Rams are betting they can beat jet lag by ignoring it in wild 16-hour Australia gamble

Late Tuesday night, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, the Los Angeles Rams will attempt to pull off their most ambitious play of the season well before head coach Sean McVay ever calls one.

The strategy seems simple: Fly nearly 16 hours to Australia, cross the international date line, land in Melbourne Thursday (local time), check into the hotel, go to sleep and wake up and play an NFL game.

Meanwhile, the team’s opponent, the San Francisco 49ers have already been on the ground in Melbourne for days, acclimating to the time change. The Rams are deliberately doing the opposite. Naturally, only one of these strategies will prevail.

McVay and the Rams chose to remain in Los Angeles as long as possible before departing late Tuesday night for their season opener against their longtime NFC West rivals at the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground at 10:35 a.m. Friday (local time), 5:30 p.m. PT Thursday.

The Rams’ theory is an assault on jet lag: Don’t give the body enough time to realize where it is.

“We’ll sleep through the night, and then we’ll get there and have kind of a rhythm,” McVay said before practice Sunday.

There is at least one significant perk: The 53 football players won’t be attempting to sleep upright in economy.

“They’ve got full lay-flat beds,” McVay said. “All of our players have that.”

The massive charter will allow everyone to fully stretch out and sleep, an important component of a travel strategy developed with the Rams’ sports medicine and performance staff. McVay said the organization also consulted people from other sports and others experienced with similar long-distance travel.

The Rams even tested elements of the plan beforehand.

“It’s about keeping guys in their normal rhythm and routine,” McVay said. “Everything that we do, I would hope our guys know that everything we do is what we think is best.”

The Rams have a precedent that this strategy can work, albeit on a much smaller scale. Last season, the Rams remained in Baltimore following a game against the Ravens before flying to London the night before kickoff in a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

The result was a rout by the Rams, who led the game 28–0 in the fourth quarter before flying back to LA with a 35–7 victory.

“Obviously, we have experience with it, even though we went a different direction last year in London,” said quarterback Matthew Stafford about the team’s travel plans. “I felt like it worked out for us. I think guys enjoy being home. I feel confident in the way we’re going about it and we’ll be ready to rock and roll come Friday morning.”

Stafford is right about it working last season, but Australia is a different beast compared to London. The flight is considerably longer and the time difference is much more severe.

McVay knows he’ll be judged on the outcome: Win and the Rams cracked the international-travel code; lose sluggishly and everyone will wonder why the 49ers were acclimating in Australia all week while the Rams were back home practicing like it was a home game at SoFi Stadium.

McVay isn’t interested in feeding that debate.

“I’m not really worrying about it because I know what our plans are,” he said. “We’re going to follow that plan, and then we’re going to focus on our preparation and try to be at our best and go swing.”

Eventually, even McVay had enough.

“If you guys ask me any more questions about it,” he joked, “I’m kind of tired.”

His players were happy to talk about it though and they didn’t seem to be worried.

“We did the same thing in London and we went out there and handled business,” said wide receiver Davante Adams who had three touchdowns in that game. “We’ve got a lot of smart people here, a lot smarter than me, to make decisions.”

One thing is for certain: McVay will have his full complement of players available in Australia.

McVay said Friday the entire team would make the flight, and when asked Sunday whether the expectation remained that Puka Nacua and Alaric Jackson would be eligible to play amid questions about possible NFL discipline, his answer was unequivocal.

“Yeah, absolutely,” McVay said. “That’s what I’ve heard. I haven’t heard anything differently.”

He added that they still haven’t made a decision on whether Aaron Donald will play: “We’re taking it one day at a time.”

So the Rams will board their enormous charter Tuesday night with their roster intact, beds flattened and body clocks still set to Los Angeles.

About 16 hours later, they’ll wake up on the other side of the world.

By Thursday evening, we’ll know whether McVay’s unusual experiment is remembered as brilliant sports science or second-guessed on their journey all the way back across the Pacific. 

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