The San Francisco 49ers will open their 2026 campaign, their 10th under head coach Kyle Shanahan, with an international battle against the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia, in Week 1.
While some are excited for the opportunity to bring football to a new market, 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams isn’t one of them. In fact, he’s taking this opportunity to take a shot at the Rams and their fans.
“I mean, it took away a home game, in my opinion,” Williams told reporters this week at the team’s organized team activities. “It’s probably the only thing, it’s probably why we had to go to Australia to play the Rams to kind of cover up some of the, you know, deficiencies when it comes to ticket sales on their end when we go to LA. So I’ll just leave it at that, but no, nobody wants to travel 20 hours to play a football game. Like, no, I mean, nobody would ever be excited to do that.”
San Francisco has a fan base that travels very well, and they’ve historically taken over SoFi Stadium whenever the 49ers have played there. However, it seems unlikely that there’s a big conspiracy at play.
It’s understandable that he’s taking issue with the travel to Australia. Even in a luxury aircraft, it wouldn’t be comfortable for these players to be traveling for that long there and back with two games to prepare for.
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This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers superstar takes a hilarious shot at biggest rival’s fan base
Reporting by Mike Masala, Niners Wire / Niners Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mike Masala, Niners Wire | USA TODAY Network
