49ers will start 2026 season in Australia. They sure don’t sound too happy about it
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- George Kittle said playing in Melbourne might make a Week 1 return more difficult.
- Kyle Shanahan said the trip removes three extra practices and four days off.
- The 49ers will play two international games in separate countries this season.
When star 49ers tight end George Kittle tore his Achilles during a January playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles, a return for Week 1 in early September seemed unlikely.
Though Kittle acknowledged that it may be difficult, and that many around him have said he may return closer to the middle of the season, he said a Week 1 appearance was possible.
“I was told it’s not a crazy goal,” Kittle told Baker Machado of Front Office Sports in an interview released Tuesday. “As long as I keep on the right path and things go the right way, I have a chance.”
However, he said there’s one thing complicating that potential return: the fact that the team’s Sept. 10 opener against the Los Angeles Rams will be taking place across the world in Melbourne, Australia.
“If we started the season at home and I didn’t have to hop on a plane … it might be different,” Kittle told Front Office Sports. “That might make it a little more difficult, sure. But who doesn’t like a challenge?”
Kittle’s injury anecdote is just one of the latest in a series of public comments made by 49ers players and coach Kyle Shanahan expressing their issues with the travel associated with the international contest, stemming back to when the NFL announced the matchup in February.
The 49ers will also play in Week 11 against the Minnesota Vikings in Mexico City. With that, the team will be the first in NFL history to play two international games in non-consecutive weeks, the second to play two international games in separate countries and the third to play two international games in the same season, the team said.
Shanahan: ‘I don’t see any pro’
Shanahan has talked publicly about the Australia game on at least four separate occasions, most recently after the first week of organized team activities, known as OTAs, on Thursday.
After each team’s final preseason game, they are allowed three practices before a mandatory four days off, which, according to Shanahan, the trip to Melbourne will take away. He said that loss of recovery time is his biggest frustration, rather than the travel time itself.
“I would love to have three extra bonus practices here and then four days off like everyone else,” Shanahan said. “But when you open on a Thursday on the other side of the world, you lose that.”
One of Shanahan’s first comments on the trip was after the league meetings March 30, when he said he didn’t see any benefits in his team taking the trip, especially since the 49ers are also slated to play their Week 11 game Nov. 22 in Mexico City against the Vikings.
“I don’t see any pro,” Shanahan said, according to ESPN. “It’s cool for the league to play globally. I think that’s awesome. But as far as the team doing it, no, there’s not much benefit to it.”
In an appearance on Tom Tolbert’s podcast earlier this week, Shanahan said he was also frustrated to lose a close road flight to a divisional rival, which occurs three times per season, to an international game.
“To get one of those taken away is tough,” Shanahan said. “When you travel a lot, especially when it’s 19 hours away on an airplane, that’s not a small flight. That stuff adds up.”
During the news conference Thursday after the first week of OTAs, Shanahan said the team will get to Melbourne nine days early to get acclimated.
Due to Mexico City being over 7,000 feet above sea level, Shanahan said the team will train in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which has roughly the same elevation, in preparation. The team did the same when they last played in Mexico City in 2022.
This means the team may be gone even longer for that trip than the Melbourne game, since they are playing their Week 10 game in Dallas rather than at home, which will also require standard travel.
Commissioner responds to Shanahan’s concerns
Shanahan has especially expressed frustration with their NFC West rival Rams for the game, whom he said he knew “for a fact” lobbied to play them in Melbourne.
“Hopefully the league will do right and let us play the Rams in Mexico since we got to go out of the country twice,” Shanahan said March 31 on Pro Football Talk live alongside Green Bay Packers coach Matt LeFleur. “They requested us, I’m requesting them.”
The 49ers coach did not get his wish, as the Vikings rather than Rams will take on Shanahan’s squad in Mexico City. However, Shanahan got another lick in during the March 31 interview, speculating alongside the show’s hosts that the Rams didn’t want to play the 49ers at home because the visiting 49ers crowd overpowered the L.A. faithful.
“I’d love them to come to Mexico,” Shanahan said. “Our Mexican fan base is awesome. It’s like bang-bang Niner gang.”
In response to Shanahan’s comments, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said during an April news conference that the NFL would make the game a great experience for the team, and offered to send the 49ers coach a jet-lag prevention app.
“Coach Shanahan is enthusiastic and a great football coach, but also someone who truly understands the importance of expanding our game globally,” Goodell said, according to NBC Sports Bay Area. “But, his job is to win, his job is to play.”
What do other Niners have to say?
Star running back Christian McCaffrey said in February, soon after the game’s announcement, that he was worried about how the long travel would fit into the 49ers’schedule and wasn’t sure the game was a good idea.
“Transparently,” McCaffrey said, according to NBC Sports Bay Area, “that might be a little too far.”
In an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Laura Britt last week, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy said he had never been on a flight as long as the roughly 16-hour direct flight from San Francisco to Melbourne, though he took a more positive outlook on the game than some others in his organization.
“Obviously it is far, but all the guys are excited,” Purdy said. “It’s nice it’s the first game of the year so we get to finish training camp and then head out there and get acclimated.”
Fullback Kyle Juszczyk said it was exciting to play in the first-ever NFL regular season game in Melbourne, though he also acknowledged the difficulties the long travel could present for recovery.
“It’s just going to be a cool life experience,” Juszczyk said on “The Rich Eisen Show” last week. “The weeks after that might not be the best as far as recovery and that sort of thing. It’s not ideal, but it’s something we’re going to deal with.”
49ers general manager John Lynch said previously that the multiple international games was a compliment for the team, as it meant the league wanted the team in big games on prime-time television. He has acknowledged similar concerns that others in the organization have brought up, but has also expressed excitement for the game and its potential to add 49ers fans in Australia.
“We’re fired up,” Lynch said on Tolbert’s show earlier this week.
