Every team in the league is in the process of calling players to ask them to join the practice squad, but the Rams and 49ers have another question: “Do you have a passport?”
Because the Rams and 49ers will open the season in Australia, those teams need to know that any new additions to the team will be able to get into a foreign country. Players who have been with the teams all offseason have been preparing for international travel, but 49ers General Manager John Lynch says making sure new additions to the team can get into Australia is a logistical challenge.
“We’re bringing practice squads from the outside. I’ve never asked a potential practice squad, ‘Do you have a passport?’ Those are questions we have to ask now,” Lynch said. “One guy who’s coming into town, his parents are next daying it, because it was at the house. So there’s a lot of little logistics like that that are complicated by this, but we’re embracing it, we’re having a plan for everything, and we’re getting it done.”
Lynch said the 49ers’ staff behind the scenes has had to work overtime to get the team ready for the longest road trip in NFL history.
“There’s a lot, and I think it’s an opportune time to give a shout out to our staff,” Lynch said. “Everything from getting visas, which is much more complicated than I knew, they’ve been outstanding. They’ve worked in conjunction with the league but most of the work has been done on our part and hats off to those guys for pulling off a monumental task, and it’s not done yet. There’s a lot.”
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