The Super Bowl of Jet Lag
Two NFL teams, the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, are set to play a regular-season game in Australia, marking the NFL's first. The article details their contrasting approaches to combating severe jet lag from the 8,000-mile journey and explores the scientific impact of circadian rhythm disruption on athletic performance.
Why it matters
This event is a high-profile test of jet lag mitigation techniques in professional sports, offering insights into how extreme travel affects elite athletes and potentially influencing future international sports scheduling and team travel strategies.
Two NFL teams will play in Australia. Their real opponent is time.
Illustration by The Atlantic September 10, 2026, 3:27 PM ET Share Save Usually, when the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams play, it’s a relatively short commute. But this evening, the teams will kick off the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Australia.
The two teams have taken diametrically opposite approaches to preventing the 8,000-mile journey from disorienting their stars. The 49ers boarded their 16-hour flight to Melbourne nine days ago and have spent the intervening time training, watching Aussie rules football, and winning the majority of local support. The Rams landed yesterday, just 24 hours before the game. They’re betting on being in Australia so briefly that players’ brains and bodies won’t notice the difference. That makes the game the most high-profile test of jet-lag-evasion techniques in American sports history.
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