Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker Myles Garrett, centre, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers., in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.
Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayak
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, center, during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers., in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.
Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayak
The longest road trip in NFL history has brought the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams to Melbourne, Australia, for a season opener before more than 100,000 fans packed into the Southern Hemisphere’s largest stadium.
The NFC West rivals are playing at Melbourne Cricket Ground, a longtime home to Australian rules football, only with two starkly different approaches to the epic 16-hour journey.
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The Niners have spent the past week in Australia. The Rams joined them just 28 hours before kickoff.
Stick around for live coverage as we count down to their debut Down Under.
Fans start to take their seats
The first gridiron fans have already reached their seats inside the massive Melbourne Cricket Ground just after 8 a.m. local time.
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With tunes from Men at Work and Midnight Oil blaring from the sound system, several Rams players were already checking out the field, which appears to be in excellent condition seven days after the most recent Australian Football League postseason match on the turf.
Only the footy 50-meter line is vaguely visible in the grass within the red zones of the American football field. The large oval field leaves large wedges of empty space behind each NFL sideline, but the area behind the north sideline has been filled with a large hospitality area featuring chairs, couches and a big bar.
49ers ready to start season following tumultuous summer
The 49ers are set to start the season following a tumultuous summer of offseason news.
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Coach Kyle Shanahan got into a car crash a little more than a week before the start of training camp that left him with several injuries, including a concussion that limited what he could do early in camp. Shanahan is mostly back to full health and is expected to call plays along with the rest of his duties.
Last month, owner Jed York was arrested in a prostitution sting in Ohio. He pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors and hasn’t been around the team all summer.
For your Down Under halftime entertainment — it’s the Jonas Brothers
The Jonas Brothers — featuring Nick, Joe and Kevin — will be the halftime performers during the NFL’s first regular season game in Australia.
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The NFL announced the headliners for the mid-game show last month, giving them the major entertainment assignment to start the league’s international schedule this season that includes nine games in seven countries and four continents.
The Jonas Brothers have sold more than 20 million albums and recently landed a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“The Jonas Brothers are global entertainers whose music connects across generations, making them the ideal artists to help us celebrate this historic game in Melbourne,” said Tim Tubito, the NFL’s senior director of global game presentation and entertainment. “We look forward to delivering a memorable halftime performance for our fans in Australia and those watching around the world.”
Rams may spend more total time in the air than on the ground in Australia
Rams coach Sean McVay is a strong advocate for sports science, and he also likes his players to stay in a consistent routine. That combination has led the Rams to make an extraordinarily short trip to Australia.
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The Rams practiced at their training complex in Los Angeles all week, finishing their workouts on Tuesday afternoon, before getting on a plane that arrived in Melbourne roughly 24 hours before kickoff.
They’ll turn around and go back to California immediately after the game, which means it’s possible they’ll spend more total time in the air above the Pacific Ocean than on the ground in Australia.
McVay has become convinced that short trips are ideal for athletes’ circadian rhythms, body clocks and overall alertness. He employed the same strategy last year when the Rams flew from the U.S. East Coast to London one day before their blowout win over Jacksonville at Wembley Stadium — but that flight is roughly half as long as the 15-hour trek to Melbourne.
The Rams missed out on the week of practice, sightseeing and community involvement enjoyed by the 49ers, who traveled to Melbourne a week earlier, but McVay is convinced his strategy is the best way to beat a rival that has regularly topped the Rams during his parallel career with San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan.
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The lengthy trip to Australia will test the Rams and 49ers. So will the return home
One reason the NFL’s first game in Australia will be played tonight before the bulk of Week 1 is to give the event the one-of-a-kind treatment it deserves.
Another main reason: It should give the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers more time to rest in the aftermath.
One of the fascinating subplots to the first regular-season contest Down Under will be how teams react to the roughly 8,000-mile (12,900-kilometer), 16-hour flight from the West Coast. The Rams and 49ers had vastly different plans to stay fresh for the game despite the lengthy travel, and they’ll also need a plan when they return home.
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The fact that the game is played on a Thursday night in the U.S. means both teams will have a full weekend at home to rest and recuperate before getting back to the grind of the NFL’s 18-week regular season.
NFL hopes this is the first of many games in Australia
The NFL hopes that today’s game between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers will be the first of many regular-season games played in front of its growing Australian fan base.
The league is also determined to play those games at Australia’s biggest stadium during the first week of the NFL’s regular season — even with a major scheduling problem obstructing that goal in 2027.
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The 100,000-seat MCG could be unavailable to the NFL at this time next year because it will be occupied by the Australian Football League postseason, which begins in early September. The AFL accommodated the NFL this year, but doesn’t intend to do the same in 2027, according to Australian media reports.
NFL Executive Vice President Peter O’Reilly downplayed the potential for disruption caused by this scheduling conflict during a recent conference call to highlight the league’s upcoming Australian debut.
“We have great partners in the MCG and the AFL, and I know we’ll work to a good solution there that allows the NFL to continue to play in Australia on an ongoing basis,” O’Reilly said.
NFL’s Australia debut comes in jumbo-sized, historic venue
Melbourne Cricket Ground — known by many locals as MCG or just The G — is a jumbo-sized venue fit for the NFL’s debut game Down Under.
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The Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers will be playing today’s game at a stadium in Melbourne, Australia, that holds roughly 100,000 people and has hosted the Olympics, Cricket World Cup finals, some of Taylor Swift’s biggest shows and even a Papal mass.
“Melbourne as a city really stood out, having a huge stadium of that size, that caliber, that historical nature, in the middle of the city,” Charlotte Offord, GM for NFL Australia/New Zealand, told The Associated Press. “It just felt like a bit of a no-brainer.”
Established in 1853, The G has developed a revered place in Australian sports and cultural life. Australia’s premier venue is hosting the first of the NFL’s nine international games this season.
A primetime NFL showdown in the US is a morning affair in Australia
One of the biggest challenges for two U.S.-based NFL teams playing a game in Australia has always been the time difference and sheer length of travel.
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Today’s Rams-49ers showdown will kick off at 8:35 p.m. EDT — standard for a big game in the U.S. — but will actually begin at 10:35 a.m. in Melbourne on Friday because of the 14-hour time difference.
The two teams are taking vastly different approaches to the nearly 8,000-mile trip.
The Rams left Southern California on Tuesday night and arrived in Australia on Thursday, roughly 24 hours before the game.
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The Niners have spent a week in Melbourne, having arrived last Friday for what is expected to be the first of several NFL regular-season games in a country and venue traditionally associated with cricket and Australian rules football.