On September 10, the NFL will play its first-ever regular-season game in Australia (where it will be September 11 at kickoff). While it may be the first time the NFL plays a game that counts in the land of koalas and kookaburras, it apparently won’t be the last.
In a press conference at the location of the Week 1 49ers-Rams game in Melbourne, Commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear the NFL will be back.
“There’s no question that we’re going to be playing here again,” Goodell said, via Reuters. “Our view is that we’re coming here for the long term. We don’t come as a one-off. This isn’t a circus.”
But it sort of is a circus. Because the circus typically comes to town once per year. While that may be enough to fill a stadium, it’s not enough to fully monetize the product internationally.
Look at England. The NFL has been playing regular-season games in London for 20 years. And the NFL is still struggling to get sustainable traction there.
Last year’s Week 1 Chiefs-Chargers game in Brazil — which was streamed globally at no cost by YouTube — had an international audience of 1.2 million.
The U.S. population is in the vicinity of 350 million. The rest of the world has 7.9 billion people. This means that only 0.015 percent of the rest of the planet watched the game.
That’s not deterring the league from rolling the stone up a steep hill, even if some think the NFL should realize that it’s not really working. And it won’t work until international viewership improves, dramatically. That’s where the real money is, as the NFL has learned in its domestic experience.
And so Australia will now become a stop on the NFL’s traveling non-circus circus. It could be an annual thing; asked whether the 2026 game means the NFL could be back in 2027, Goodell said, “It might.”
Might is the key word. In America, the NFL has plenty of it. It wants to get more of it beyond our borders.
It’s obviously a long-term play. The overriding question is how long it will take. And whether, at some point, it’s going to hit a hard ceiling on how big it will be.
Rams Clips
Tickets to the NFL’s first regular-season game in Australia had high prices and sold fast anyway, which is good for the NFL’s bottom line but bad for the fans of American football Down Under who say they were priced out of seeing the Week One game between the 49ers and Rams in Melbourne.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that many fans said there was no realistic way to get tickets, as tens of thousands of people were in the virtual Ticketmaster line the moment tickets went on sale. One fan said within 26 minutes of tickets going on sale, the only seats left were ones with restricted views, with prices ranging from $560 to $630 Australian ($392 to $441 American).
The NFL’s Australia office said more than 151,000 fans registered their interest in buying tickets to the game at Melbourne Cricket Ground, which has a capacity of 100,000.
The Rams-49ers game kicks off at 8:35 p.m. ET on Thursday, September 10, which in Melbourne is 10:35 a.m. on Friday, September 11. Local Australian officials told the NFL that there was huge demand for an NFL game in Australia, and that the game would sell out the Melbourne Cricket Ground at any time on any date. The fast sales of tickets for a Friday morning game have proven that true. And frustrating to the fans who can’t get in.
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
The decision of quarterback Kirk Cousins to sign with the Raiders removes from the board a potential backup option for the Rams. And it potentially kicks the door a little wider for a return by Jimmy Garoppolo.
Via Nate Atkins of The Athletic, Garoppolo is currently “weighing a few options” as he plans his next move.
He doesn’t need to rush; since entering the league in 2014, Garoppolo has made $156 million. His days as a starter are likely over, but there’s still a need for him.
The Cardinals were interested. After talks hit a snag, Arizona pivoted to Gardner Minshew. It’s still possible, in theory, that Garoppolo could supplant Jacoby Brissett there.
The Packers also need a veteran backup. They were interested in Cousins. Perhaps they could also be interested in Garoppolo.
He also could wait. Injuries happen. Urgency could lead to better financial offers. Now 34, he doesn’t need to rush into the wrong spot. He can wait for the right one, whenever and wherever it may emerge.
Earlier this week, Kirk Cousins was supposedly taking his time. Just like that, he’s doing a deal with the Raiders.
He had options, obviously. The Rams were interested in him as the backup to Matthew Stafford, if Jimmy Garoppolo doesn’t return. The Packers were interested, too.
His decision to sign with the Raiders means that no clear-cut starting opportunity was available. The Cardinals apparently never came calling. The Steelers could have been a possibility, if Aaron Rodgers doesn’t play in 2026.
But the Raiders wanted a veteran. Coach Klint Kubiak said so on Tuesday. And Cousins becomes the bridge quarterback, turning his $10 million guarantee for 2026 into $20 million, when factoring in next year’s $10 million guaranteed roster bonus.
Cousins also may have had an offer from CBS. The Matt Ryan chair is open, and Cousins was excellent in his playoff assignment there. (Kyle Long was, too.)
Still, Cousins wasn’t going to make $20 million at CBS this year. TV can wait, and it will be there when he’s done. Even if CBS may not have a seat when Cousins is ready, he likely has the confidence that someone will make room for him at the appropriate time.
The real question is the extent to which Cousins will play in 2026. But at least he knows going in that his new team will most likely be picking a quarterback in Round 1. Unlike two years ago, when the Falcons blindsided him by picking Michael Penix Jr. only weeks after giving Cousins $100 million in guarantees.
In the aftermath of the disclosure by attorney Levi McCathern that Rams receiver Puka Nacua has entered rehab, McCathern has issued a full statement regarding the development.
“Puka takes responsibility for his well-being and increasing his performance during the off-season,” McCathern said. “So, in early March — before any temporary restraining order was filed by Madison Atiabi and subsequently denied by the Court — Puka voluntarily entered a holistic care facility to focus on his personal growth.
“He is committed to using this time constructively so that he can return in the best possible position — both personally and professionally — to continue contributing to his team and the game he loves. He will complete the program in plenty of time to be involved in all of the Rams OTAs. Puka is also deeply grateful for the support he has received from his family, friends, Coach [Sean] McVay, and his teammates.
“It is unfortunate that a trivial lawsuit has drawn attention to Puka during a time when he is focused on becoming a better overall person. I am really excited to see what the future holds for this gifted young man.”
Obviously, it will be for the judicial system to determine whether and to what extent the lawsuit against Nacua (which alleges that he bit a woman twice on New Year’s Eve and made an antisemitic comment) is “trivial.” His current situation isn’t. And it’s good that he has taken meaningful steps to improve his overall situation.
There’s a significant financial reason for doing so. With Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba recently resetting the market at the position ($42.15 million per year in new-money annual average), Nacua is eligible for a new deal. The Rams will need to be comfortable that he’s reay for the significant infusion of cash that will come with a massive new contract.
Rams receiver Puka Nacua has entered rehab. His lawyer, Levi McCathern, confirmed the development to Edward Lewis of the California Post.
McCathern said the move wasn’t a direct response to the lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed he bit her twice (and made an antisemitic remark) on New Year’s Eve. He claimed, however, to the Post that “the combination of stories y’all have run is certainly a contributing factor.”
“He was in there a substantial period of time before any of these allegations broke . . . and he’s scheduled to be there for a while longer,” McCathern told Lewis.
McCathern said the goal is “to improve his overall behavior in every aspect of his life that he can do it.”
Regarding the New Year’s Eve incident, a video later surfaced showing Nacua asleep (possibly passed out) in a vehicle. Previously, a video emerged of a stumbling Nacua on Super Bowl Sunday.
“I have talked to him,” McCathern told Lewis, regarding Nacua. “He’s in great spirits. I think he’s doing absolutely fabulous. I’m just really excited for how he’s going to look next year. For as great as he was, I think he’s going to be even better going forward.”
Anyone who takes steps to address issues that need to be addressed deserves credit. No problem anyone is dealing with can be solved until they recognize the problem exists.
There’s one way to keep 49ers fans from taking over SoFi Stadium during a “road” game against the Rams.
Move it to Melbourne.
In a joint interview with Packers coach Matt LaFleur, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said he knows “for a fact” that the Rams pushed to have their home game against the 49ers be the game that was sent from La La Land to the Land Down Under.
“I’m pretty sure the Rams lobbied for that game,” LaFleur said when the subject of the Australia game came up.
“I know for a fact they did,” Shanahan said. “That’s what’s so bothersome.”
Shanahan joked (we think) that he wants the 49ers’ “home” game in Mexico to have the Rams as the visiting team.
Still, Shanahan understands why the Rams would want to avoid seeing a home game against the 49ers become a home game for the 49ers. (The Chargers were surely thinking about that last year, when a potential Chiefs takeover of SoFi Stadium was moved to Brazil.)
“That would suck to have to do silent cadence and to have our home game at their stadium,” Shanahan said. “So I get their ambitions, but they were rewarded that. So I’m just hoping we can get our request, too. I’d love them to come to Mexico.”
Having both ends of a home-and-home series played on foreign soil would be unprecedented, to say the least. And it would be an interesting tweak, if it ever happens.
For now, we’ll all settle for the interesting reality that the Rams found a way to tweak the 49ers by successfully persuading the NFL to export what would have been another 49ers home game.
With 1:13 remaining in the first half of the NFC Championship Game, Rams coach Sean McVay called a pass, which fell incomplete, stopping the clock. The next play was another incomplete pass. That forced the Rams to punt with 1:03 left, giving the Seahawks plenty of time and timeouts to march down the field for a touchdown before halftime.
McVay still regrets that.
McVay called his clock management at that point in the game a “major mistake” in his appearance on PFT Live this week. When he looks back on the 2025 season, he doesn’t worry about things he couldn’t control, but it does still irk him that he could have called better plays in that situation than he called.
“I try not to dwell on stuff that really doesn’t move me forward,” McVay said. “Now, what I do dwell on is that NFC Championship Game. One thing you don’t do in a two-minute situation, don’t put the defense back out on the field. We run it on a first-and-10, and then you know what? Should have run it again. They got three timeouts, we end up throwing it, it goes incomplete, then we go incomplete on third down, give them three downs, they go score a touchdown. Changes the momentum of that going into the half. So, what I do evaluate are some of those after-action reviews on situationally.”
McVay said there were other decisions he made that drew criticism, like a failed fourth down in the fourth quarter, that he stands by. But he could have handled clock management better.
“What I would do differently is handle the end of the first half differently,” McVay said. “Handle some things differently game management-wise.”
Rams General Manager Les Snead says he was interested in trading for Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown.
“We chatted with Philly, nothing worked out,” Snead said on PFT Live. “There were talks, we had discussions, didn’t work out. That happens.”
Snead did not say why the trade didn’t work out, but the Rams have confirmed that they also discussed trading Davante Adams away if they had acquired Brown. Snead said he and head coach Sean McVay both believe in being upfront with players if there’s a chance they could be traded, so they told Adams it was possible.
“As soon as any of those discussions take a certain level, we should definitely make that phone call,” Snead said. “I think all players appreciate the transparency.”
The Eagles potentially trading Brown has been one of the most-discussed stories of this NFL offseason. It hasn’t happened yet, but Snead confirmed it’s not just a much-discussed story among fans and the media. Those discussions are happening in NFL front offices as well.
