As the viridescence of the environment prepares to transform into the picturesque composition of autumnal galore accentuated by the tinge of the leaves, Merrill Reese is completing a pivotal assignment. Despite serving as the longest-tenured play-by-play announcer in the NFL, he is focused on ensuring he keeps his job with every new season. In order to effectuate this desire, he listens back to his calls of four full games and picks up on certain proclivities or shortcomings that he can work to improve from the onset of the preseason.
There are times where he will make mistakes, such as misidentifying a player, but he understands those things are naturally going to happen and can be remedied through a haste correction. Occasionally, he will find himself using particular verbiage too often and recognize the need to vary his vocabulary, something he has built through a commitment to reading.
“Somebody once told me – and they were talking about football [in] the way that they talk to the players – that you never stay the same,” Reese said. “You either get better or you get worse. I want to always get better.”
SportsRadio 94WIP recently announced a six-year media rights extension with the Philadelphia Eagles that will keep games on its airwaves through the 2028 campaign. This on-air partnership has made an indelible impact around the Philadelphia metropolitan area, dating back to the 1969 season, one year before the merger between the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). Outside of the 15-year stretch between 1992 and 2007 when the team broadcast on Infinity Broadcasting-owned WYSP, Eagles games have been transmitted through the station’s associated frequencies, keeping the fans both informed and entertained.
Reese is a local broadcaster and has always remained loyal to the Philadelphia marketplace, neglecting opportunities to expand his responsibilities to the national level. Unlike various other professional sports leagues, regionalized NFL games on television are broadcast by national networks. While many viewers enjoy the television broadcasters, there are some people who turn down the volume and synchronize the game to the radio feed, looking to hear a broadcast focused on the local perspective.
“The job of a television play-by-play broadcaster is to caption the pictures,” Reese said, “and the job of a broadcaster on radio is to paint the picture and describe every step. So they’re different jobs and they’re done differently, but I think our job is important too.”
Reese engages in a curriculum of groundwork involving research and conversations leading up to any given Eagles football contest. During the week, he frequently travels to the NovaCare Complex to watch practices, sit in press conferences and interview players in the locker room. By the time gameday comes around, Reese feels apprehensive until kickoff and focuses on being his best, realizing that there may be someone who has never listened to a game tuning in for the first time.
“I don’t care if it’s the preseason game or the Super Bowl – you want to be at your best, and you prepare to the nth degree,” Reese said. “….I’m very, very fortunate to do what I do and get the reception and the feeling of appreciation that I derive.”
With an understanding that he wanted to be a sportscaster, Reese decided to enroll at Temple University and joined WRTI, the student-run radio station. After some time asking sports director Tom Cardella for an opportunity, he was permitted to call a Temple baseball game into a tape recorder. By his sophomore year, he was named sports director of the radio station and broadcast Temple football games for the next three years.
Although much of his time was spent at the radio station, he also took classes related to his major including a radio drama course where he produced a project titled, “Wings that Couldn’t be Clipped,” which told the story of the 1960 Philadelphia Eagles. Little did Reese recognize that he would be on the call the next time it occurred when the team hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy following the 2017 season.
“It made it special because this is a town that loves the Eagles; this is a town that stays with the Eagles whether they win or lose,” Reese explained. “This is a town that fills that stadium whether there’s slush and sleet or 100-degree [Fahrenheit] temperature. Whatever it is, they’re out there for this football team.”
Before he started working behind the microphone for the Eagles, Reese endured a training program to become a public affairs officer in the U.S. Navy. The experience strengthened his resolve and perseverance, conveying that it helped him to further mature and is representative of a very important time of his life.
“Everything you do teaches you something that is helpful at some other point,” Reese said. “I was in the Office of Information and it was a wonderful experience. After college, you gain the confidence [and] you grow up.”
Combating rejection required him to utilize these skills in order to thrive in the competitive sports media space. Spending his summers in Ventnor City in New Jersey, he worked with Steve Berger on WOND Radio and provided five-minute sports updates at night. From there, he was informed by a friend that there were job openings at WCOJ in Coatesville, Penn. and proceeded to audition for station owner William Halperin. Afterwards, Halperin advised him to look for a job in a smaller market.
Cardella then informed Reese of an opening at WPAZ in Pottstown, Penn., and he went to meet with the owner while feeling a lack of confidence. Becoming comfortable in the industry was hardly a facile task, and he was granted a chance to go on the air to call a high school football game when the only other alternative would have been dead air. Working seven days a week, he continued to call football along with little league baseball, and worked in music and news coverage in the studio.
“You take the steps in small increments,” Reese said. “It took me a long time to go from Pottstown to WIP and ultimately to become the play-by-play voice of the Eagles.”
Even though the weeks are packed with preparation and studies ahead of Eagles games, Reese has managed to continue as a managing partner at WBCB in Levittown, Penn., serving as a part-owner and general manager of the entity. Every morning, he works at the station for a couple of hours before traveling to the Eagles practice facility. Afterwards, he will sometimes stop at WBCB later in the afternoon and hosts the Pro Football Report program on Tuesdays.
“I balance the two things and they’re really labors of love,” Reese expressed.
Reese previously broadcast news coverage for the outlet, along with going on the air for affiliated stations WWDB-AM and WHAT-AM. While there, he offered to do sportscasts in the morning for free so he would be able to gain the experience. After auditioning at KYW-AM, news director Reggie Laitte advised he look for a career outside of broadcasting or go into another part in the industry, stating that he would never make it in a major market.
Following initial disappointment, Reese was able to persevere and auditioned to fill in for WIP sports director Charlie Swift while he took a month for summer vacation after he had accumulated a deluge of days off over the years. Landing the highly-coveted job led him to appear on pregame and postgame broadcasts for the Eagles, a role that allowed Reese to cover the team he had grown up watching. He held the position until he was asked to join the Eagles broadcasts as a color commentator ahead of the 1977 season where he worked directly with Swift, the play-by-play announcer.
In the 13th week of the season, Reese made his play-by-play debut for the team and has held the role ever since, but the circumstance under which he landed the job was calamitous. Swift had taken his own life four days before the game, leaving his wife and two children in a devastating situation for sports fans everywhere.
When Reese learned of the news at 2 a.m., he was overcome with melancholy and dedicated his morning show on WWDB to him. He received a call that same day from program director Dean Tyler, informing him that he would be doing the play-by-play announcing for Sunday’s game.
“Charlie was considerably older than I, but he was a guy that I looked up to and respected and liked,” Reese said, “and he died suddenly on Dec. 7, 1977 and certainly it hit me like a lead weight.”
In addition to his play-by-play obligations, Reese worked as sports director at WIP for 14 years during a time when the outlet was operating in the music format. The station began gradually adding sports talk programming in the mid-1980s featuring legendary hosts such as Angelo Cataldi, Howard Eskin and Al Morganti. During Reese’s stretch in the managerial role though, he would broadcast the morning sports news amid hourly updates that also featured news and weather before playing 50 minutes of music.
“When WIP went to the sports talk [format], I was not a sports talker,” Reese said. “I was not a guy who was arguing about sports and getting into debates from morning until night, but I certainly think sports talk radio brings pleasure to a lot of people and if it’s done well, it brings great ratings to that radio station.”
Having worked in the role for 46 years, Reese has always strived to remain genuine with his audience on the air and delineate the action taking place on the field. There are moments when he is critical of the team, never referring to himself within the aggregate. In fact, he does not like being called a “homer,” nor does he actively cheer for the team during the broadcast.
Instead, he looks to call each game as objectively as possible while depicting the moment with a pallet of tonalities and intonation. At the same time, he does not want to be perfidious towards the listening public, aiming for earnestness rather than a portrayal of verisimilitude imbued with equivocation.
“I will make certain statements, but if the Eagles get a call that I think is an advantageous call for them but not the correct call, I will say that,” Reese elucidated. “I do not openly root on the air, but again you can hear the excitement and the love that I do have for this team in the tone of my voice.”
Former Eagles wide receiver Mike Quick has worked as the color commentator on broadcasts for the last 25 seasons, and he is someone Reese considers to be a good friend. When he was first starting out, Reese directed Quick to tap him when he had something he wanted to say. Quick would then speak when Reese tapped him again, a practice that diminished over time.
“I would look over at Mike and he would know,” Reese said. “You grow and you become more comfortable working with each other game by game by game, and after all these years I guess we can just finish each other’s sentences.”
The Eagles have had their fair share of thrilling finishes while Reese has been on the broadcast, including game-ending field goals and touchdowns. There have also been plenty of disappointments, including the team’s recent loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII after leading through three quarters of play. Regardless of the outcome, these close games engender tension and puts Reese at the edge of his seat.
Retaining a sense of clarity through a protracted stretch of chaos is pivotal to keeping the listeners informed. With the lack of a visual aid for some listeners, Reese always looks to mention the score, time, down and distance as often as possible. Making sure that his audience is always aware of these four factors is a fundamental aspect of the game broadcast itself and something he periodically ensures to do over the course of the game. When he forgets to carry out this essential task, producer Joe McPeak throws a card in front of his face that reads “Score/Time” in order to remind him to acknowledge those metrics.
“I hate to get into the car and hear any sporting event where you can hear the crowd; you can hear the excitement and you’re sitting there for five minutes or six minutes and sometimes even longer and you don’t know what the score is,” Reese said, “…so that’s something that I am always aware of.”
The calls of monumental junctures in Eagles history, he avers, are things that take care of themselves as reactions after these instances. A catchphrase he has used throughout his career is, “It’s Gooooood!,” which he articulates after certain kicks. Reese ensures to use the call sparingly in consequential situations, such as on a long game-winning kick. There have also been times where he does not exclaim the phraseology, which has become of his broadcast vernacular almost by happenstance.
“It’s not always the same,” Reese said, “but every now and then if it’s a very special moment, that’s what seems to come out.”
Maintaining a level of credibility in an era where the advent of social media has allowed people to easily amplify and disseminate their voices en masse is an important aspect of the job. Reese has been around the team in the play-by-play role for 46 seasons and following them for most of his life and renders it imperative that people believe what he is saying. Moreover, he feels that the world today includes a lot of sensationalization, overstating the magnitude of certain events and sometimes fabricating stories entirely which can risk impugning the trust of the audience.
“There are certain broadcasters – and I’m sure there are certain writers – who throw things up against the proverbial wall and hope that they stick without the story being totally investigated,” Reese said. “I think there is a shock value involved to sports talk radio that there are people who are there to pick arguments and one guy goes in one direction and his partner goes in the other direction and they may not all agree totally with what they are espousing, but I think at the same time it’s entertainment.”
As soon as each contest ends, he returns home and watches all of the remaining football on the schedule, including the afternoon slate of games if the Eagles play at 1 p.m. EST on a Sunday. Following the Sunday and Monday prime-time matchups televised by NBC Sports and ESPN, respectively, he watches other college games throughout the week and Saturday games in addition to Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video. There are times where Reese feels the urge to stop and watch a local high school football game on a random afternoon to watch a quarter or two, consuming additional in-person action before his next game broadcast.
“I immerse myself in football throughout the entire week,” Reese said, “but I do all the requisite studying [and] the preparation of memorizing the rosters; the getting-to-know facts about each player.
Over his 46 years as the radio play-by-play announcer, Reese has missed all but one game and remains dedicated to his craft, earning a spot in the team’s Hall of Fame in 2016 and expressing that he will never willingly retire from the position. Evidently, his voice has become synonymous with Eagles football and is part of the organization’s soundtrack as it looks to earn another Super Bowl championship at the season’s end.
“The fact that you go into every game loving it – I can’t wait for a game to arrive,” Reese said. “I think success is happiness, knowing that there’s nothing in the world you would rather be doing, and that’s the truth.”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
