The Rams and 49ers are about to embark on the longest road trip in NFL history. They’ve also come up with radically different ideas for how to survive it
By Jeff Eisenberg, Senior writer
They sought to reduce the toll that transatlantic travel takes on players’ bodies by approaching a game in London like a hit-and-run mission.
Instead of flying out a few days before kickoff the way most NFL teams do, the Rams arrived in London just a day before facing the Jacksonville Jaguars and began their journey home soon after the final whistle. There would be no need for body clocks to adapt to the eight-hour time difference, the Rams theorized, if the trip was as short as possible.
Poking holes in the Rams’ tactics became harder over the course of a crisp 35-7 pummeling of a Jaguars team that lost only three other games last regular season. “The way the guys played showed it was the right decision,” Rams head coach Sean McVay told reporters after his team brushed off the absence of injured star receiver Puka Nakua, charged to a 21-0 halftime lead and coasted to a blowout victory.
Emboldened by last year’s successful trial run, the Rams are getting even more daring. They’re applying the same philosophy to the longest trip in NFL history, a 16-hour flight to Melbourne, Australia, covering nearly 8,000 miles. Australia hosts its first regular-season NFL game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday, Sept. 11, when the Super Bowl favorite Rams open their season against the San Francisco 49ers. Kickoff is at 10:35 a.m. in Melbourne so that the game airs in prime time on Thursday, Sept. 10, back in the U.S.
The Rams plan to fly into Melbourne the day before the game and fly out immediately after, ESPN reported last month. Neither McVay nor team officials have been willing to confirm the team’s travel itinerary, but the Rams head coach recently admitted to reporters, “We’re leaving later than most people would probably expect.”