Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers Week 1 Australia Plan Follows the Science

Week 1 is coming thick and fast.

Aug 20, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan walks to the field prior to a pre-season game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In just one week, the San Francisco 49ers are flying to Melbourne, Australia, for the first-ever international NFL game down under.

The game doesn't kick off until Friday, September 11, local time, giving the 49ers nine days to adjust and acclimatize to the conditions in Australia.

It's come to light that their opponents, the Los Angeles Rams, the designated home team, are taking the polar opposite approach by flying out at the last possible moment, playing the game and then flying home again. A fairly bold strategy if you ask me.

However, science is behind the 49ers' decision to travel earlier, with Shanahan explaining to the media: “I would love to just show up the day before and just play, but I’m not the best when it comes to the science and everything on that stuff.

"So, you ask people who’ve done it a number of times, you ask people who study it, you take all their opinions in. We’ve been strongly recommended to – when you’ve got a 19-hour flight and it’s a 16-hour-something difference, I forgot because I haven’t asked since we were making these decisions, but it’s a big adjustment on the body.

Aug 20, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan watches from the sidelines against the Los Angeles Chargers in the second half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

"So, the recommendation for everybody has been to tell us when to go, and it’s made a lot of sense. And I know how our players feel also. I was a little bit on the fence. Science wasn’t and what I was reported on and our players weren’t at all. So that helped me get off the fence.”

Since the fixture was announced by the NFL months ago, Shanahan has made no secret of his unhappiness at the 49ers being selected, and, to the surprise of no one, his stance hasn't changed, particularly given the potential impact of long-haul travel and adapting to completely different conditions on player health and welfare.

“Trying to get me in trouble? [Laughs] I’m just hoping our team’s healthy enough and has the time to get there," he told 49ers on SI publisher Grant Cohn.

"Those are the challenges of it, just to get there to prepare for it. Guys still trying to recover to get there, the plane flight and things like that. But once you do get there and stuff, we’re going to have fun playing in another country and it’s going to be a cool atmosphere, things like that. That’ll all be good.

"But right now, I’m just thinking of the challenges of getting our team ready for those three and a half hours.”