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It’s no secret that San Francisco has been rife with homelessness and crime in recent years, but it was hard to imagine during Super Bowl week, according to Pat McAfee.
Granted, the big game was about an hour southeast in Santa Clara, but the Super Bowl fan experience and media row was right in town at the Moscone Center, and McAfee was impressed with his surroundings.
“I want to reiterate the fact that San Francisco was good to us out there. It’s a nice city. We’ve walked around here 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 taking place in the Super Bowl LX media center at the Moscone Center. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
McAfee admitted he heard from critics about his rather upscale facilities, from five-star hotels to private security through “the backstage of a convention center,” which could automatically lead to a positive perception.
“I understand it could be my life, and it actually sounds pretty sick. But … we went that way,” McAfee said. “We were all over the place.”
“Yeah, it was just our area. I assume there are s—-y areas. I mean, it’s a city. I think that kind of thing happens in most cities. But the part we were on was very nice,” he continued.
McAfee admitted that he actually expected San Francisco to be a “s—hole”, having heard that it was once a “dump”.
“I was actually planning to host the show … ‘Can’t wait to tell the truth about San Francisco if it’s not great,'” McAfee added.
49ers stars Christian McCaffrey, Brock Purdy and Fred Warner praised the city to Pakinomist Digital during media week.
“It’s a historic town with so much character. The food, the hills, the homes, the water, the bridge, everything. It’s also just such 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 Martinez/Getty Images)
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“Man, I think San Francisco has so much to offer,” quarterback Purdy added. “Just, obviously, with the restaurants, the experiences, how beautiful it is out here with the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean. It’s a great city, great people. So to have the Super Bowl out here is really cool.”
Warner reveled in the fact that the city is a “melting pot”.
Just all the different cultures mixing together, all the diversity and mixing together,” Warner said. “You can get a little bit of everything you’re looking for out here, and of course you can play in the best stadium in the entire NFL, Levi’s Stadium, you can’t beat that, and so I think it’s going to be a great Super Bowl Sunday and a great week that they’ve got all the different activities planned.”
Back in 2023, Buster Posey, the hometown Giants’ president of baseball operations and former catcher, said players and their wives have a negative perception of San Francisco.
“Something that I think is notable, something that unfortunately keeps coming up from players and even players’ wives is that there’s a little bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs,” Posey told The Athletic in 2023, adding that it affected their pursuit of Shohei.
“Whether it’s all completely fair or not, perception is reality. It’s a frustrating cycle, I think, and not just with baseball. Baseball is secondary to life and the important things in life. But as far as a free-agent pursuit, I’ve seen it affect things.”
Fans visit the Moscone Center for the Super Bowl Experience and fun activities in San Francisco, California, USA on February 3, 2026. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The estimated population of San Francisco is about 827,000 people, the 13th most populous city in the United States. However, it is estimated that over 8,000 people are homeless in the city.
