49ers’ ex-field announcer sues team, alleging age discrimination

When Bob Sarlatte, the longtime on-the-field voice of the San Francisco 49ers, was fired in 2014, he says the only explanation he received was that the team was “going in a different direction.”

In recent years, as part of their relocation to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara for the 2014-15 season, the 49ers “engaged in a pattern and practice of eliminating its older workers, while attempting to rebrand the team as a younger, technology-driven organization,” the suit said.

The suit also said Gideon Yu, a former Facebook and YouTube executive brought in by York in 2011 as the team’s chief strategy officer, regularly referred to older 49ers workers as “legacy employees,” a demeaning term in the Silicon Valley tech world.

The firing caused Sarlatte “physical illness and emotional distress” as well as financial losses, said the suit, filed against the 49ers and their entertainment company, E2K.

The suit is similar to an age-discrimination case filed against the 49ers last year, by the same lawyers, on behalf of two other veteran employees: