![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The Week 1 game will be played on Thursday US time, with the Rams and 49ers likely have 10 days to recover before they play again on home soil.<\/p>\n
While tickets have been in high demand, and incredibly expensive, thanks to the massive and growing number of Aussie NFL fans Shanahan complained from his team\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see any pro,\u201d Shanahan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool for the league to play globally. I think that\u2019s awesome. But as far as the team doing it, no, there\u2019s not much benefit to it. Sometimes it\u2019s nice to get a bye week after but doesn\u2019t happen in Week 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
49ers v Rams to clash with AFL Finals | 02:28<\/p>\n
Speaking on ESPN\u2019s rant-and-rave extravaganza First Take, \u2018Mad Dog\u2019 went off on the NFL\u2019s decision, claiming his brief experience living in Sydney some 46 years ago was proof there were no gridiron fans in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is mind-boggling – and good for Shanahan,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the NFL playing Rams and Niners around the world, you know how far it is, it\u2019s a 16-hour plane ride from LA or San Francisco to Melbourne!<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long way, and the game is gonna be played at 10 o\u2019clock in the morning so it\u2019s on 8:35 at night in America the night before. So they\u2019re gonna play a game at 10:35 in the morning local time? And then they\u2019re gonna fly back to America and play in Week 2?<\/p>\n
\u201c(Ex-tennis player) Patrick McEnroe, you know him, he works for ESPN, he tells me all the time when he covers the Australian Open it takes him six days to get over the jet lag!<\/p>\n
Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo ranting about Australia’s interest in the NFL.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd believe me, this idea that the Australians care about football, I lived in Australia! 1980, I went to school at the University of Sydney.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day of the week, I leave Frenchs Forest – a little town in New South Wales – I take a little bus to Chatswood train station, and I would take the Chatswood train station train to Sydney, over Sydney Harbour, that bridge, where the Sydney Opera House is … and then I get ready to go to school.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I buy my Sydney Morning Herald newspaper – you know I love the newspapers – and as a 20-year-old I get that thing, I COULDN\u2019T FIND AN NFL FOOTBALL SCORE NO MATTER WHAT I DID! THEY DON\u2019T CARE ABOUT FOOTBALL IN AUSTRALIA FOR CRYIN\u2019 OUT LOUD!\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point one of his co-hosts interjected with the very reasonable question: \u201cIn 1980?\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mad Dog continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIF I WANTED TO SEE BROWNS-CHARGERS ON A MONDAY NIGHT GAME, I COULDN\u2019T FIND THE SCORE NOWHERE! THERE WAS NO SCORES ANYWHERE!\u201d he proclaimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI FOUND BASEBALL, I FOUND HOCKEY, THEY COULDN\u2019T CARE LESS ABOUT THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE!<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyway, to make a long story short, so now Shanahan has to 16 hours away, play in Melbourne, Australia … but nobody in Australia cares about the National Football League, and I can prove it, because I could never get a Sunday score in the Sydney Morning Herald!\u201d<\/p>\n
No word on whether Mad Dog is aware Australia has the internet now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran US sports radio host Chris \u2018Mad Dog\u2019 Russo has delivered an unhinged live TV rant over upcoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-580296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580296","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=580296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}