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NEW YORK – The Rams and 49ers traveled to the same place to open their season, but took distinctly different approaches to getting ready.
The 49ers arrived in Australia a week before kickoff, giving their players time to adjust to the long trip and significant time difference.
The Rams arrived a day before the game, betting that minimizing their time there before kickoff offered the best way to manage their body clocks.
Their poor performance in a 21-7 49ers win raised an obvious question: Should the NFL leave those decisions entirely to its teams, or establish travel requirements to help ensure its international showcases produce better football?
For now, the league is leaving that call to the clubs.
But the door to a different approach remains open.
“I think ultimately, on matters like that, as it stands today, you let the football decisions reside at the football level, in terms of how they want to plan to prepare for a game coming in,” NFL executive Peter O’Reilly said Tuesday at the league’s fall owners meetings.
That preserves the flexibility teams currently have to determine how best to handle an international assignment. Coaches and performance staffs can weigh the value of acclimation against maintaining familiar routines and limiting disruption.
The Rams and 49ers landed on opposite answers.
The Rams’ performance does not, by itself, establish that their travel plan caused their struggles. But the contrast provides the league with something to examine as it evaluates the demands of playing so far from home.
And O’Reilly indicated that a more consistent approach could eventually become part of that conversation.
“As I said, that’s not something we’re ruling out,” he said. “There could be discussion on, is there some standardization in the future. But right now, that’s the prerogative.”
The distinction matters. The NFL is not announcing a mandatory arrival window or declaring the Rams’ approach unacceptable. It is acknowledging that the experience could inform future discussions.
“We certainly always look at, are there things we want to tweak?” O’Reilly said.
For the league, the challenge is balancing a team’s authority over its preparation with the broader goal of delivering competitive games to international audiences.
That becomes particularly relevant when the assignment involves the distance and time change associated with Australia.
“So the great part about this international journey and the rapid pace we’re on is that we learn things every year and the clubs learn things every year,” O’Reilly said.
Whether those lessons eventually become requirements remains an open question.