One week ago, the Rams made their debut in Australia. It didn’t go well; the 49ers drubbed the Rams, 27-7.
For that reason, coach Sean McVay hopes the assignment doesn’t come their way again.
“It’s almost like you try to do the Men in Black thing where you say, ‘Hey, I don’t remember what happened. That was so long ago,’” McVay told reporters on Thursday. “We’re not playing in Australia ever again, I hope. Not because it wasn’t a great atmosphere, that’ll get taken out of context.”
The atmosphere was great. The burden on the teams was not. The strategy of showing up the day before the game ended up being a miscalculation.
Either way, the Rams have 16 games to play. Starting with a visit from the Giants on Monday night.
“Bottom line is, I like the way that I feel of our preparation, eyes moving forward, chest out, chin up, eyes forward, and let’s go be about it,” McVay said. “Let’s go prepare the right way. Let’s have great focus and concentration. Let’s have a great energy and an edge in which we prepare and compete with and then let’s go be ready to go against a really damn good football team. What they looked like in Week 1, we got a great challenge ahead. That’s what every week is. We’re excited to compete. All we can do is really have a great day of preparation today.”
It remains to be seen whether the two long flights with a football game as the Vegemite in the sandwich will affect the Rams in Week 2, or beyond. Either way, an up-and-coming Giants team is coming to town — and thousands of Giants fans in the L.A. area are surely scrambling to buy tickets for the prime-time game at SoFi Stadium.
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The Brian Flores litigation has uncovered a potentially significant document through a subpoena issued to the Korn Ferry search firm. And Korn Ferry is trying to keep the document out of public view.
The document has been designated as confidential under a general protective order that allows the parties to claim that certain materials should not be disclosed. Flores’s lawyers have challenged the effort to keep it secret.
Via Daniel Kaplan, Korn Ferry filed paperwork on Thursday in support of the effort to keep the document under seal. Korn Ferry argues, among other things, that “whether the limited information from Exhibit A that Korn Ferry requests remain sealed is purportedly `discriminatory’ or `retaliatory,’ such that it supports and is relevant to Plaintiff’s claims in the Supplemental Complaint, has no bearing on whether Korn Ferry is legally entitled to have Exhibit A remain under seal.”
This statement suggests, as Kaplan notes, that Flores’s lawyers have argued that the document helps prove that he was the victim of discrimination and/or retaliation.
The document in question, which one source called “insane,” was generated by Korn Ferry in connection with a coaching search conducted by the Raiders. The precise Raiders coaching search isn’t specified; the Raiders have hired new coaches in 2026, 2025, 2024, 2022, and 2018.
If the document shows potential retaliation, it means that it came from a coaching search after the filing of Flores’s lawsuit, on February 1, 2022. Because the Raiders hired Josh McDaniels on January 31, 2022, it would limit the potential application of the document to the search that resulted in the hiring of Antonio Pierce in 2024, Pete Carroll in 2025, or Klint Kubiak in 2026.
Two of those searches happened after Tom Brady — who played for the Patriots when Flores served on the coaching staff there — became a minority owner of the team.
Regardless of whether the document comes to light in the short term, it’ll definitely be disclosed and discussed if/when the case goes to trial. If the document is truly bad for the NFL and the various teams that have been sued, it could result in the case being settled before the document ever comes to light.
The Giants expect Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald to play on Monday night. Rams coach Sean McVay is “hopeful.”
McVay said before practice that Donald would fully participate on Thursday, and indeed, Donald is not on the team’s injury report. (Donald’s roster exemption was lifted Friday.)
Donald did not travel to Australia with the team, staying at home to continue working his way back from a two-year absence from football. He participated in individual drills for the first time on Aug. 30 and joined team drills on Sept. 6.
McVay said the Rams are not looking for specific benchmarks to determine whether Donald plays for the first time since 2023.
“It’s more along the line of how does he feel?” McVay said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.
Donald is “obviously champing at the bit” to play, but the Rams’ travel schedule to Australia has prevented limited practice opportunities for Donald.
“But what we are hopeful is, is that we’ll have some good work today and tomorrow and then hopefully he’s feeling good enough and if he says he’s ready to go, then we’ll be excited to see him,” McVay said.
Rams defensive end Myles Garrett is “feeling good” after knee surgery on Monday, but the reigning Defensive Player of the Year has no timeline for his return. Garrett was on crutches on Wednesday and walking without them Thursday.
Because Garrett is on injured reserve, he will miss at least the next four games.
“We’re not going to rush him back,” McVay said. “We want to make sure that he’s feeling good, he’s able to get out on the practice field, do all the things that are necessary for him to perform at a level that he’s been accustomed to.”
The Rams have made one of their expected roster moves official on Thursday.
Myles Garrett has been placed on injured reserve, Los Angeles announced.
It was reported on Sunday that Garrett would have knee surgery and be placed on IR after an ineffective performance to start the season in the loss to the 49ers.
Head coach Sean McVay said earlier this week that the team had believed that Garrett’s knee injury was something he could work through.
Now, Garrett is officially out for at least the next four weeks.
The Rams did not announce a corresponding move, leaving a roster spot open.
The Rams will host the Giants on Monday night.
Few TV shows have a more dramatic disconnect between industry and viewer response than the ManningCast. The Peyton and Eli Show, an alternate Monday Night Football broadcast that will be televised 11 times during the regular season and the Super Bowl, continues to draw rave reviews from the critics — while not moving the needle that truly matters.
On Monday night, for example, only 705,000 of the 23.2 million viewers who watched the Broncos-Chiefs game were tuned in to ESPN2 for the combination football broadcast/talk show, via Andrew Marchand of The Athletic.
That’s only three pecent of the total audience.
This year, the stakes become even higher, given that ESPN reportedly plans to have a Pat McAfee alternate broadcast on ESPN2 during the weeks that the Mannings don’t do their show. What if the McAfee show outperforms the ManningCast?
The ultimate apples-to-apple comparison will happen during the Super Bowl, if the primary broadcast is accompanied by both a ManningCast and a McAfeeFest.
Everyone involved will say all the right things. They’re teammates. The numbers don’t matter. Yada. Yada. Yada. And they’ll all obsess over the numbers, with whoever draws the smaller crowd becoming tormented by the final verdict, as issued by those who control the remote. Control.
Rams head coach Sean McVay said on Monday that the team has not decided whether defensive tackle Aaron Donald will play in Week 2, but the opposing head coach believes he knows the answer.
The Giants will be in Los Angeles for a Monday night game and head coach John Harbaugh said that the team believes Donald will be making his first appearance since coming out of retirement.
“We are expecting him to play,” Harbaugh said, via Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. “We are expecting him to be Aaron Donald. He’s a game-wrecker.”
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan had the same expectation heading into last Thursday’s game, but Donald did not travel to Australia with the Rams for the opener. Shanahan did have to contend with Myles Garrett, who was ineffective while trying to play through a knee injury that landed him on injured reserve this week.
We’ll likely find out closer to kickoff if Harbaugh and the Giants are going to have to deal with either one.
The first Sunday of Week 1 ended with the latest installment of the Cowboys-Giants rivalry. As expected, it drew a big crowd.
The game averaged 25.7 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. It made 2026 the first year since 2015 with both the kickoff game and the Week 1 Sunday night game at 25 million or more.
Viewership peaked at 29.0 million in the second quarter, from 9:00 to 9:15 p.m. ET.
It was also the most-watched Week 1 Sunday night game since 2015, when the Cowboys hosted the Giants. It was a four-percent bump over last year’s Ravens-Bills classic, which Buffalo stormed back to win, 41-40.
The Patriots-Seahawks game to open the season on Wednesday night averaged 25.1 million viewers.
After electing to come out of retirement, Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald did not travel to Australia for the team’s eventual Week 1 loss to the 49ers.
But will he play in the Week 2 matchup against the Giants?
Head coach Sean McVay said on Monday that’s still to be determined.
“We haven’t decided that yet,” McVay said in his video conference, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN. “He’s going to continue to work his process and we’ll see what that looks like.”
Los Angeles’ defense could use a boost from Donald, especially considering that the unit won’t have edge rusher Myles Garrett for at least the next four weeks as he undergoes knee surgery. The 49ers finished with 379 yards, 23 first downs, and 7-of-12 on third down against the Rams last week.
Wide receiver Malik Nabers made his first appearance in the Giants’ lineup in almost a year when he took the field against the Cowboys on Sunday night.
Nabers tore his ACL last September and he remained noncommittal about playing all the way through the week. After the 28-20 win, Nabers said he was up in the air all the way through pregame warmups and that he told his family not to come to the game because he didn’t want to disappoint them by not playing.
“The deciding factor was just when I got out there, I just felt good,” Nabers said after the game. “I felt good. I got a little chill through my body and I was like, “Yeah, it’s time. It’s time.”
Quarterback Jaxson Dart said in his press conference that head coach John Harbaugh tackled Nabers during a walkthrough earlier in the weekend to show the wideout that he was ready. It took a little longer for Nabers to be convinced, but Dart was happy that the outcome allowed him to throw the ball to his top target.
“It was great, it was great. He’s just a guy where, no matter what the coverage is, no matter who they put out there on him, you have all the confidence in the world that he’s going to make a play,” Dart said.
Nabers finished the day with six catches for 69 yards and the Giants will be looking for even bigger numbers now that he’s got the first game back under his belt.
The Giants capped the first Sunday of the 2026 season with their first win under head coach John Harbaugh.
Dallas was the favorite at MetLife Stadium, but the Giants drove for a touchdown the first time they had the ball and never trailed on their way to a 28-20 win that featured plenty to like in every phase of the game. Quarterback Jaxson Dart threw three touchdowns and ran for 54 yards while showing full command of the offense to kick off his second season, and said after the game that the effort was a result of putting everything Harbaugh has been preaching into action.
“I just think that we have so much respect for coach Harbs, and this team will do whatever he says because we have all the faith that he’s going to put us in the best situation to win,” Dart said. “The identity of a team starts at the top and it starts with how he’s conducted himself, with how he’s created a tough team. We want to take that on our shoulders and we bought in to what his plan is week in and week out. We’re definitely happy to get it for him. We were just really happy to get it — not only for the players but for the organization.”
It’s the first time the Giants opened a season with a win since 2022, which was the last time that they ended a season with a trip to the playoffs. Sunday night’s performance will have some around the team thinking about a similar destination and it will be on Harbaugh to make sure that no one gets too far ahead of themselves after a stirring debut.
