To most, it’s a season opener. To Australian 49ers fans it’s an opportunity they would never have dreamed of. Part one of this series goes Down Under, with an Australian Niner Noise contributor at the helm.
It’s funny to answer the question, “How did you become a San Francisco 49ers fan?”, this way.
But it all started because of a video game.
An Australia,n born and bred with no American ties, it would have been very unlikely to become a NFL fan. Unlike TV in Australia today, as well with the streaming era, games simply weren’t shown in Australia with the exception of the Super Bowl.
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But one day, my father gave me a copy of Madden NFL ’96 for the Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis for you Americans). The game has a Combine mode where you do drills and then get drafted by a random team.
And when I did those drills, which team drafted me?
You guessed it, the San Francisco 49ers.
The computer could’ve thrown me the Cleveland Browns or the Arizona Cardinals to go along with my misery of being a Charlotte Hornets fan (that’s no joke), but it instead gave me one of the most storied franchises in the league.
The 6-year-old me back then could never have envisioned not only theincreasing popularity of the sport in Australia, and the fact I get paid to write about this sport, but the fact that not only the NFL but also the 49ers (of all teams) are coming to my backyard. Not for an exhibition, but for the real thing.
49ers coming to Australia is a lifelong dream for Aussie Faithful
This point cannot be overstated.
Most Americans reading this will have gone to a game, or at least had the opportunity to do so. Until kickoff this year, an Australian 49ers fan in Melbourne, where the game is being played, would’ve had to travel almost 8,000 miles (7,865 miles, to be precise) to bridge the gap to Santa Clara to watch the Niners. A Rams fan would have to travel a very similar distance.
What one can take for granted in California would require incredible financial commitment here.
It’s almost been distressing to hear the pessimism from the 49ers campat times. From a standpoint, I get it; it’s an awful lot of miles to cover, and it’s not going to be fun for recovery. Though the fact there won’t be any regular-season wear or tear beforehand should help in that regard.
But I would hope it would be acknowledged that, for Australians, this isthe Super Bowl. It’s football Nirvana. It’s an opportunity a 6-year-old kid playing a video game nearly three decades ago, to finally watch the team he loves so much that he began writing as a volunteer, just to be able to talk about the sport with people who understood.
It’s an opportunity to further introduce the sport to more 6-year-olds today, who get to not only play video games but watch the real thing both on TV and in person.
It’s a love letter to the increasing amount of Australian players, both in the NFL and the college ranks; the embracing of a sport that until a few years ago was just a niche but is now hitting a respectable place in the sporting mainstream.
It may only be one week for the 49ers and the average fan, but Week 1 of this season is going to be the most exciting moment of an entire legion of fans that they can envision, an opportunity that nobody would have thought ever possible until it finally became a reality.
