Kyle Shanahan found the one place where time zones can do his job for him.
In Melbourne on Monday, the 49ers coach was asked for injury updates before San Francisco’s opener against the Rams and used the Australian calendar to punt. The line was classic Shanahan: dry, quick, and just technical enough to be true.
“We’re technically in the future from where we’re from, and the Rams are in the present,” Shanahan said, according to ESPN. “I don’t have to talk about injuries until tomorrow.”
Harrison Rich of the San Francisco Chronicle caught the same answer on video from Australia, and Ari Meirov later shared the clip as well. The joke worked because the NFL’s injury-reporting rules actually back him up.
Teams don’t have to file a weekly report until three days before kickoff, and that clock still runs on the U.S. schedule. Melbourne is about 17 hours ahead of the Bay Area, so Monday in Australia is still Sunday night on the West Coast.
That means Shanahan’s first required report won’t be due until later in the American workweek.
The time difference has become the real storyline around this trip. Reuters reported that Shanahan tried to track the week by looking at his clock and his family’s clock, only to end up staring at “yesterday.” He said Tuesday, then corrected himself to Wednesday, then called the day Monday in Melbourne and Sunday “in the present.”
That’s the kind of disorientation a 15-hour flight and a 17-hour gap can create. NFL weeks are usually built on routine - Wednesday install, Thursday adjustments, Friday polish, Saturday walkthrough, Sunday game day - and San Francisco is trying to run that same rhythm in Australia.
The opener is set for Friday, Sept. 11, 10:35 a.m. AEST at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which lines up as 8:35 p.m.
ET and 5:35 p.m. PT on Thursday, Sept.
- The game will stream on Netflix, with local over-the-air windows in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, per Netflix and the Rams.
The two teams are handling the trip very differently. NFL.com reported that the 49ers arrived Friday morning on a chartered Qantas flight that lasted about 15 hours, and they plan to spend the week on Melbourne time. The Rams, as the designated home team, are expected to arrive about a day before kickoff and keep California hours.
That split is the hidden chess match underneath the travel and the jokes. San Francisco is leaning into early arrival, morning practices, and a full week to settle in. Los Angeles is taking the opposite approach, trying to preserve its normal routine and treat the game like a late-afternoon body clock kickoff.
Sleep researchers consulted by the 49ers pushed the early-arrival plan, Shanahan has said in earlier briefings reported by CBS Sports. The Rams, meanwhile, are approaching the MCG like a road Thursday night game with a long flight attached. Week 1 will be the first test of which method holds up better.
Shanahan’s mood Monday was lighter than it was in March, when he said he saw “not much benefit” in opening overseas. This time, he told ESPN that his earlier complaint was really about the competitive side of it: the Rams usually end up with a 49ers-heavy crowd at SoFi Stadium, and moving this matchup to Australia “let them off the hook.” He still expects plenty of 49ers fans in a stadium that seats about 100,000.
The players have had a little more time to take in the trip. Christian McCaffrey called the food, coffee, and people a “cool experience,” per ESPN.
A group of 49ers also watched Geelong and Carlton draw 96,680 fans to the same ground Friday night, Reuters reported. Shanahan, after a 30-minute walk, said the surprise was that he didn’t see kangaroos or crocodiles on every corner.
There is still real football information behind the delay. San Francisco placed defensive end Sam Okuayinonu on injured reserve with a foot injury and left him home, according to NFL.com and team reports. Nick Bosa and George Kittle both traveled and have been working back from 2025 season-ending injuries, but their Week 1 status won’t be official until the first required report.
Cam Inman of the Mercury News reported that Monday’s practice was a non-padded session under partly sunny skies in the upper 50s. That was the setting for Shanahan’s little calendar stunt: shorts and sweats, a quiet crowd at the team’s Melbourne Rectangular Stadium base, and a coach buying himself one more day before he has to put anything on paper.
The league will get its report soon enough. Until then, Shanahan gets to use geography as a shield, and maybe as a punchline. The clock may be confusing, but the rules are not.
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