49ers Enter NFL Opener After Chaotic Preseason

The Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers have flown to Melbourne for the NFL season opener, each covering roughly 16 hours in the air. The similarities end there. The Rams have added playmakers through the offseason without incident. The 49ers arrive after a preseason that involved an FBI arrest, a car crash and an undercover sting.

Daejon Love spent months posing as a 49ers wide receiver to court women online, according to the FBI. He is not on the roster and never has been. Investigators say 26 women were defrauded out of $1.3m combined after believing they were in a relationship with an NFL player. Love was arrested last month and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud.

The 49ers had no role in the scheme, but the team's receivers can expect to hear about it every time a pass hits the turf this season.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan was also hurt in July, when he crashed his car and suffered a concussion, a broken nose, a broken hand and broken ribs. He was wearing his seatbelt. Shanahan has said the crash was his fault, telling reporters he took his eyes off the road.

The remark drew on a wider assumption about wealth and public exposure. He said the assumption cuts the other way — that money is supposed to buy safer, more discreet surroundings.

The Rams and 49ers meet in Melbourne with the win-loss column still blank, but the 49ers open the year having already absorbed more off-field damage than most teams take in a full season. Whatever happens on the field, Shanahan's group starts the year needing the kind of clean run it has not had since spring.