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It’s no secret that San Francisco has been plagued by homelessness and crime in recent years, but that was hard to imagine during Super Bowl week, according to Pat McAfee.
Of course, the big game was about an hour southeast in Santa Clara, but the Super Bowl fan experience and media spat took place in town at the Moscone Center, and McAfee was impressed with his surroundings.
“I’d like to reiterate the fact that San Francisco was good to us. It’s a nice city. We’ve been walking around here for miles and miles,” McAfee said on his show Monday, adding that the city was “good to us.”
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Pat McAfee on the Pat McAfee Show set in the Super Bowl LX media center at the Moscone Center. (Kirby Lee/Image Images)
McAfee admitted that he heard criticism about its rather exclusive services, from five-star hotels to private security through “the backstage of a convention center,” which could automatically lead to a positive perception.
“I understand that that could be my life, and it sounds pretty sick, actually. But… we walk through that s**t,” McAfee said. “We were all over the place in that place.”
“Of course, it was just our area. I guess there are shitty areas. I mean, it’s a city. I think that happens in most cities. But the part we were in was really nice,” he continued.
McAfee admitted that he actually expected San Francisco to be a “shithole,” since he had heard that it was once a “dump.”
“I was actually planning on starting the show… ‘I can’t wait to have to tell the truth about San Francisco if it’s not cool,'” McAfee added.
49ers stars Christian McCaffrey, Brock Purdy and Fred Warner praised the city on Pak Gazette Digital during media week.
“It’s a historic town with a lot of character. The food, the hills, the houses, the water, the bridge, everything. It’s also a great town, and it’s really cool to see it come to life even more than it already is,” McCaffrey said.
NFL fans walk outside the Super Bowl Experience at the Moscone Center on February 6, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Ronald Martínez/Getty Images)
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“Man, I think San Francisco has a lot to offer,” quarterback Purdy added. “Obviously, with the restaurants, the experiences, how beautiful it is here with the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean. It’s a great city, great people. So having the Super Bowl here is really cool.”
Warner reveled in the fact that the city is a “melting pot.”
Just all the different cultures mixing, all the diversity and mixing,” Warner said. “You can get a little bit of everything you’re looking for here and of course playing in the largest stadium in the entire NFL, Levi’s Stadium, you can’t beat it, so I think it’s going to be a great Super Bowl Sunday and a great week as well with all the different activities they have planned for everyone.”
In 2023, Buster Posey, president of baseball operations and former catcher for his hometown Giants, said players and their wives have a negative perception of San Francisco.
“Something that I think is noteworthy, something that unfortunately keeps coming up among the players and even among the wives of the players, is that there is a little bit of unrest with the city itself, in terms of the state of the city, with the crime, with the drugs,” Posey told The Athletic in 2023, adding that it affected his pursuit of Shohei Ohtani.
“Whether it’s completely fair or not, perception is reality. I think it’s a frustrating cycle, and not just with baseball. Baseball is secondary to life and the important things in life. But as far as pursuing a free agent, I’ve seen that it does affect things.”
Fans visit the Moscone Center for the Super Bowl experience and fun activities in San Francisco, California, United States, on February 3, 2026. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The estimated population of San Francisco is approximately 827,000 people, the 13th most populous city in the United States. However, it is estimated that more than 8,000 people are homeless in the city.
