The Los Angeles Rams' travel plans have been revealed.
One of the more interesting topics of conversation in the NFL is how the Los Angeles Rams prepare for international travel. Head coach Sean McVay has kept the "science" of his process a secret and has not been very forthcoming about when the team will leave.
That has now been revealed, as NFL insider Adam Schefter revealed on X that the Rams will be leaving on Wednesday, Sep. 9 to prepare for their game against the San Francisco 49ers in Australia.
This move is a whole week after the 49ers, who have left on Wednesday. Additionally, this is also the day before the game for the Rams, which is a very interesting choice.
McVay has spent a lot of time working with sleep doctors to determine the best possible way not to throw the player off their circadian rhythyms, to ensure they can be as competitive as possible.
Whatever science he and his team have worked out did wonders for the Rams back in 2025, as they cruised to a 35-7 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Considering the victory, the media have hounded McVay over the past few weeks and months to answer travel questions, which he has coyly ignored or skirted around. Now, it appears those questions do not need to be answered any longer.
What makes this announcement even more interesting is whether or not the plane carrying the Los Angeles players will also have defensive end Aaron Donald.
Donald recently announced on Sunday that he would end his retirement to play for the Rams one final time. The issue with that is that he is still ramping back up to football shape, and McVay himself said they would take things a bit slower to allow the future Hall of Famer the time to get his body back into football shape.
Regardless of the fact that Donald has kept in fantastic shape, he has not actively played football for two years, hence both McVay and the defender himself speaking on needing time to get reacclimated to football.
That said, it does point to the fact that the Rams may not want to push Donald to fly into international territory and get ready for a Week 1 game so soon.
The travel alone is taxing enough, but to have to reset one's sleeping behaviors and play in an unknown country might not be in the cards for Donald.
Donald might also still fly out to Australia, but simply not play in the first game. He was granted a special two-game exemption so that he can get ready. Whether or not he uses that remains to be seen.
