MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Los Angeles Rams finally touched down in Australia just before dawn on Thursday, and they hope to head home before the sun sets Friday.
They'll have only about 36 hours in Melbourne between their 15-hour flights, but coach Sean McVay remains confident this unusual itinerary provides the Rams' best chance to open the regular season with a difficult win over the San Francisco 49ers.
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Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman David Quessenberry, left, offensive lineman Warren McClendon Jr., centre, and offensive lineman Beaux Limmer, right, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker Myles Garrett, centre, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers., in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.(AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman David Quessenberry, left, offensive lineman Warren McClendon Jr., centre, and offensive lineman Beaux Limmer, right, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Davante Adams, right, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers., in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.(AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers., in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.(AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
“We’re well-rested. We feel good,” McVay said Thursday after the Rams' brief practice at Marvel Stadium, the retractable-roof venue just 3 1/2 kilometers from the game venue, the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
McVay added that many of his players “got to sleep through the night" on their journey from Los Angeles. "Guys were comfortable, and they seemed fresh. Get a good rest tonight, and be ready to rock tomorrow.”
Before the Rams face the 49ers at the 100,000-seat MCG in a game that kicks off at 10:35 a.m. local time, they spent their sole off-day in Melbourne resting, going through a light workout and attempting to get a slight flavor of the cosmopolitan city hosting the NFL's first regular-season game in Australia.
It's only a fraction of the experience enjoyed by the Niners, who have been in Australia for over a week. But the Rams decided months ago to eschew the fun parts of an international trip to focus on continuity, keeping their body clocks on California time and minimizing the distractions of international travel.
“Obviously, we would love to have the opportunity to connect with the fans out here a little bit more, but we did what we could (today), getting out and trying some coffee and getting out on the streets,” receiver Davante Adams said. “We had a chance to meet and see some of the fans, so we did as much as we could with our travel schedule.”
The Rams' strategy hasn't been well-received in Australia, where many fans expected more face time with a team attempting to build a support base as one of the NFL clubs designated for promotion in the country. McVay and the Rams' front office have heard the criticism, but it hasn't affected their belief in a travel strategy they first used last season for a game in London — albeit a much shorter trip from the U.S. East Coast than this journey across the Pacific.
“We wouldn’t do anything if we didn’t think it was best for our players,” McVay said. “I’m not saying we have all the answers, but we wanted to keep our guys in a normal rhythm and routine as long as possible, and we feel like (the plan) is going to be something that suits us well.”
Stafford knows the Rams' wisdom will be retroactively judged by how well they play against their NFC West archrivals. San Francisco has won 11 of the clubs' 19 meetings during the parallel coaching careers of McVay and Kyle Shanahan — and even though the Rams have won four of the last five, that loss was an embarrassing home upset handed out by a Niners roster missing most of its best players.
“It’s going to boil down to, how good do we feel tomorrow? I think we’re all going to feel really good. We’re excited to start a new season with a bunch of new guys, and go out there and attack the game. ... I think guys will be tired at the right time, and be ready to rock and roll in the morning.”
And if the Rams win again with their late travel strategy, Adams won't be surprised if other teams copy McVay's innovation in the future — just as they've done with so many aspects of his offensive schemes.
“They probably should," Adams said. “If it works, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's what they say.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker Myles Garrett, centre, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers., in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.(AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman David Quessenberry, left, offensive lineman Warren McClendon Jr., centre, and offensive lineman Beaux Limmer, right, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Davante Adams, right, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers., in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.(AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, works out during a practice session for an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers., in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.(AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.
Friday's milestone anniversary will bring memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims' names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.
For others it's an occasion for private reflection — or, in many schools, education — about the attack that unfolded in a single morning but left nearly 3,000 dead and a decadeslong trail of aftermath, from personal grief to far-flung wars.
Police Officer Casey Kloepfer plans to spend time Friday at the Brooklyn station house where his father, Officer Ronald Kloepfer, reported to work that day before being called to the World Trade Center. He didn't make it home.
Casey Kloepfer was only 4, but he grew up hearing about his father's affinity for helping people and for a job that enabled him to do so. He became an officer this past June.
“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can,” he said by phone this week. The 29-year-old wears his father’s badge number and even has joined the New York Police Department lacrosse team, which his dad founded.
On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The impacts brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers — icons of U.S. economic power, and among the tallest buildings on Earth — and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the U.S. military's fortress-like headquarters near Washington. The fourth plane also was headed for the nation's capital, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.
“In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into, really, what came before” and after, President Donald Trump said at a 9/11 remembrance in Washington this week. The Republican, who was in his native New York on Sept. 11 and has often recounted his memories, plans to attend the Pentagon's anniversary ceremony Friday.
Vice President JD Vance is expected at the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York, while other administration officials are headed to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.
Planned remembrances extend far beyond the attack sites, from beams of light projecting from New Hampshire's Mount Washington to a stair climb at Mississippi State University's football stadium to a ceremony at Honolulu's 9/11 memorial.
Traditionally, there are no political speeches at the New York commemoration, where relatives read all the victims' names, punctuated with moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline. For the first time, this year's ceremony will add a silent moment to honor people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses. Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.
It's a reminder of how the attacks' long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the U.S. and beyond.
The U.S.-led global war on terrorism included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — the latter Washington's longest war — and detentions and harsh interrogation of terror suspects in an international network of secret CIA prisons. The U.S. military found and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still awaits a trial 23 years after his capture.
The attacks changed U.S. air travel, prompted new federal surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers and banking regulations, and generated ongoing debate over the balance between security and freedom. The Department of Homeland Security, many state anti-terrorism laws and billions of dollars in state and local counterterrorism funding all are post-9/11 creations.
So, too, is the culture of individual vigilance summed up by the slogan “ if you see something, say something.”
Sept. 11 generated a wave of patriotism that propelled some Americans to join the military, fire departments, police forces or other public agencies. But amid the national unity that many remember, the attacks also fanned mistrust, prejudice and hate crimes directed at Muslims.
In the quarter-century since, Muslim Americans have played a growing role in public life from statehouses to Congress to New York City Hall, where Zohran Mamdani is the city's first Muslim mayor. Yet he faced some criticism for attending the anniversary ceremony at ground zero, something his predecessors have done for years.
Some complaints came from Republican ex-Gov. George Pataki and 9/11 victims’ relatives, who cited among other things past remarks that some of Mamdani's political associates have made about the attacks. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, also inveighed against Mamdani attending, though the two shook hands Friday as they awaited the start of the observance.
Mamdani, a Democrat, said earlier this week that he loves the city and country and wants the anniversary to focus on victims' families, first responders and New Yorkers who helped one another after the attacks, which he called a “horrific act of terror.” The 34-year-old mayor was an elementary school student in New York on 9/11.
Sept. 11 isn't a federal holiday, but Congress has designated it both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
“One appropriate way to remember is by serving,” says Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk and then co-founded the volunteer organization 9/11 Day with friend David Paine. The group helps people find meal-packing and other volunteer opportunities and this year arranged for dozens of Times Square billboards to pause their advertising at 9:11 a.m. Friday.
Instead, they will simply display the time.
Service members unfurl a flag on the 25th anniversary over the portion of the Pentagon's west side that was struck by an airliner hijacked by terrorist, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Arlington Va. (AP Photo/John McDonnell
Rosanne Spirito, 49, and daughters Sabrina, 22, and Amanda, 20, who lost their sister Catherine Lisa LoGuidice, stand at a reflecting pool on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, Pool)
Service members unfurl a flag on the 25th anniversary over the portion of the Pentagon's west side that was struck by an airliner hijacked by terrorist, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Arlington Va. (AP Photo/John McDonnell
Members of the New York Fire Department and New York Police Department rehearse ahead of memorial observances on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, at the site of the World Trade Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026 in New York.
Members of New York Police Department carry a US flag ahead of memorial observances on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, at the site of the World Trade Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026 in New York. (Olga Fedorova/Pool Photo via AP)
Phillip Flood, 48, watches as the Tribute in Light is tested over the skyline of lower Manhattan, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Jersey City, NJ. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, center, speaks to FDNY commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, right, during a memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Members of the FDNY march with flags during a memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
An American flag flies, with the lower Manhattan skyline in background, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Jersey City, NJ. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
