Los Angeles Rams linebacker Byron Young gave fans a look inside the chartered Airbus A380 carrying the team on its journey to Melbourne, Australia, where the Super Bowl favorites face the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL season opener on Thursday night, which is Friday morning local time.
The Rams took off on the roughly 15-hour flight after completing practice on Tuesday. Young posted footage to his Instagram story as he boarded, laughing as he told followers, "I'm feeling boujee right now," before panning the camera around the spacious, fully reclining seats given to each player.
Every seat came with a Qantas blanket in Rams colors, along with pillows, a full personal entertainment screen and plenty of room to stretch out.
"Full-size, this crazy," Young added of the aircraft. "Two-floor, double-decker. So boujee." The Airbus A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner, built with two full passenger decks, which explains Young's excitement at the layout.
Why the Rams chose a quick turnaround
Rather than travel early to adjust to the time difference, the Rams are making an in-and-out trip designed to keep their bodies from registering the change in time zone at all.
Head coach Sean McVay explained the thinking behind the approach. "We'll sleep through the night, and then we'll get there and have kind of a rhythm. They've got full lay-flat beds. All of our players have that," McVay said. "It's about keeping guys in their normal rhythm and routine. Everything that we do, I would hope our guys know that everything we do is what we think is best."
In total, the Rams will spend about 30 hours in the air covering more than 15,000 miles. McVay's team is scheduled to land back in Los Angeles around midday on Friday, local time, having been away from the city for less than 72 hours.
Speaking to reporters this week, McVay defended the decision without elaborating further. "It doesn't mean that we think we're right and a different approach is wrong," he said. "It's just what we think is best based on the things that we've done and what we've learned over our time here."
How the 49ers prepared differently
San Francisco took the opposite approach, flying out across the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, September 2, and landing in Melbourne on the Friday morning, giving them days to adjust before kickoff.
The Rams also did things differently last year when they faced the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, arriving on the Saturday before winning the following day and returning home quickly afterward. That trip, however, began from the East Coast of the United States after Los Angeles had played the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore the week before, which dramatically cut down the travel compared with this week's journey from the West Coast to Australia.
Stafford on keeping the routine normal
Quarterback Matthew Stafford said the team was leaning on its usual weekly schedule rather than treating the trip as anything unusual. "I feel like we're just keeping it as normal as we possibly can," Stafford said. "Sunday is like a Wednesday for us in our world. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, hop on the plane and go. We obviously have experience with doing it in a different direction, all that kind of stuff, I understand last year in London, but it felt like it worked out for us."
The Rams and 49ers are set to kick off from the Melbourne Cricket Ground at 8.35pm EST on Thursday in the United States. The Melbourne Cricket Ground, one of the largest stadiums in the world, has become a regular host for the NFL as the league continues to expand its slate of international games beyond its long-running series in London.
