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FOOTBALL
NFL sends 49ers to Australia, Mexico City
The San Francisco 49ers will bookend the NFL 's largest ever international slate, playing the 2026 season opener in Melbourne against the NFC West rival Los Angeles Rams and facing the Minnesota Vikings in Week 11 in Mexico City.
Covering eight stadiums, seven cities and four continents, this year will feature nine games outside of the U.S. for the most the league has ever staged. Sixteen teams, half of the NFL, will play internationally in 2026.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has declared the goal of 16 games annually outside of the U.S. After this season, the league will have played 71 games in 12 international cities. Melbourne, Paris and Rio de Janeiro are first-time hosts in 2026.
The league had months ago announced the Melbourne matchup as its first game in Australia in addition to several of the participating teams for the nine-game slate, which was fully unveiled Wednesday. The complete 17-game schedules for all 32 teams will be released Thursday.
Netflix also announced, as part of a new deal with the NFL, a Thanksgiving Eve broadcast as part of an expanding package of regular-season games. The Green Bay Packers will play at the Los Angeles Rams on Wednesday, Nov. 25.
The 49ers have long been one of the NFL's most prominent brands, and they'll be the road team for the Thursday night opener on Sept. 10 against the Rams on Netflix. That game will kick off on Friday morning at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is 17 hours ahead of California time.
San Francisco will be the home team at Estadio Banorte in Mexico City, where they have marketing rights as part of the league's global markets program along with the Rams and eight other teams.
The 49ers will then play the showcase Sunday night game on NBC on Nov. 22 against the Vikings, who last year played the NFL's first international multicity road trip with a game in Dublin in Week 4 followed by a game in London in Week 5.
The Dallas Cowboys will be the home team in Rio de Janeiro at Maracana Stadium against the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 27, a late afternoon Week 3 game that CBS will broadcast. Neither team has marketing rights in Brazil, where the league has staged games in Sao Paulo in each of the last two years. The NFL has committed at least three games in five years to Rio.
FILE - Fireworks go off at the halftime during the international friendly soccer match between Mexico and Portugal at the Estadio Barnorte in Mexico City, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, file)
FILE - Fireworks go off at the halftime during the international friendly soccer match between Mexico and Portugal at the Estadio Barnorte in Mexico City, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, file)
FILE - A general view during the second rugby union test between Australia and the British & Irish Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake, file)
FILE - A general view during the second rugby union test between Australia and the British & Irish Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake, file)