Al Michaels wondered why TNF still showed shots of San Francisco because it’s so far away
Technically, the 49ers don't play in San Francisco, so he's got a point!
They’re called the San Francisco 49ers, but they don’t actually play within the city limits of San Francisco. Their stadium resides in Santa Clara, California, which is approximately 43 miles south of The Golden City. At this point, though, it just makes more sense — semantically, anyway — to call them the San Francisco 49ers. After all, the Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington, but no one questions that.
Al Michaels might not agree with this sentiment.
As Thursday’s broadcast of the 49ers’ home matchup with the New York Giants returned from commercial, it showed a bunch of lovely aerial shots of San Francisco. Here, Michaels veered off script and openly questioned why they were still showing San Francisco because it’s “44 miles away.”
Folks, technically, he’s not wrong!
Al Michaels was fired up about San Francisco being 40 miles away from Levi's Stadium pic.twitter.com/ryAIeU1X9C
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 22, 2023
As a person who doesn’t love when the NFL moves teams out of cities that adored them into overpriced suburban stadiums, I’m all for this. I would love for more announcers like Michaels to call out this weird discrepancy. If only more broadcasters broke Football Guy character and told it like it is under these circumstances.