Rams and 49ers Take Opposite Travel Strategies Into Tonight's First-Ever NFL Game in Australia

The NFL's first regular-season game in Australia kicks off tonight, and the two teams playing it disagree on almost nothing except how to get there.

The Rams and 49ers meet at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with kickoff set for 10:35 a.m. Friday local time, which lands at 8:35 p.m. ET tonight in the U.S., airing on Netflix. It's the longest trip in NFL history: roughly 8,000 miles and a 17-hour time difference from the Pacific coast, according to CBS Sports.

The 49ers left for Melbourne on Sept. 2, according to Yahoo Sports, giving themselves close to a week to adjust before the game. The Rams did the opposite. They departed Los Angeles just after 10 p.m. PT on Tuesday, flew roughly 16 hours, and landed in Melbourne early Thursday morning local time, roughly 28 hours before kickoff, according to the New York Times. They plan to fly straight back to Los Angeles within two hours of the final whistle.

Both teams flew the same aircraft, an Airbus A380, the largest passenger plane in the world, Business Insider reported. Rams player Byron Young called the setup "boujee" in a video from inside the cabin.

The Rams Have Done This Before

This isn't the Rams' first hit-and-run trip. Last year they flew into London just one day before facing the Jacksonville Jaguars, then flew home right after the game, according to Yahoo Sports. They won 35-7, building a 21-0 halftime lead without star receiver Puka Nacua, who was out injured.

Head coach Sean McVay has stayed cagey about the Australia itinerary all summer. "We're leaving later than most people would probably expect," he told reporters, according to CBS Sports. Back in July, he offered the only real hint: "It'll be a similar approach, and really the goal for us is to try to keep guys in as close to a rhythm and routine as possible. This is new to us, even going this far."

The 49ers have their own track record. San Francisco has skipped traveling home four times in recent years when it had back-to-back road games far from the Bay Area, going 7-1 in those stretches, according to Business Insider. Their approach for Australia leans on consultations with sleep experts and coaches who regularly travel internationally, the New York Times reported.

49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak isn't interested in the debate before the game answers it. "People are probably going to speculate after the game, 'Well, this was better than the other,'" he told the Times. "But we're going to go out there to play. We believe in the way we're doing it. They believe in the way they're doing it, and we're going to play the game."

No Consensus, Even Outside Football

The disagreement isn't unique to the NFL. Business Insider polled executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year and found zero consensus on beating jet lag. Hines Global Chief Investment Officer David Steinbach said his rule is simple: "Just sleep whenever you can. It is a deficit, and you just try to build it back anyway you can." Aon Chief Administrative Officer Lisa Stevens takes the opposite approach: "My biggest thing is getting on the plane and immediately going into the time zone I'm going into. I don't oversleep."

Yahoo Sports quoted a neurologist and sleep specialist predicting the Rams would win the game outright, betting that minimizing total disruption beats trying to force an adjustment the body doesn't have time to make.

Why the NFL Cares So Much

This is more than a curiosity for the league. Tonight's game is the first of a record nine international games this season, and commissioner Roger Goodell has said he wants to get to 16 a year, according to the New York Times. NFL owners voted this spring to allow up to 10 international games starting in 2027, up from just five as recently as 2024.

Australia is a specific target for that expansion. There's no language barrier, Australian rules football has already familiarized fans with a similar sport, and the country has the infrastructure and money to host, the Times noted. It's also produced the NFL's biggest international success story in Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro tackle Jordan Mailata. With the 2032 Summer Olympics headed to Australia, a strong showing tonight matters to the league's long-term expansion plans, not just to this week's box score.

McVay and his staff, along with their 49ers counterparts, will both be watching how their players' legs hold up in the fourth quarter for a real answer about which approach works best.