@sfchronicle: This Friday morning (Thursday evening in the Bay Area) on a continent deep in the Pacific Ocean, fans piled into a 100,000-person stadium to watch an NFL game. For the first time in human history, that’s a real sentence. The San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams made history in their 2026 season opener, playing the NFL’s inaugural game in Australia. Fans of the 49ers made up a majority among those piling into the bowls of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, aggressively booing Rams players as they were introduced while cheering on “coach Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers,” as they were announced by the public address announcer. There was not an open seat by kickoff, 100,000-plus strong and largely red. A father-son 49er fan duo, leaning up against the first row about two hours before kickoff, explained that they flew into Melbourne from Perth on Friday morning. They landed at 5:30 a.m. and came straight to the MCG to soak up their first-ever NFL atmosphere. They marveled at the stadium’s size while processing the fact that they were within shouting distance of Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice, who stood about 30 yards away. “It’s surreal,” said Sascha Niedrich, 50, standing alongside his son Zac, 20. “I started watching the NFL in the days of Montana and Jerry Rice, and that got me onto the Niners, and I’ve been a San Francisco fan ever since.” Read more via the link in our bio.

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