When his side begins the NFL season against the LA Rams in Melbourne, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan will be there—but he won’t be happy about it.
The 49ers meet the Rams at the MCG on September 11 in the NFL’s first ever in-season match to be played on Australian soil, one of nine NFL games to be held outside the USA next season.
‘Are we going back in time, or into the future?’ asks Shanahan
Speaking at the 2026 NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Shanahan was asked about his thoughts when he learned of his side’s place in the historic Week 1 fixture and delivered a decidedly sarcastic response.
“I was so fired up,” he quipped to a scrum of NFL media.
“That was our goal, to go 19 hours away to play a game, are we going back in time, or into the future?
“It is what it is, we’ll deal with it.”
When asked if he could see any positives in making the long-haul trip to start their 2025-26 season, the 49ers boss was again blunt.
“No, not at all, I don’t see any pro,” Shanahan said.
“It’s cool for the league to play globally… but as far as the team doing it, no, there’s not much benefit.”
While Shanahan’s opposing coach in Melbourne, Sean McVay, has been largely quiet on the matter the LA Rams are likely to be far more enthusiastic given they hold international marketing rights to Australia and New Zealand as part of the NFL’s Global Markets Program.
Reluctantly or otherwise, the 49ers and Rams squads are slated to arrive in Australia a week before the historic match to acclimatise and attend a range of NFL publicity events in Melbourne.
Last season both teams were eliminated by eventual Super Bowl LX champions the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL playoffs.