Well, the Los Angeles Rams made it. The team arrived in Melbourne, Australia, nearly a week after their Week 1 opponent, the San Francisco 49ers. The two teams will clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday night (Friday morning in Melbourne).
While the 49ers arrived early enough to acclimate to the 17-hour time difference between Melbourne and California, the Rams took a drastically different approach. They landed about a day before kickoff and will head home shortly after the game, making for a quick international trip.
It's unclear which strategy will work best, and both teams have data to support their respective approaches. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked if he believes his team took the right approach.
"I don't think there's an answer to that," Shanahan said. "I think some guys, it'll help, some guys, it'll hurt. That'll be the case for us. That'll be the case for them. I bet there's some guys on our team that it would have helped to just come in right away and get out right away, and I think there's a lot of guys that would be miserable for. I think it's going to go both ways on that."
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The NFL isn't slowing down in scheduling international regular-season games, so Shanahan believes the 49ers' and Rams' experiences could provide a useful case study for future teams facing similarly lengthy journeys.
"The real thing that's going to help this game the most or hurt this game the most is who plays better football," Shanahan added. "And whoever doesn't, we can say it's because of whatever schedule you chose, or we can say it's because you missed an assignment, or we can say it's because you had a bad play, you got beat by the guy in front of you.
"There's too many variables that go into this stuff with 53 guys on each team, with three-and-a-half hours of football, with 22 players out there. To me, to overthink or over-say anything, that it's one that gives a team the big advantage over the other."
The Rams arrived without defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who will not play in Week 1 after putting his retirement on hold and signing a one-year deal with his former team. However, the 49ers offense will still have to contend with another elite pass rusher in defensive end Myles Garrett.
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