49ers and Rams attend Mass before clash at MCG

Players and staff from the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams attended Mass in Melbourne before their American football game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Melbourne Archbishop Peter A. Comensoli celebrated Mass for the San Francisco 49ers players and staff. On the Thursday evening before the match, eight players and coaches from the Los Angeles Rams attended a Mass at the Ritz Carlton hotel in the Melbourne central business district. Father Peter Fitzsimons, a priest from St Mary’s Star of the Sea in West Melbourne, celebrated the Rams' Mass.

The Rams' Mass was coordinated by Giff Smith, a run game coordinator and defensive line coach for the team. Father Fitzsimons noted that the Mass was arranged after he was contacted by a priest in Virginia who coordinates international Masses for the US football competition. Following the pre-match services, some players from both teams knelt in a circle of prayer on the field at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a crowd of 100,000.