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A longtime NFL announcer has been hospitalized with heart failure at 63 years old.
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Greg Papa, the longtime voice of the San Francisco 49ers, is back in the hospital with heart failure. The San Francisco Standard broke the devastating news on Wednesday afternoon, September 16.
According to the report, “he has been back in the hospital since Sept. 7 with advanced heart failure.” On Tuesday morning, he underwent a procedure to help doctors form a prognosis.
“This explains his absence from a scheduled comeback appearance as an analyst on Thursday’s 49ers pregame and postgame shows. The team opened the season with a 27-7 win over the Rams in Australia. It was also announced that Papa would return to KNBR radio — from which he was unceremoniously fired five weeks earlier — for an hour on weekdays and a 49ers-based show twice a week,” they reported.
Papa shared an update on his condition on Tuesday.
“A week after that beautiful night in Novato, I experienced another health setback. My genetic heart condition Cardiomyopathy has greatly worsened due to the bone marrow transplant. The Advanced Heart Failure team at UCSF performed a diagnostic procedure Tuesday morning for a clearer picture of the condition of the heart. All of your love and support has greatly helped us get past the many health obstacles we have faced. Together we will get past the next challenge. Love you all and thank you.”
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Papa has been motivated by Tim Flannery’s music, too.
“Flan would send me texts in the hospital, and a lot of it was music. One song in particular, ‘Waiting on a Miracle’ … this is making me cry now,” Papa said. “I felt like I needed a miracle. It was a song I would listen to, as well as many others with a similar theme to try to get me through the dark nights. I didn’t sleep a lot in the ICU. You’re not sure you’re not going to die. So you stay up all night, all bug-eyed. You’re all alone. Your mind wanders. Your eyes don’t want to watch anything anymore.
“It’s music, for me, and the songs that had the lyrics that took me back in my life and the moments that were important to me when I was younger. A lot of it was Flan. It was waiting on a miracle.”
The 49ers, who started the year with a win over the Rams, will host the Dolphins in Week 2.
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This story was originally published September 16, 2026 at 8:00 PM.