The San Francisco 49ers have been in Melbourne, Australia, for a week, giving them time to work through jet lag, practice and rest up for their season opener Thursday night against the NFC West rival Los Angeles Rams.
Rams head coach Sean McVay reiterated to reporters on Sunday that this is a business trip for his team and he is treating it as such, with a Tuesday departure. The plan is to leave Los Angeles on Tuesday night for the 15-hour flight, arrive there Thursday morning (local time) and play what will be a Friday morning game in Australia.
The distance between the cities is nearly 8,000 miles, and Melbourne is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles time. Game time in Melbourne will be 10:35 a.m. Friday, 8:35 p.m. ET on Thursday in the U.S.
McVay said he is following the team’s typical schedule for a domestic game, with the team generally traveling on Friday night for a Sunday game.
“Sleep through the night and then we’ll get there and we have kind of a rhythm. But I believe everything that we do, I think our guys, and I would hope — the most important thing to me is they know that, hey, everything we do is what we think is best,” he said.
McVay implied the attention is overblown.
“What gives me confidence is I’m not going to really make it a big deal,” McVay told reporters. “It’s, ‘Hey, this is what the reality is. We’ve got a long way to go, but let’s be ready to rock when that three-hour window that we’re allotted comes.’ That’s what it is.
“To spend a bunch of time talking about it — I get it with you guys, too, like I understand your questions but for me, I’ve told you guys what our approach is. Our expectation is our guys will be ready to go and I’m not worried about it because I know what our plans are. We’re going to follow that plan and then we’re going to focus on our preparation and try to go be at our best and go swing when we get a chance to play against a great team.”
Both teams finished 12-5 last season. The Seattle Seahawks won the division with a 14-3 record and went on to win Super Bowl LX in February.
