Former Raiders announcer Greg Papa named 49ers new Play By Play guy for 2019

That’s right, the fear of having to hear the legendary touchdown call from Greg Papa of “TOUCHDOWN RRRRRRRRAIDERS!” bastardized to fit the cross town rival 49ers is coming to fruition. Papa had already joined the 49ers as part of the pregame broadcast team for the 2018 season, but now he has been elevated to being the Voice of the 49ers as their game day play by play announcer going forward.

Last year there was an unceremonious uncoupling of the Oakland Raiders and Greg Papa that left many fans unhappy. Sorry, but Brent Musburger just wasn’t going to cut it when you’ve already had a guy who was ingrained as part of the organization like Papa had been. It was an ugly fallout that was apparently years in the making after rumors hit of Mark Davis taking personal offense to some of Papa’s commentary on bringing in former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan for an interview.

That move was not looked at fondly by some in the organization, including Papa, who thought the move was disrespectful to Al Davis. Al fired Shanahan as the Raiders head coach before he became a Super Bowl winner in Denver and their dislike of each other never subsided. Supposedly Mark Davis did not appreciate Greg Papa’s commentary on the Raiders interviewing Shanahan and the bad blood between the two eventually led to the axing of Greg Papa as the Voice of the Raiders.

Now Papa is taking the reigns as the main man for the 49ers, and their organization could not sound more stoked to have him. Here is what 49ers team president Al Guido had to say about the change from long time announcer Ted Robinson to Greg Papa.

“The addition of Greg Papa to our broadcast team as the Voice of the 49ers adds to the great legacy of 49ers broadcasters who have previously held that moniker - Bob Fouts, Lon Simmons, Joe Starkey, Don Klein and Ted.” said 49ers team president Al Guido, “Bay Area sports fans have been treated to his legendary calls of their teams for more than three decades. We are elated to welcome Greg to the 49ers family and have him deliver the action in his own unique style directly to The Faithful for the very first time. With Papa partnering with Tim Ryan in the broadcast booth on game days, and Robinson active in the community and at 49ers events, we believe our fans have the best in the business bringing them their favorite team every day of the year.”

Realistically, it was only a matter of time until this change took place. You don’t take somebody as great at announcing as Greg Papa and leave them as the pregame guy. On the other hand, normally you don’t fire a legend like that at all. Having to hear him now be the play by play guy for the 49ers seems like exactly the type of cosmic justice the Raiders deserve for severing ties with him in the first place.