49ers and Rams Open NFL Season in Historic Melbourne Game

The San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams open the 2026 NFL season on Thursday night in the first regular-season game ever played in Australia, meeting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with kickoff set for 8:35 p.m. ET, which is Friday morning locally. The game streams exclusively on Netflix in the United States, with local NBC broadcasts in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles markets. The matchup carries early weight in the NFC West race, as the winner will sit atop the division standings after Week 1. Both teams are looking to rebound from playoff exits last season, when the Seattle Seahawks eliminated each of them and went on to win the Super Bowl. The Rams enter 2026 as the betting favorite to win Super Bowl LXI after an offseason that included a blockbuster trade for two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and the return of Aaron Donald from retirement. Donald, however, did not make the trip to Australia.