Gregory Charles Papa (born October 10, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed as the radio

play-by-play In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

announcer for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

. He has also broadcast for the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

and

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

during his career. He is best known as the radio play-by-play caller for the Raiders and the host of '' Chronicle Live'' on

NBC Sports Bay Area NBC Sports Bay Area (sometimes abbreviated as NBCS Bay Area) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and the San Francisco Giants, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquar ...

. He, Garry St. Jean, and Kelenna Azubuike used to do the in-studio analysis for all the Golden State Warriors regular season games on NBC Sports Bay Area. He is the younger brother of deceased Philadelphia sportscaster Gary Papa. Papa is a three-time California Sportscaster of the Year Award winner. He also currently cohosts a radio program with Greg Silver weekdays from 10am-2pm on KNBR.

Career highlights

Papa graduated from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1984. While at Syracuse, he was the sports director and a play-by-play announcer for

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the college athletics in the United States, athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East ...

sports at WAER-FM. He was in the same 1984 Newhouse class as

Sean McDonough Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed by ESPN and the WEEI Boston Red Sox Radio Network. McDonough has play-by-play experience for all four major professional sports leagues in the United States an ...

and Tony Caridi. Papa was a member of the Indiana Pacers' television and radio broadcasting team from 1984 to 1986. Then, he moved west and from 1986 to 1997, he was the radio announcer for the Golden State Warriors (including the famous "Sleepy Floyd Game," where Warrior

Sleepy Floyd Eric Augustus "Sleepy" Floyd (born March 6, 1960) is an American former professional basketball player. An NBA All-Star in 1987 as a Warrior, he is perhaps best known for his tenures for Golden State and Houston. Early life, family and education ...

scored 51 points against the Lakers in a playoff game). From 1997 to 2000, Papa became the lead announcer on the San Antonio Spurs' telecasts. During this span, he was also the television play-by-play announcer for the Oakland Athletics with Ray Fosse from 1991 to 2003.

Oakland Raiders

Until his dismissal prior to the 2018 season, Papa was play-by-play announcer for the Raiders, alongside his color commentator, former Raider coach

Tom Flores Thomas Raymond Flores (born March 21, 1937) is an American former professional football player in the American Football League (AFL) and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played as a quarterback for nine seasons in the AFL, primar ...

. The Raiders hired Papa for the 1997 season, replacing

Joel Meyers Joel Meyers is an American sportscaster who is the play-by-play announcer of the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also is the lead host of "Above the Rim", which airs weekdays from 10 am to 1 pm ET ...

, who had himself replaced King. His work was very much in the tradition of his predecessor, Bill King. Like King, his touchdown calls were punctuated by "TOUCHDOWN, RRRRAID-ERS!!!" Papa's best calls arguably were: Tyrone Wheatley's 26-yard run in the Raiders

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

finale against the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

Arrowhead Stadium Arrowhead Stadium is an American football stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. It primarily serves as the home venue of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). It was built at the same time as neighboring Kauff ...

("Wheatley won't go down!!!") along with describing the events during the Tuck Rule game, when the Raiders seemingly had won a

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

playoff game during a snow storm at

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

after forcing a late fumble, only to see referee

Walt Coleman Walt Coleman III (born January 16, 1952) is a former American football official who officiated in the National Football League (NFL) from the 1989 season until the end of the 2018 season. He wore uniform number 65. During his final season in ...

reverse the call after consulting instant replay. The Patriots went on to win the historic, controversial contest in overtime. Papa later speculated that he was let go by the Raiders for criticizing owner Mark Davis's decision to interview

Mike Shanahan Michael Edward Shanahan ( ; born August 24, 1952) is an American football coach, best known as the head coach of the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL) from 1995 to 2008. During his fourteen seasons with the Broncos, he led th ...

for the head coach position in 2015, as Shanahan, who previously coached the team from 1988 to 1989, had a "huge falling out" with Davis' father and previous owner

Al Davis Allen R. Davis (July 4, 1929 – October 8, 2011) was an American professional football executive and coach. He was the managing general partner, principal owner and ''de facto'' general manager of the National Football League (NFL) Oakland Rai ...

. Had Shanahan been hired, Papa had threatened to resign out of respect for Al Davis, and that allegedly led to a rift with Mark Davis.

Oakland Athletics

Greg Papa was also the television play-by-play announcer for the Oakland A's with Ray Fosse from 1991 to 2003.

San Francisco Giants

From 2004 to 2008, Papa called play-by-play for San Francisco Giants broadcasts on

KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division along ...

television and KNBR radio. In 2008, Papa hosted 35 of the 50 scheduled editions of "Giants Pregame Live" and all 65 of the "Giants Postgame Live" shows on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. He occasionally announced several of the Giants' games on TV and radio when

Jon Miller Jon Miller (born October 11, 1951) is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. Since 1997, he has been employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball ann ...

was on assignment at

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. When Dave Flemming's microphone went dead when the ball was in the air for what turned out to be

Barry Bonds Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Giants f ...

' 715th career home run on May 28, , Papa took over the broadcast, apologized to listeners, and explained what happened on the field. Papa returned to baseball full-time for the 2021 season, hosting pregame and postgame coverage for the Giants, though this only lasted one season. Papa still remains as a substitute host for Giants Pre and Postgame Live.

Golden State Warriors

From the 2011–12 season until 2019–20, with a numerous rotation of analysts, Greg Papa has hosted both "Warriors Pregame Live" and "Warriors Postgame Live" on NBC Sports Bay Area. The duo also provide in studio analysis at half-time for the station's coverage of Warriors regular season (and 1st round playoff) games.

San Francisco 49ers

In 2018, Papa hosted 49ers pre- and postgame live on

, alongside Donte Whitner, Ian Williams, and Jeff Garcia. Beginning with the 2019 season, Papa took over as the radio voice of the 49ers, handling the play-by-play duties for the team on KNBR 680 with analyst Tim Ryan. His touchdown calls are variations of Bill King. He punctuates a score with, “TOUCHDOWN, SAN-FRAN-CISCO!”

Other

Papa also does work for

NBC Sports California NBC Sports California (sometimes abbreviated as NBCS California) is an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. The channel broadcasts regio ...

, notably for broadcasts of the

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

football and basketball teams. He has also done San Jose Stealth and San Francisco Dragons lacrosse games. Papa is also formerly host of Chronicle Live, a nightly Bay Area sports talk show covering all Bay Area sports. He was also the play-by-play announcer for '' HardBall 6: 2000 Edition'' and some of his Oakland A's broadcast audio was in the 2011 film ''

Moneyball Moneyball or money ball may refer to: * '' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'', 2003 book by Michael Lewis ** ''Moneyball'' (film), 2011 film adaptation of the book * ''Moneyball'' (album), 2025 album by Dutch Interior * Sabermetrics ...

''. In 2017, Papa began co-hosting ''The Happy Hour'', a conversational discussion sports program on

, with sports anchor Kelli Johnson and media personality

Ray Ratto Ray Ratto has been a San Francisco Bay Area sportswriter since the 1970s and a sports columnist since the 1980s. A lifelong resident of Alameda, California, Ratto was a Senior Insider for the TV station ''NBC Sports Bay Area'' (''formerly Comcas ...

. ''The Happy Hour'' was cancelled by

in 2018 with the last airing on December 21, 2018.

Personal

Papa resides in Danville, California. He has been married for over 30 years to the former, Angela Garay. He has five children, Derek, Alexandra, Danielle, Erika, and Nicolas. His brother, the late Gary Papa, was a long time sportscaster for

WPVI WPVI-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned and operated by the ABC television network through its ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on City Avenue in the ...

in Philadelphia. His other family members are associated with National Fire Adjustment Co., Inc; his grandfather Bernard founded the company in 1922 and father Frank (1926–2019) served as its longtime chairman.

References

External links

Greg Papa profile
at

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papa, Greg 1962 births Living people American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers California Golden Bears football announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Golden State Warriors announcers Indiana Pacers announcers Lacrosse announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters NBA broadcasters NFL announcers Oakland Athletics announcers Oakland Raiders announcers People from Danville, California Radio personalities from San Francisco San Antonio Spurs announcers San Francisco 49ers announcers San Francisco Giants announcers S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni Television personalities from San Francisco Williamsville East High School alumni