49ers Beat Rams in NFL's First Game in Australia

The San Francisco 49ers routed divisional rival the Los Angeles Rams 27-7 on Friday, Sept. 11, in Melbourne, winning the first regular-season NFL game ever played in Australia before 100,021 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, according to a game report. The crowd was the seventh-largest in NFL regular-season history and the second-largest for an international game, behind only the 103,467 who watched the Arizona Cardinals beat the 49ers at Mexico City's Estadio Azteca in October 2005. Brock Purdy threw touchdown passes to Mike Evans, Demarcus Robinson and Deebo Samuel. The matchup was the first of a record nine international games the NFL is staging in 2026, with Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro and Paris serving as first-time hosts. The league has committed to at least three regular-season games in Rio over the next five years and one more game in Melbourne within three years. Later stops include London, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City. The Melbourne game required the longest trip in league history, a flight of roughly 16 hours from the U.S. West Coast and about 10,000 miles from the NFL's New York headquarters.