
This plan raised a few eyebrows online. Fans raced to share their takes, with one fan taking aim at the concept of international games in the first place.
“The Rams do know that Australia is 17 hours ahead of California, right?!?!?! And that they play on Thursday?!?!?! This makes absolutely no sense to me,” one fan wrote of Los Angeles’s decision.
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“Why the [expletive] are we playing in Australia… scrap all these global games, I don’t give two [expletive] if other countries like the NFL,” another fan said.
The Rams did this last year going to London and beat the piss out of the Jaguars so it's worked before.
Australia is way farther though. https://t.co/iBjtuEHx6T
— Brendan Sugrue (@BrendanSugrue)
Think it's fascinating that both SF and the Rams are being guided by their science teams and being led to complete opposite conclusions about when to travel for this game.
And it's not necessarily contradictory; they're just focusing on different things.
Rams are laser-focused… https://t.co/vSKLuAhieI
— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL)
This plan is not new information. In early August, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Dan Graziano, and Ben Solak reported that Los Angeles had this plan in motion. The reason behind the plan has to do with jet lag.
“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,” reported Graziano.
“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.”
It is fascinating how differently both teams are approaching this. Which strategy is the better one certainly remains to be seen. The Rams and 49ers will kick off the season in Melbourne next Thursday at 8:35 p.m. Eastern.
