We’re still a little over a month away from the San Francisco 49ers’ season opener against the Los Angeles Rams. If you’ve been away all summer, the game won’t be played in California. Instead, it’ll be the first-ever game in Australia.
The way that each team is handling the travel schedule is vastly different. According to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, the Rams are waiting a day before the game to fly into Melbourne:
The Rams’ Week 1 game is against the 49ers in the league’s first game in Australia. 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. 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. Their Week 2 game is on Monday night at home against the Giants.
The idea of testing the potential effects makes a ton of sense. It sounds like the Rams are going to do their best to completely avoid any potential jet lag or distractions, making this as much of an “in and out” trip as it gets.
Sean McVay said as much during the Rams trip to London last year: “We’re like SEAL Team 6. We’re in and out before you know what happened.”
There’s roughly a 17-hour difference between the Pacific Time Zone and Melbourne. The 49ers will have plenty of time to get acclimated, as they plan on leaving a full nine days before kickoff. This offseason, head coach Kyle Shanahan said, “Usually when you travel with a 16-hour flight, you don’t want to get there the day before because you lose like a whole day there or two and you’re just messed up. If that’s accurate, the Rams’ plans could look foolish, unless they’re really banking on adrenaline.
