As the legendary Merrill Reese enters his 47th season as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Philadelphia Eagles, he is just as enthusiastic as the day he took the job.

By Matt Cosentino

For millions of football fans in the Delaware Valley, there’s only ever been one “voice of the Philadelphia Eagles,” and even those old enough to remember other radio play-by-play announcers have a special affinity for Merrill Reese. Kids still imitate his calls as they practice in the backyard and imagine scoring the game-winning touchdown for the Birds. Adults rely on his passionate recounting of the action whenever they’re stuck in the car on a Sunday afternoon, or might even turn down the television volume and listen to the WIP broadcast while they’re enjoying the game in their living room.

Reese was once a diehard Eagles supporter just like them, who first dreamed of playing for the team he idolized before realizing his destiny was not to end up on the gridiron, but high above the field in the broadcast booth. This will be his 47th season as the team’s play-by-play man, a number that means little to him but ranks as the longest current tenure with one team in the entire National Football League.
Although Reese was set to celebrate his 81st birthday just eight days before this year’s season opener, his energy level is more fitting for a man half or even a quarter of his age. He continues to pour his heart and soul into every game he broadcasts, and the word retirement isn’t even in his vocabulary.

He spoke to South Jersey Magazine about his legendary career, how some of his trademark calls evolved and his hopes to witness another Super Bowl win for the Birds to go with their championship from the 2017 season.

Do you still get the same excitement heading into a new season as you did when you first started?
Absolutely. I love it and there’s nothing I look forward to more.

You’re entering your 47th season, which means you’re the longest-tenured play-by-play man in the NFL. Is that a source of pride for you?
I honestly don’t think about it, believe it or not. It’s not something that ever enters my mind. Each season is exciting and I have no intention of stopping. I’ll do this as long as I possibly can. The 47 doesn’t mean a big deal to me, only in the fact that my memory bank is filled with more and more information and memories and great moments. But in terms of being the longest-tenured announcer in the NFL, it’s talked about a lot by other people, but it doesn’t mean anything to me.

Do you think 50 years will be any different if you get to that milestone?
You’d have to ask me then. It’s a nice number, but each year is separate. I appreciate doing this job and there’s nothing I would rather do in the world. It sounds like a coach saying, “I take each game one at a time,” but I do take each day and each game separately. I don’t think in terms of streaks or years, I just want to be the best every game that I broadcast.

The Eagles have certainly had some ups and downs during your tenure, but when they’re in the position they’re in now, does that just add to your excitement?
It does, when you realize that the team you’re broadcasting is one of the best in the National Football League and has a realistic shot to end up as the champion. But you also realize that the NFL is a war of attrition and you have to be tremendously lucky to get there. You have to avoid injuries and get the right bounces and have everything break your way.

The Eagles do have two new coordinators this year and a very difficult schedule. Does that dampen your optimism at all?
I’m not one of these people who, when the schedule comes out in April, lines it up and starts putting W, W, L, W. I don’t do that because I realize that every year is different and teams change. Most teams have almost a third of the roster turn over each year. There’s draft choices, there’s free agents, and things happen. So I don’t look at a schedule and say it’s tougher than last year or easier than last year. Who knew that by midseason last year—and the Eagles played them in the beginning of the season—that one of the toughest teams was going to be the Lions? Who knew that when the Eagles ended up playing Dallas down there in December that they were going to be without Jalen Hurts? There are so many things that affect the schedule, so I always say it’s more important when you play a team than who you play.

Right, and like you said, injuries can always play a big part.
A major part. And sometimes, like in 2017, Nick Foles comes in and people are saying, “There goes the season,” and he ends up being MVP of the Super Bowl.

I’d like to go back a little bit to your early days as a sports fan. I understand that radio was an important part of your childhood, so did you know as a kid that this is what you wanted to do?
Well, broadcasting—radio and television both. I did as a little boy listen to the radio a lot. I could sit there and listen to a Phillies doubleheader when I was still in my single digits. I always loved sports: I loved playing sports, I loved going to games. As a little boy, I also did some television commercials, because my mother—who was a kindergarten teacher—had a little bit of a show business flair, and she got my sister and I involved very early. A lot of television commercials were live in those days, so I would get called in to do a commercial.
That kind of gave me the background, but in those days my dream wasn’t to be up in the booth; my dream was to be the Eagles quarterback or to hit the home run that decided the World Series or to make the foul shot that won an NCAA title. I grew up as a kid who loved sports more than anything else. But when you realize that at 5-8 and 140 pounds, you’re not going to be quarterbacking the Eagles, you better find something else. I also remember as a kid going to Eagles games at Franklin Field and looking up to the broadcast booth and seeing Bill Campbell up there between plays. I would often take my binoculars and look at Bill Campbell and say, “That’s where I want to be some day.” So that was a dream from an early-enough age, and in fact, in my high school yearbook it says: “Wants to be a play-by-play sportscaster.”

Did you start to cut your teeth as a broadcaster as a student at Temple?
Well, by my sophomore year I was named sports director of WRTI, which was the student station. We had a broadcast line at The Palestra, so over the student station I did all of the Temple games, St. Joe’s games—all of the Big Five, no matter who was playing. I did Temple baseball, Temple football; we did everything.

You loved and had experience in all of the major sports. How did you come to focus on football and the Eagles?
I was one of many people to audition at WIP and I got the job as the summer replacement for Charlie Swift, who was the sports director of WIP and the voice of the Eagles. He would take a month’s vacation every year in June … and ultimately they hired me to do the morning sports at WIP as his summer replacement.
The big disc jockey was Ken Garland; he was a big star in the city. He would do his show from another studio down the hall, I never saw him. But like everybody else, I grew up listening to Ken Garland and he was an amazing personality who was loved by millions of people. I went on the air at five after six on my first day and I was scared to death, because I knew Ken Garland was down the hall listening. With all that nervousness and energy, I delivered the sportscast, and then I read the card that was there. I had to say, “It’s 10 after six, time for the start of the Ken Garland Show.”
With that, I cut my microphone and I heard nothing. Three seconds later—it seemed like three hours—I could hear the faint sound of a microphone being opened, and on comes Ken Garland. His first line was, “Wow. If I was Charlie Swift, I would hurry home from vacation.” And before I left the building that day, they signed me to do the pre- and postgame Eagles shows and the coach’s show, who was Ed Khayat at the time.

You mentioned being nervous on your first day. Is it true that you still get nervous today before games?
Absolutely, every game day. I’ve studied and prepared all week and it’s like going into a final exam in college, when your grade depends on it. Except, instead of a professor reading your blue blook, it’s millions of people listening to you and you want to be at your best. You’ve memorized numbers and you’ve prepared notes, and you’re really consumed with everything about that game. So I wake up very nervous on the day of a game, and I can feel the tension build as the morning goes on.
For a 1 o’clock game, I leave the house at 8:15, because I want to know if I get four flat tires, I can hitchhike my way to the game. I go down on the field at 11:30 and do something for the CBS Channel 3 pregame show. Then I go back up to the booth and do a segment for the WIP pregame show, and then about two minutes before 1, our producer Joe McPeak says, “Stand by, two minutes.” I can feel the bass drum beating in the pit of my stomach, then he’ll say, “30 seconds,” and then he’ll tap me on the shoulder and I’ll come on with a couple of lines that I’ve jotted down, so I can open up strong and know what I want to say. As I deliver that, all of the nervousness goes away and I feel as if I’m floating for the next three-and-a-half hours.

You’re obviously a fan of the team, but you also have a job to do and you’re a professional. Is it important to you to be honest about things if the Eagles aren’t playing well?
I’m a fan in the sense that I love the Eagles and I always have loved the Eagles. However, I’m a professional broadcaster and I’m there to tell the story of what is going on that day. If that means saying that the Eagles look flat or they’re unprepared, [so be it]. My famous call from Dec. 19, 2010—that was the second Miracle at the Meadowlands where DeSean Jackson had the punt return to end it—at the end of the first half I said, “Giants 23, the Eagles are still back at their hotel.”
I will be completely honest, but there are boundaries. I will never call for anyone’s job, I will never criticize anyone in the front office and I will never say a coach should be fired. But I call the game as I see it, and if it’s my favorite person on the field dropping a pass, I’ll say it’s a pass he should have caught. I tell Mike Quick, “If you dropped the ball, I would say you dropped the ball.” And he always kids me and says, “Yeah, but I never dropped a pass.”

I was going to ask you about Mike Quick. You were with Stan Walters for many years, but now I think Mike is the partner you’ve been with the longest.
I have. Stan was 14 years and Mike is going on 25. The chemistry began when Mike was a player and I would go over to his locker. Mike was always polite and always a guy you could go to, win or lose, and he would treat you with respect. We developed a familiarity and a friendship—not a social friendship, but we were very, very comfortable with each other. When Mike got the job doing Eagles color, we spent a lot of time together that summer out at training camp, standing on the sideline. I would quietly call a play and Mike would know when to come in.
When we first began I said to him, “Don’t worry, just say something when you have something to say, but wait until I’m done my sentence and just tap me.” He would tap me and I would tap him back, and he would know that was when to go. After about six or seven games, we didn’t have to tap each other anymore. The comfort level grew. He’s a tremendously dedicated analyst who prepares diligently and talks to players and talks to coaches. Mike and I have certainly developed a close friendship. The Mike and Merrill people hear on the air are the Mike and Merrill people would hear off the air. We really respect each other, we like each other, we go to each other’s family celebrations, we play golf numerous times in the offseason, and we’re just good friends.

The title of your autobiography is It’s Gooooood! How did that become your signature call?
You have to go back in the Eagles record books in the media guide to find the year, but it was the year they played the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle. It was a game that went to the last seconds of overtime, and I believe it was Roger Ruzek who kicked the [game-winning] field goal. At that point, we had been through so many ups and downs over five quarters that when the ball went through the uprights, I just went, “It’s long enough and it’s gooooood.” It was the exasperation and the finalization of a game that seemingly went on forever.
That was the first time I said that, and I don’t say it all the time, but I use that extension of the word “good” when it’s a significant field goal, like the great 61-yarder Jake Elliott kicked to beat the Giants in 2017. That really called for a call like that. There are various degrees of it too, and sometimes I am more emphatic. … If it’s a game-winner, if it’s especially long, if it comes at a critical juncture of the game, I give it a little extra. But it’s nothing I really think about too much.

How about the way you tick off the yardage when a big play is happening?
It’s my job as a radio broadcaster to paint a picture. I am grateful that a lot of people turn down the sound on the television to listen to Mike and me. However, I have to work with the feeling that everyone is sightless at the time they’re listening to us, whether they’re in the car or listening to us in the backyard while they’re gardening. Some of the nicest emails I have received are from unsighted people who thank me for bringing the game to life in their eyes. I’ve been awarded the Louis Braille Award by the Associated Services for the Blind. I have to work with the feeling that I am painting a picture, and that’s why I do that to the best of my ability. If you’re a television play-by-play man, you are captioning the picture and the analyst comes on and adds to it. But in radio you are the painter of that picture.

Do you like the fact that fans often imitate your calls? Just like Harry Kalas, most Philadelphia fans have a Merrill Reese impression.
I think it’s fun. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I’m not sensitive to it.

I know you said earlier that the numbers don’t mean much to you, but for many Eagles fans, you’ve been the voice of the team for their entire lives. Is that special to you to know that so many people have grown up listening to you?
Sure, absolutely. Someone said that I’m the soundtrack of their life. When you hear things like that, it makes you feel good knowing that you can add to someone’s enjoyment of this beautiful sport. That means a lot to me and I’m appreciative. I think Eagles fans are the best in all of football and all of sports. At the end of Super Bowl LII, I did not write anything. Someone asked me during the week if I was going to write anything in case the Eagles won, because my words would live for eternity. But I said I wouldn’t, because I wanted my real emotions to break loose.
Angelo Cataldi and the Morning Show had been telling me for years, “I just want the Eagles to win a Super Bowl for you, because you deserve to have a Super Bowl win after all the years you’ve been calling games.” I said to him, “The truth of the matter is, I’ve had so many great thrills broadcasting these games: great players, great moments, great comebacks. They don’t owe me anything, but the fans in this city—who have been with this team through thick and thin, have been with this team when the Eagles won two games, there are Eagles fans who have taken a second mortgage so they can buy season tickets, there are Eagles fans who spend their last dime on giving their kids Eagles jerseys for Christmas—they deserve it.
So when that last moment came, when I saw the ball hit the ground, I said, “It’s incomplete, the game is over, the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions!” And the next thing that came out of my mouth without a second of thought was, “Eagles fans everywhere, this is for you. Let the celebration begin!” That was my acknowledgement that these were the people who really deserved that Lombardi Trophy, not me. I was a part of it, I was a chronicler of it, but it was for the fans. Now, did I enjoy it also? Of course I did.

You almost got to call a second Super Bowl win last year, and hopefully you won’t have to wait long for another.
I hope so too, but you never know. They’re the best team in the NFC this year going in, but it’s a war of attrition. You take a team that can potentially be 14-3, like they were last year, but if you get the three wrong injuries at the wrong time of the season, then they could be 9-8.
Having Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts in place for the foreseeable future does inspire confidence.
I think Nick is a bright young coach and Jalen is a tremendous quarterback. I felt that from the moment I saw him at Alabama and Oklahoma, and I was thrilled when they drafted him.

Is it too difficult of a question to ask you about your favorite players over the years?
You have to categorize it. If you were to ask me who is the greatest player I’ve ever been around, I would tell you that is unequivocally Reggie White. There were other great ones, like Dawk [Brian Dawkins], but Reggie White was the best of my 47 years. If you want to ask me who the most exciting player was, that would be Randall Cunningham. There was nobody who had the air of excitement that Randall Cunningham had—nobody.
If you asked me who were my favorite players as people, I have too many to name. There are so many great people I’ve met over the years and very few that I didn’t like. For example, and I don’t want to leave anybody out, but any day that I happen to see Brandon Graham in the facility and we chat for a few minutes, my day just got better. That’s the kind of effect he has on people. He is the warmest person and he lifts your spirit just by being around him. Jason Kelce is an amazing guy too. There are so many.
I’ve been around three of the greatest running backs. My three favorite running backs chronologically were Wilbert Montgomery, Brian Westbrook and Shady McCoy. Ron Jaworski is a friend; he was a tremendous quarterback, the way he led the Eagles to Super Bowl XV. But the record books will tell us that the most accomplished quarterback the Eagles ever had was Donovan McNabb, because he owns all the records. He was a great guy and a great player. Nick Foles became a favorite player just on the basis of what he did in 2017 and in the Super Bowl, and he was another wonderful guy. 
Who was a better player and a better person than Brian Dawkins? He was amazing. Bill Bergey was a great defensive player who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. He was a linebacker who dominated games, and people used to chant his name. To this day, Bill Bergey is a great friend.
My favorite coach is Dick Vermeil. He’s a good friend to this day and he’s a great man. I love Dick Vermeil, and I thought Andy Reid was an excellent coach. He’ll be in the Hall of Fame one day. I love Doug Pederson. I knew him as a player and I remain very close to him. He always had enough time to sit down with me, answer my questions and talk to me as a friend. Doug Pederson was absolutely wonderful. I can tell you that the one coach I had zero relationship with was Chip Kelly. He just didn’t communicate; I don’t think he communicated well with his players, so how was he going to communicate with a broadcaster? You could walk by him and say hi, and he wouldn’t give you the time of day. There are those you like, those you don’t, and those you continue to root for. I think Doug Pederson may win another Super Bowl, not necessarily this year, but some year in Jacksonville. I think he’s a great coach.

Going from your Eagles family to your own family, I believe your son Nolan works in the movie industry, right?
He does. He’s one of the leading visual effects editors in Hollywood. He’s done Captain America, Bad Boys 3, Valkyrie, Creed III and he’s now working on Bad Boys 4. He is quite a guy, and he would join me on the road about three times a year and keep our stats. He’ll join me many nights when I’m at home in my easy chair watching the Phillies or the Sixers, and we’ll just watch the game together on the phone.

And you have a daughter too?
Yes. Her name is Ida and she lives less than 10 minutes away from us with her husband and her kids: Ollie is going to be 5 in September and the baby, Audrey, is going to be 2 in October. They’re wonderful kids.

I’ve also heard you talk about your wife, Cindy, many times, who has been your support system for so long.
For so long. Nobody could have a more loving and supportive wife, and she’s accomplished in her own right with a doctorate in education. She walks around with flash cards to help me prepare for games. If we’re playing the Giants, she’ll yell out, “26,” and I’ll say, “Saquon Barkley.” We do that all the time.