{"id":463392,"date":"2026-02-07T01:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/463392\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T01:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:15:11","slug":"pat-mcafee-says-flight-from-usa-to-australia-is-too-long-mental-battle-for-players-rams-v-49ers-melbourne-reaction-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/463392\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat McAfee says flight from USA to Australia is too long, mental battle for players, Rams v 49ers, Melbourne, reaction, news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reaction from Americans over the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/nfl\/nfl-2026-los-angeles-rams-to-play-san-francisco-49ers-in-melbourne-australia-game-date-details-tickets\/news-story\/3c99fe29dea1dab05cd8db597accb962\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"> NFL\u2019s announcement to schedule a historic regular season fixture in Australia<\/a> has been mixed, with travel time a leading point of contention.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday it was announced that the first ever Australian NFL fixture would be played between the LA Rams and San Francisco 49ers at the MCG.<\/p>\n<p>Watch an average 6 games per week and every game of the NFL Postseason, LIVE with ESPN on Kayo Sports | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kayosports.com.au\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1 &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Both teams are located on the west coast of America and face a flight time of 16 hours to get to Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>Former NFL punter turned popular sports analyst Pat McAfee discussed the Australian fixture with 49ers star George Kittle.<\/p>\n<p>McAfee was a recent visitor to Australia, even attending a Brisbane Lions AFL game last August. <\/p>\n<p>While McAfee loved his time in Australia, he wasn\u2019t as positive about the transit required.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me tell you as someone who has done the flight, while you\u2019re on (the flight) you\u2019re thinking \u2018this is the worst thing I\u2019ve ever done in my life\u2019 because you\u2019re just flying over water,\u201d McAfee said on ESPN\u2019S Pat McAfee Show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no internet so you\u2019re kind of trapped in there and you start to think yourself, \u2018if something does go wrong, where are we, nowhere\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re eight hours in and nothing, ten hours in and nothing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of mental toughness that\u2019s going to have to happen but once you get there, Australia is so beautiful. It\u2019s like a movie. It\u2019s so nice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the trip is ass. There\u2019s no other way to put it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given the hectic travel schedule, it\u2019s expected the Rams-49ers game will be played in the opening week of the season with both teams to enjoy a bye the following week. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAustralia will be a great time. I\u2019ve never been. Excited for the 16 hour flight though. It\u2019ll be great,\u201d Kittle told McAfee sarcastically. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reaction from Americans over the NFL\u2019s announcement to schedule a historic regular season fixture in Australia has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2095,64,63,689,11096,19977,237633,237627,237631,1263,647,237629,9139,44,2041,2067,677,134767,237630,237632,237628,187515,2614,660],"class_list":["post-463392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-america","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-daniel-nuttall","tag-george-kittle","tag-hectic-travel-schedule","tag-historic-regular-season","tag-leading-point","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-melbourne","tag-mental-battle","tag-national-football-league","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-pat-mcafee","tag-popular-sports-analyst","tag-regular-season-fixture","tag-sam-fransisco","tag-travel-time","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}