For American TV viewers, the 49ers and Rams are scheduled for Thursday Night Football—but the game is being played in Australia, where it is already Friday. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, speaking from Australia on Monday (Sunday in the U.S.), said he is trying to keep his team on a normal routine as if the game were on Sunday, which is Monday locally.
“We’re a little confused,” Shanahan said. “When I look at my clock and it says a time, then I try to see my family’s time, and it says yesterday, I don’t even get how that’s possible. I feel like I’m in the future. And then when we play on Friday—which I think is Thursday in the U.S.—we’re such creatures of habit. So I call today Tuesday. No, wait, Wednesday. That’s the first day we put in a game plan. But I think it’s Monday. However, though, it’s Sunday in the present. So I’m gonna mess that up all week if you guys ask me. But today is just our first day of the game plan, which is a Wednesday, and we’ll put in some on a Thursday. Friday’s the final part of the game plan. Saturday, we walk through and we play on Sunday, which is a Friday in Australia and a Thursday in the US. So, don’t ever make me do that again.”
Shanahan said he is adhering to the same schedule as the Rams, who remain in the U.S., and that the 49ers will not issue an injury report until the Rams do.
“Because we’re technically in the future, from where we’re from, and the Rams are in the present, I don’t have to talk about injuries until tomorrow,” Shanahan said on Monday in Australia, or Sunday in the U.S.
Despite flying 16 hours to a place with a 17-hour time difference, Shanahan said he is suffering no ill effects from the travel and will be ready to coach his team on Thursday Night Football on Friday.
“It’s taken a couple days to adjust but I’m feeling real good today,” Shanahan said on Monday—or Sunday.
