Family feud goes global: Rams 49ers take their rivalry down under

There are family feuds, and then there are the Rams and 49ers, two distant relatives who have spent decades arguing over the deed to California.They have drawn battle lines from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, turned freeways and airports into borders and made generations of fans choose sides.Northern California scarlet and gold.

Southern California blue and gold. No neutral territory and certainly no polite conversation at the holiday table.Now the NFL is taking the whole wonderfully bitter dispute international.Nearly 8,000 miles from California, across the Pacific Ocean, beyond the equator and into another hemisphere, the Rams and 49ers will renew their rivalry Friday morning in Melbourne.Or, Thursday night California time.The flight takes roughly 16 hours.The history has been traveling for 76 years.Think of it as a California family feud with passports.The Melbourne Cricket Ground has hosted Australian Football League grand finals and Olympic ceremonies.

Now one of the world’s most iconic sporting venues will provide the stage for an argument that started in1950 and has been handed down from generation to generation ever since.And if any city can appreciate the occasion, it is Melbourne.This is a sports-mad place where nearly 100,000 people can fill the MCG, where Australian rules football is stitched into the culture and where rivalries such as Collingwood-Carlton draw battle lines between families and friends.Australians understand physical games, territorial pride and the fine art of disliking the other side.

They will not need a seminar on Rams-49ers.Give them the colors, the history and one early collision, and they will understand the assignment.The accents will be different.

The game will begin at 10:35 in the morning locally.But the animosity will require no translation.For the Rams, this represents an opportunity to plant their flag in a market they have spent years cultivating while making an early claim on the NFC West.

It is also another chance ...