One of the veteran figures in the football world, San Francisco 49ers broadcaster Greg Papa, has long been suffering from an array of diseases, but regardless of the hurdles, his will has never broken. This time, there is yet another fight that he is confident he will win.

“Greg Papa’s case is being presented to the UCSF Health Heart Transplant Board on Tuesday for him to receive an immediate transplant,” Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on X. “Yes, Papa’s heart is giving out. And yet it’s filled with hope.”

Papa, 63, was hospitalized at UCSF for advanced heart failure on September 7. Three days later, KNBR announced that they hired Papa for a new mid-day show called “Lunch With Papa,” and he was also scheduled to manage the pregame duties on NBC Sports Bay Area for the 49ers’ season opener.

“Two weeks ago,” Papa said, “I was preparing to step out of the darkness and go back into the sunlight and resume my world. Everything changed in a span of a couple of days. It was like I was living in a time warp.”

This odyssey of Papa started after he was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in July 2025, for which he had a bone marrow transplant on March 4. Subsequently, both of his lungs collapsed, requiring him to be hospitalized for 78 days at UCSF. But recovering from his lung complications wasn’t the only challenge he would face.

Doctors had diagnosed Papa with cardiomyopathy in 2023, a hereditary heart condition, for which he took treatment. But for his lung restoration and cancer remission, that medication was stopped. Consequently, his cardiomyopathy progressed to advanced heart failure.

“Am I shocked my heart’s bad? No, I knew it was,” Papa said. “Am I shocked that it’s this bad? I’m crushed. When I saw that echocardiogram, they just say below 20. They don’t even give you a number. My body’s telling me that I’m breaking down. The diagnostics confirmed what my body was feeling.”

But a heart transplant wasn’t the first option that the doctors suggested; in fact, Papa’s hematology team refused to discuss it as an option because of how risky it was. But after the medication procedures proved unlikely to produce the desired result, an LVAD pump to create more blood flow and support the heart was considered before coming to the final option: a heart transplant.

Papa’s broadcasting résumé spanned several Bay Area teams, including the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Raiders, and the San Francisco 49ers. His career began with the Indiana Pacers in 1984; he moved to the Warriors in 1986 and spent a decade there before beginning a two-decade run with the Raiders, and finally joining the 49ers.

Papa’s achievements included three California Sportscaster of the Year awards, and don’t forget the iconic way he announced touchdowns during his NFL broadcasting career, with “TOUCHDOWN, SAN-FRAN-CISCO!” echoing through 49ers stadium. He was also inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame, another gem of an accomplishment added to his already illustrious career.

However, amid the serious heart condition that Papa is bravely fighting, he still instills hope and has confidence in the doctors treating him.

Greg Papa is Hopeful of a ‘Miracle’

Greg Papa has never been one to step away from a challenge throughout his life, and this time, he continued describing his condition in metaphorical football terms.

“I’ve already had a lot of miracles,” Papa said last week when his doctors were making preparations for a potential transplant. “Hail Mary touchdowns to at least force overtime. But when does the game end? I don’t know. Can you expect to get a miracle every time? Physically, there’s a toll.”

Papa further said that he would have to “break a few tackles” to get out of this situation, but he had confidence in UCSF, as he said they have performed 74 transplants this year, with a few similar cases as his.

Papa was always fond of snow, being a native of suburban Buffalo, with his body trained for torrential winter, and he sees hurdles as something he is ready to overcome again.

“It was like, ‘Yeah, let’s overcome that,'” Papa said. “And now I’m almost like, ‘What else do you want to throw at me? Keep snowing on me. Keep the avalanche. Keep the blizzard. Just bury me. And then I’ll pop my head through the snow and build a snowman,” Papa said, his voice cracking, “and we’ll all play again.”

The case of his heart transplant will be presented to the UCSF Health Heart Transplant Board at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Papa has shown courage and the will to successfully face this adversity, with the David Benzer Strike Out Fear Foundation making a GoFundMe campaign to help ease his financial burden during this time.