Los Angeles Rams Rumored to Face the San Francisco 49ers in China During 2018 Season

Talks are beginning to heat up about the Los Angeles Rams playing the San Francisco 49ers in China during the 2018 season.

Earlier this year, there were numerous reports surrounding the Los Angeles Rams and the possibility of playing one of their home games in China during the 2018 NFL season. Now, it looks like the Rams may have found a familiar opponent to square off against in what would be quite the historical game–the San Francisco 49ers.

According to the Sports Business Daily, the 49ers have been selected as the opponent for the Rams in China for the play-in game during the 2018 season, even though NFL VP/Communications Brian McCarthy claims nothing is definitive yet. Keep in mind the Rams made an agreement to play at least one game overseas during their first three seasons in Los Angeles–so it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see an opponent selected this far in advance.

As bad as it sounds, having the Rams face a division opponent like the 49ers in China three years from now seems more likely than having the team face another team from the NFC West like the Arizona Cardinals or Seattle Seahawks. While both the Cardinals and Seahawks enter the 2016 season as strong Super Bowl contenders, both franchises have strong enough fan bases that travel well–meaning both fan bases would most likely be extremely upset over the traveling distance to China.

Even if all of this is just talk as of now, it’s crazy to see the types of proposals Roger Goodell continues to come up with as far as expanding the NFL overseas. It was one thing to have teams travel to London for games, but when considering the possible disadvantage Los Angeles and San Francisco could find themselves in from the amount of time it takes to travel back from China seems a bit ridiculous for just one game.