With the 49ers going Down Under, some fans might be questioning why the team should travel halfway across the world for an American-centric sport. The answer is rather quite simple.
The news that the Los Angeles Rams are making the San Francisco 49ers pack everything up and go to Australia for a week couldn't surprise a soul.
After all the Niners fans coined SoFI Stadium road games against the Rams a trip to "Levi's South" for a reason. It's a bona fide home game, given red and gold appears everywhere in the stadium and turns the Rams into visitors.
Don't just take my word on that, ask superstar Rams receiver Puka Nacua his opinion on the subject.
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But inevitably, there's going to be fans that are going to complain. Why should the 49ers sacrifice a game in California (even if not officially a home game) to go trekking off to a place where their version of football is equal parts confusion and an insane version of "kill that guy with the ball"?
(By the way, if you want to know why the NFL and college football is saturated with Australian punters, look how they kick this thing):
A fair question, and one that is so very easily answered. The NFL has become exponentially more popular in Australia, to an insane degree.
For example, 2.6 millon Australians watched Super Bowl LIX last year where the Philadelphia Eagles (and Australian left tackle Jordan Mailata) defeated the Kansas City Chiefs. Before you say "so what, 2.6 million isn't that impressive," keep in mind that Australia's population clocks in at around 27 million people, which means almost 10 percent of Australians watched the Super Bowl.
The NFL is becoming a big deal, that's the point here.
With Australia featuring the 49ers as one half of the first-ever NFL regular-season game in the country, this is a big chance for the Niners to tap into a fanbase of Australians who don't have a team. A chance to showcase their ability in a different way, not get up at 3:30 a.m. on a Monday morning and hope the team they liked was one of the televised game before streaming became the norm.
This might be a good time to mention that I myself am Australian as well.
Now with that said, can't you imagine the appeal of Brock Purdy holding a koala on the local news? Fred Warner trying Vegemite for the first time? (pro tip: don't slather it on like peanut butter, people), George Kittle... well, just being George Kittle, I suppose.
What can be very easily taken for granted somewhere is a rare delicacy in the eyes of someone else. I, and many other Niners, Rams and fans of other teams are going to get a chance to do something that a lot of people reading this could easily do in their lifetime: Go to a game.
Isn't that worth one week of the season to be played elsewhere?
It may be Australian bias speaking, but I think so.