Eagles need to think hard about succession plan for Reese

Courtesy of Philly Voice

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Magazine

Once the airwaves crackle on 94 WIP at 4:25 pm sharp with the sound of an aged baritone, when the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Commanders at Lincoln Financial Field, Merrill Reese will officially kick off his 50th season as play-by-play voice. 

He’s lapped the field so hard, he’s coming up behind everyone else.

The Dean, Bill Campbell, amassed more than 5 decades on the air in a variety of roles but never that long in one spot calling one team. Andy Musser, same thing over 4 decades. Richie Ashburn was a multi-generational fixture in baseball but wasn’t even close. Larry Andersen’s working on almost 30 years’ service as the goofball-in-chief on Phillies telecasts. Gene Hart only made it to 28 years with the Flyers. Marc Zumoff bid happy trails at the 27-year mark in 2021.

In his July 15 Substack post, former Eagles beat writer Paul Domowitch never really got to the point. After waxing poetic about a pair of Air Jordans and allowing Reese the space to confirm his robust sight, speech, memory and vigor for his job before delving into the tragic circumstances which led to his tenure as play-by-play icon – there was no hint that the end is close. 

It’s OK to give a legend his flowers, but let’s not be blinded by the elephant in the room if his eyes are sealed shut due to allergens in the bouquet. And if not done correctly, the path towards Reese’s eventual retirement will be a stain on the Eagles franchise that will linger a long time.

All concerned parties need to take lessons from two pivot points in Philadelphia broadcasting history.

The first occurred less than a year ago, when legendary WMMR midday magician Pierre Robert died in his sleep, sometime before his scheduled shift on Oct. 29. Robert, who’d been on the air here since 1981 in a variety of roles throughout the broadcast day, who appeared to be in the best of health, and who was saved from the Beasley Brothers’ chopping block just 3 years prior, had some years left on his current contract and so much more life to live. He was 70 years old. 

At a legacy rock station which simultaneously targets the 12-plus and 25-to-54 demographics, there should already have been a plan in place to send Robert into the sunset, an exit plan more appropriate than simply walking away at the end of his deal. 

When his untimely passing caught everyone off guard, instead of undergoing a search for comparable and younger talent, WMMR was forced to pull an old name and voice back from the void – Matt Cord – who’d been shifted to WMGK’s older classic-rock demographic about a decade prior.

Sports fans attuned to events outside the Delaware Valley can look to what the San Francisco Giants are dealing with, as longtime broadcaster Mike Krukow announced his retirement, during the first week of August, effective the end of the season. Already unable to make Eastern road trips due to a progressive muscle disorder, the 74-year-old – who pitched for the Phillies in 1982 amidst his 14-year career – has received kudos from every corner of the Bay Area and within the game itself. 

Although his farewell tour will last the final 50 games or so of a lost Giants campaign, he’s fully present for it. 

The second is ol’ Harry and Whitey. That old-time Phillies double act which opened every spring and closed every fall between 1971 and 1997. Neither of them received the proper farewell they so richly deserved in life after growing in reputation as the soundtrack to generations. Both died, from heart attacks, on the road. One with a season almost finished, the other with one just underway. They were both in their 70s when a higher authority suddenly decided they were needed elsewhere in the cosmos.

We all know Philadelphia’s reputation. If you do right by us, we’ll do right by you. If you come from away and want to make your home here, we’ll embrace you like born-and-bred natives. 

But the downside to the positive spin on provinciality is the comfort which creeps in and morphs into complacency over the long haul. And that complacency often manifests itself as misdirected anger when change occurs. 

In a strange way, death smooths over any fallout from impending painful personnel decisions that have to be made with the public’s opinion riding in the passenger seat. 

There are countless thousands of Eagles fans who cannot envision their weekends without Merrill Reese. But life moves on and the older one gets, the less is guaranteed day to day. Merrill is 84 and, miraculously, still chugging along. That’s a lotta luck attached to good living. 

And while we’d all like to see him live to be 120, no one is eternally NFL Sunday sharp. Broadcasters lose something after about age 60. Their creativity. Their invention. Their speed and timing. I think the Eagles going through a decade of almost continual winning has helped things along, eventually that will come home to roost and there will be another rut of losing. 

Can you seriously imagine a propped-up Reese, at age 90, jolted awake for one last “It’s GOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!” on a dreary November Sunday for a 6-11 team?

Old heads remember how Hart clearly lost his timing and vision when the Flyers – stuck in a pit of subpar years without playoff berths and in need of a spiritual boost – brought him back from radio only to TV from 1993 to 1995. There are still many fans negatively vocal about Zumoff’s replacement, Kate Scott, 5 years on. 

Unless something is completely askew, it’s a foregone conclusion Merrill won’t tell anyone he thinks it’s time to go. He’s more than earned the right to call his shot – so long as *he* realizes it eventually needs to be called.

But he hasn’t earned the right to tell anyone in the organization their recommendations aren’t suitable – short of “this is your last year, like it or lump it.”

Reese will be officially honored by the Eagles during their Nov. 8 home game vs. the Giants for his half century of service. That would be a perfect time to make his call, or to have the team announce the structure of a phase out.

Whenever that day comes, don’t mourn. Don’t be angry. Don’t melt the phone lines at WIP or dogpile on social media in a vicious smear campaign. 

Reese has so many accolades trailing behind him that his road to retirement would look more like a smooth red carpet than the Belmont Avenue bridge in April after a snowy winter. Eagles Hall of Fame in 2016. Rozelle Award winner at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024. Even a Louis Braille Award for services to the blind and visually impaired from 2013. Called four Super Bowls, two victories. Recognition as the longest tenured PBP voice in NFL history. 

The only lingering question about his legacy should be: who has the guts and vision to make a graceful exit work?

Disclaimer: I worked for Merrill Reese at his Bucks County AM radio station in multiple capacities between 2004 and 2006.