Raheem Morris Lost His 50th Birthday On The Way To Australia
There are worse ways to spend a birthday, but Raheem Morris might’ve found one of the strangest. The 49ers defensive coordinator turned 50 while flying from San Francisco to Melbourne, and thanks to the 16-hour trip across the International Date Line, September 3 basically vanished from his calendar.
He went to sleep at 49 on Wednesday night and stepped off the plane at 50 on Friday morning. That’s more than just a long flight.
The Calendar Really Did Skip His Birthday
To be fair, Morris didn’t actually lose 24 hours of his life. Time kept moving, and part of the flight happened while it was still September 3 back in the United States. But once the 49ers crossed the International Date Line and landed in a time zone 17 hours ahead of California, his birthday was gone from the local calendar.
That probably doesn’t make it feel much better when it’s your 50th birthday. This wasn’t some random Tuesday he could forget about. It was a milestone, and instead of celebrating at home, he had to squeeze it in somewhere on a team plane while everybody was trying to figure out when they were supposed to sleep.
Morris ended up addressing the whole situation during media availability, joking about Schefter’s post:
Obviously, you guys know I'm old because Schefty is telling everybody I'm 50. What a jerk he is.
Morris Has A Pretty Good Distraction Waiting
The lost birthday is a pretty good example of how weird this whole week has been for the 49ers. They got to Melbourne a full week before the opener so their bodies could start figuring out what time zone they’re even in.
Kyle Shanahan talked about the effect that's been having around the locker room:
Some guys feel good and feel great, and then you talk to them five hours later, they’re like, ‘Never mind, that left.’
Morris has more on his plate than just jet lag, too. His first regular-season game as San Francisco’s defensive coordinator will come against the Rams, where he ran the defense from 2021 through 2023 and won Super Bowl LVI.
After spending two years as Atlanta’s head coach, he reunited with Shanahan in San Francisco this offseason. Now, his first real test is trying to slow down one of his old teams on the other side of the world.
He’ll get a chance to celebrate properly once the 49ers settle in. And turning 50 still counts, even if September 3 never showed up on a clock in Melbourne.
Still, Morris now has a birthday story nobody at dinner is going to top.
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