Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay went scorched earth on the NFL having games in Australia following his team's Week 1 blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan took a different approach.
McVay on Friday in a press conference was asked about playing in Australia and he didn't hold back his displeasure with visiting the Southern Hemisphere.
"It’s almost like you try to do the Men in Black where you say 'I don’t remember what happened, that was so long ago,'" McVay said. "We’re not playing in Australia ever again, I hope. All right? Not because it wasn’t a great atmosphere, that will get taken out of context. But bottom line is, I like the way that I feel with our preparation, us moving forward,”
Part of the issue
for McVay might be that his team spent virtually no time on the continent, choosing instead to fly in a day before the game and leave immediately after.
Shanahan and the 49ers went a different route and arrived to Australia a week before the game. While Shanahan didn't get much of a chance to take in the country, he did indicate during the days leading up to Week 1 that he'd like to return someday.
"No, I don’t encourage that much," Shanahan said on Sept. 7 when asked if he wanted his players to go out and explore Melbourne. "Nothing against the city. It’s looked awesome. The people I’ve been around seem really cool. Definitely makes me want to think about coming back and visiting with my family, but we get 17 games. That’s all that’s allowed to us. We play once a week. So, we’re really all about business right now. The players did get an off day. So, I think it was cool for them to get to walk around. I think a number of them went out to dinner and stuff like that. So, they’ve been able to enjoy it a little bit, but it’s just a little bit harder the way we do stuff in a work week. A little jealous just watching people out the window. I wish I could get out more. I know they did too, but my message to them was enjoy your one day.”
Shanahan on Friday was asked again about the Australia trip in the wake of McVay's comments. By Friday the 49ers had been back in the United States for a week. Shanahan didn't sound excited about the idea of having to navigate another trip to Australia for a game any time soon, but he stopped short of saying he hoped they never played there again.
"You’re really trying to get me in trouble," Shanahan told the reporter when asked about McVay's comments. "You don’t want it to come off the wrong way in how you word it, just like Sean doesn’t want to. Seventeen games are very tough. Every game is so tough and what you put into it for seven days. So, anytime you’ve got to put more travel on it, it makes it a lot harder. That’s something that no teams really wish for, whether it’s 16 hours away or five hours away. Obviously the farther, the harder. All international games are like that too, with that being the farthest. That’s why you always hope it’s timed out to where you can have a Bye week after. That was the challenge of it and the unknown, but I feel good after getting the three extra days off that we did. Players got five. Now you never wish for that stuff, but now that we’ve been through it, you know you can handle it.”
More 49ers: Kaelon Black injury update: Will 49ers RB play vs. Dolphins?
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay take different paths with Australia comments
