NFL Announces That The Rams Are Headed To Australia

It turns out that the reports of the NFL looking to expand its Southern Hemisphere slate were true.

On Wednesday the league announced that it will be playing a game in Melbourne, Australia in 2026 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground — which holds 100,000; can you believe that many people want to pay to watch cricket?! — with the Los Angeles Rams already being named as the home team for the occasion.

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"This is a big statement,"  NFL Executive Vice President, Peter O'Reilly  Peter O’Reilly said, per the Associated Press. "Probably a few years ago, you may not have thought this was a reality. I’d say the commissioner, the 32 owners, there’s a commitment to become a true global sport property. 

"That means expanding our footprint, that means going to different parts of the world and exposing more fans around the world, in this case, fans in Australia and Melbourne, to our great sport."

It's also being reported that one of the reasons the NFL was keen on going Down Under was its hopes that it could help flag football appear on the bill for the 2032 Olympic Games, which will be in Brisbane.

Alright, we've got one of the teams, though the NFL didn't name who the opponent will be. It was previously reported that it would be the Philadelphia Eagles, who happen to have Australian left tackle Jordan Mailata.

"We could not be more excited," Rams President Kevin Demoff said. "As soon as this opportunity came about, we were the first to raise our hands and say we want to play in that first game in Australia."

What will be interesting is the logistics. I don't know how up-to-speed you are on geography, but Australia is quite a few miles and time zones away.

O'Reilly said that the game would likely be held in Week 1 because of the travel involved and that kickoff would be in primetime on the United States East Coast, which would be around noon (the following day) in Melbourne.

I'm looking forward to it, but we'll see how that kind of travel impacts teams.