If you’ve ever crossed the International Date Line on a trip to Australia or Asia, you probably understand exactly what San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is going through right now. And if you haven’t, just listen to Shanahan attempt to explain what day it is in Melbourne. It might be the funniest description of international travel I’ve heard in a long time.
The 49ers are in Australia preparing to take on the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL’s historic first game Down Under, and Shanahan was asked about dealing with the massive time difference between California and Melbourne. His answer was priceless.
“When I look at my clock and it says the time, and then I try to see my family’s time, and then it says the time, but it says yesterday. I don’t even get how that’s possible.
“So I feel like I’m in the future.”
That part I completely understand. The first time you fly across the International Date Line, it’s genuinely mind-boggling. You get on an airplane on one day, fly for what feels like forever and suddenly discover that everyone back home is still living in yesterday.
But Shanahan’s situation gets even more confusing because he isn’t simply trying to figure out what day it is. He’s trying to convince an entire NFL team that it’s a different day.
The 49ers Are Basically Pretending Friday Is Sunday
NFL teams are creatures of habit. Their entire week is normally built around playing on Sunday. Coaches install certain portions of the game plan on particular days, players practice on a specific schedule and everything builds toward kickoff.
Except this game isn’t being played on a normal NFL Sunday. The Rams and 49ers kick off at 10:35 a.m. Friday in Melbourne — which is 8:35 p.m. Thursday on the East Coast of the United States and 5:35 p.m. Thursday back in California.
So Shanahan is trying to maintain the 49ers’ normal football schedule while simultaneously dealing with Australia being 17 hours ahead of California. Good luck with that.
As Shanahan attempted to explain:
“We’re such creatures of habit. So I call today Tuesday. No, wait, sorry. I call today Wednesday.”
And it only got better from there. He started explaining Wednesday game-plan installation, Thursday preparation, Friday preparation, Saturday walkthroughs, Sunday games and how all of those days correspond to completely different actual days in Australia and the United States.
Eventually, Shanahan reached the only logical conclusion:
“So don’t ever make me do that again.”
Fair enough, Coach.
Time zones have Kyle Shanahan in an absolute blender pic.twitter.com/gCNcdqrcLb
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 7, 2026
49ers and Rams Are Taking Completely Different Approaches
The time-zone confusion is funny, but there’s actually a fascinating sports-science experiment taking place before this game. The 49ers and Rams have chosen almost completely opposite ways of handling Australia.
San Francisco traveled to Melbourne roughly a week before the game, giving players time to acclimate, practice locally, adjust their sleep schedules and get their bodies accustomed to the new surroundings. That would definitely be my choice.
The Rams, meanwhile, are reportedly taking the exact opposite approach: arrive as late as possible, play the game and get out. Basically, they’re treating Melbourne like the world’s longest business trip.
There is some science behind that strategy. Sleep expert Dr. Cheri Mah explained to FOX Sports that if the Rams can essentially keep their internal clocks on Pacific Time, kickoff in Melbourne corresponds to approximately 5:35 p.m. in Los Angeles — right around a period when athletes can be primed for strong physical performance.
There’s also a potential benefit after the game. Instead of spending days adjusting to Australia and then having to readjust after returning to California, the Rams could theoretically remain much closer to their normal body clocks.
The downside? They’ve still got to fly halfway around the planet and then play an NFL game. That sounds brutal.
Even without completely resetting your internal clock, there’s travel fatigue, dehydration, disrupted sleep and the simple physical toll of spending that many hours on an airplane.
The 49ers, meanwhile, have time to recover from the flight, hydrate, practice around the morning kickoff time and gradually get accustomed to Melbourne. For me, that seems like the much more appealing option.
There’s Another Reason I Prefer the 49ers’ Approach
Forget sports science for a moment. This is the NFL’s first regular-season game in Australia. That should mean something.
If I were a player, I’d want to arrive early not only to get my body adjusted but also to actually experience Australia. See Melbourne. Meet some Australian NFL fans. Eat somewhere interesting. Visit a few landmarks. Maybe interact with local kids and football programs. Enjoy the fact that your job just took you to one of the greatest travel destinations in the world.
International games aren’t only about staging a football game in another country. They’re supposed to help grow the sport. And that’s why I wonder how Australian fans will feel about the Rams essentially flying in, playing and flying straight back out — especially since Los Angeles is designated as the “home” team and Rams executives played a major role in making this historic game happen.
From a competitive standpoint, maybe the Rams’ strategy proves brilliant. From a travel and ambassadorial standpoint, I much prefer what the 49ers are doing.
Australia Knows How to Welcome American Sports
I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Australia many times, including when the Los Angeles Dodgers played the Arizona Diamondbacks in Sydney in 2014 in the first regular-season Major League Baseball games ever held in Australia. It was an amazing experience.
Both teams arrived early enough to spend some time experiencing the country, and the entire event felt bigger than just the games themselves. That’s part of what makes taking American sports overseas so much fun. You aren’t simply exporting a game. You’re creating new fans.
I still remember arriving in Sydney on another trip and talking with an Australian immigration officer at the airport. Once he found out I was from Southern California, he immediately started talking NFL. His favorite team? The then-San Diego Chargers. Thousands of miles from California, there was an Australian immigration officer who couldn’t wait to talk NFL football.
So Who Will Australia Root For?
That’s one of the things I’m most curious to see Thursday night — or Friday morning, or tomorrow, or yesterday. Sorry, Kyle Shanahan has me confused now. Which team will Australian fans embrace? Will they side with the Rams, the designated home team that helped bring the game to Melbourne? Or will they gravitate toward the 49ers, who arrived early, spent the week in Australia and have had more time to become part of the local atmosphere?
And, more importantly from a football perspective, which travel philosophy will actually work? The Rams are essentially betting that the best way to beat jet lag is to never fully acknowledge that you’ve changed time zones.
The 49ers are betting that the better approach is to arrive early and give their bodies as much time as possible to adapt.
Two division rivals. Two radically different approaches to traveling halfway around the world. One historic NFL game. As someone who loves both sports and travel, I’m fascinated to see which strategy wins.
Although after listening to Kyle Shanahan explain the calendar, I have one other question: Is anyone actually sure what day they’re playing?
