{"id":785876,"date":"2026-03-02T04:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/785876\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T04:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:10:15","slug":"49ers-announcer-greg-papa-preparing-for-bone-marrow-transplant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/785876\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers’ announcer Greg Papa preparing for bone marrow transplant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Papa returned to the San Francisco 49ers radio booth on Jan. 3 for the team\u2019s regular-season finale<\/a>, less than six months after leukemia was discovered in his brain and spinal column<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The speed of the 63-year-old\u2019s recovery has been exceptional, and his cancer is in remission, but he still has a critical step ahead in order to put the ordeal behind him once and for all.<\/p>\n

Last week, Papa was admitted to UCSF Medical Center and is expected to be there for several months as he recovers from an impending bone marrow transplant on March 4.<\/p>\n

His younger sister, Judy, was found to be a perfect match and will be the donor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amazing thing is, all these years later,\u201d Papa said, \u201cit\u2019s literally going to be her blood that\u2019s going to save my life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wish my mom and dad were alive to see one of their children saving their other child\u2019s life. It would be pretty amazing. Pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Papa spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> about the surgery, which will first require an aggressive round of chemotherapy to ensure any remaining cancer cells are gone before the transplant. The longtime announcer is expected to stay at the hospital for at least three weeks after the surgery and then be homebound \u201cin a solitary bubble environment\u201d for three to six months.<\/p>\n

Papa told the Chronicle he still envisions attending 49ers\u2019 training-camp practices in the summer and possibly joining the team for its regular-season opener in Melbourne, Australia, in September.<\/p>\n

That might sound like asking too much, but the longtime Bay Area media personality has already made it through two rounds of chemotherapy and a 23-day hospitalization after he was diagnosed, and feels like there\u2019s nothing stopping him from making it through another round of recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve already kind of stared death in the eye a little bit,\u201d Papa said. \u201cAnd I thought that I may not make it. So I\u2019ve thought it out. I\u2019m not afraid to die. I don\u2019t want to die \u2026 But emotionally, spiritually, I\u2019ve kind of worked it all out. And I\u2019m ready for (the transplant). I\u2019m more than ready. It\u2019s time to clear this final hurdle and truly be cancer-free.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greg Papa returned to the San Francisco 49ers radio booth on Jan. 3 for the team\u2019s regular-season finale,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,11091,7,50337,6,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":["post-785876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-49ers","tag-49ers","tag-cancer","tag-football","tag-greg-papa","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfrancisco49ers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}