Thursday night's Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers game isn't just a battle in Week 1 between NFC West rivals. It's also the battle of who's right and wrong about traveling all the way to Melbourne, Australia in order to avoid the dreaded jetlag that comes along with it.
One franchise made the trip a while ago to acclimate to the time. The other one got on a plane fairly recently to get ready for the Thursday night game at Melbourne Cricket Ground. And while we may not be able to determine how much jetlag contributes to this game, as much as we'd like to know at a molecular level, we can wonder: Who made the right decision here?
Let's break down what each team did as they play in Australia Thursday night:
How the 49ers handled travel to Australia
The Niners took what you might call
the more conventional approach to getting acclimated: They arrived last Friday in Melbourne in order to get used to the time change. The thinking there, of course: By the time the game rolls around, Niners players and coaches will have their body clocks set to the correct time.
The Athletic reports that "the 49ers consulted everyone from sleep experts to coaches who routinely play matches in far-away locales. But really, their approach comes from experience."
How the Rams handled travel to Australia
The Rams are all in for the night.
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) September 10, 2026
It's 9:45 PM in Melbourne. They slept on the flight over and will sleep now in the hotel for one night and they'll wake up and play a football game in 12 hours.
This isn't some trial and error approach. They've sent 15 staffers over last 2…
The Rams left on Thursday morning, meaning the day before the game starts on Friday morning, local time. Weird? Maybe there's something they know that we all don't. As you see above, ESPN's Peter Schrager reported that "They've sent 15 staffers over last 2 years and have tracked their bodies and sleep rhythms. This was deemed the approach."
The Rams also have some precedence here: The team flew to London last year with a short time before they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 6. I guess you do what works if it was successful the first time! Perhaps the idea here is to keep their body clocks set to American time -- if they're playing a Thursday night primetime game in U.S. time, then maybe they're bodies will feel that way and they'll perform at a peak level.
We'll see!
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Why did Rams and 49ers chose different Australia travel strategies?
