The Behavioral Corner 

Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano. And this is the Behavioral Corner; you're invited to hang with us, as we've discussed the ways we live today, the choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and wellbeing. So you're on the corner, the Behavioral Corner, please hang around a while. 

Steve Martorano 

Hi, everybody. I'm Steve Martorano. It's September we find ourselves It's September, which is designated as many things I think it's a September's among many other things be, you know, be good to your garden month. But it's also seriously, National Recovery Month, in that context refers specifically to recovery from substance abuse and long term sobriety which lots and lots of people are successful. We're going to expand that to include recovery from just everything, you know what I'm talking about. So we're going to take a little break Talk about football which I know our guest believes is good for the soul. Merrill Reese has been for a very long time, considered the voice of something which is a hell of a designation. He's the voice of the Philadelphia Eagles professional football team. Merrill is a longtime friend of mine and a former colleague we worked together many years ago. And we are delighted to have Merrill talk to us about what he does, how he's going to do it during a pandemic and he'll answer the question of whether he thinks footballs good for the soul as we hang on the corner with him bro. Thanks for joining us on the corner.

Merrill Reese 

Good to be with you, Steve. It's always good to speak with you and I do remember fondly but basically work together on the morning show at WIP always a lot of fun and never knew where you were going with what you were going to hit me with on a particular morning but we enjoyed every minute of it. You know,

Steve Martorano 

I'm gonna take a moment of personal privilege here to talk about that you were the master of paying very close attention I would do the lead-in for I'd say, well, it's eight o'clock in the morning and now rose here with you know the latest on what's happening. And you are the master at taking the last thought or sometimes even the last word in my sentence. And definitely segue into your week. You know if I said something like, real here and as you know, really tough weekend high morale, and you would say tough indeed. Right? You do that it was just brilliant. So I never told you this, but I would spend a little bit of time before each break going, what word Could I use? That he couldn't...

Merrill Reese 

Oh, my goodness...

Steve Martorano 

...he couldn't possibly work it and no matter what I did, you know, I'd say something like in Merrill's here now and I'm going to go down to the men's room and you would go Alright, Steve will the men's room is where the Eagles found themselves. And I would say he's brilliant. He's just...

Merrill Reese 

That was better than...I worked for a woman at WIP named Carol Ann Kell. Remember Carol Ann? 

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, I remember the name? Sure. 

Merrill Reese 

She did the news and she knew nothing about sports and she would do the newscast and she would leave it to me before she would say to me, Merrill. What should I say to lead into you? And I give relief. She says to me, as you know, Merrill, the Phillies really went deep in the bullpen last night. And one day she did that. They said, "What do you mean by that Carol Ann?" And she chased me around the newsroom. She wanted to kill me!

Steve Martorano 

That's not fair. But, I never told you that -- my hand to God -- when you said you often didn't know where I was going. That's because I was trying to I was actually trying to run you up a blind alley. Oh, I mean, I would work reservoir in and you would go deep water is where they find them.

Merrill Reese 

That's right. That's right.

Steve Martorano 

You are the best Okay, that's why you become the voice of something you know, , I was reading your Wikipedia entry I didn't know that you were the longest-tenured play by play announcer in the National Football League, is that right?

Merrill Reese 

That's a nice way of saying old. But I am this is my 44th year. Brad Sham goes to Dallas Cowboys is we've actually we actually started around the same time actually started the year before he started as the color analyst with Verne Lundquist. And I started as a color analyst with Charlie Swift. But then somewhere along the line, probably about 20 years ago, on a television show, he asked Jerry Jones, a question that jerry jones didn't care for. And for three years, he was banished to the Texas Rangers to do baseball. And then he came back but mine is continuous.

Steve Martorano 

Yeah. And that shows you the kind of minefield guy in your position often has to walk 44 years is the voice of the Philadelphia Eagles. I know you know these answers. How many Many owners have you worked through?

Unknown Speaker 

Well, when I began it was Leonard Tose. It became Norman Braman and then Jeffrey Lurie. So there are three so three,

Steve Martorano 

How many coaches, head coaches?

Unknown Speaker 

Head coaches as well. I'm going back to the pre and post-game shows just as a play by play guy. It was Dick Vermeil followed by Marion Campbell, followed by Ray Rhodes followed by Richie Kotite. Followed by Buddy Ryan and the Richie Kotite. And then Andy Reid. And then the worst of all, Chip Kelly. And then Doug Peterson who's done a great job.

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, you know, I'm just sorry, I asked you that question because you reminded me of Chip Kelly.

Merrill Reese 

I tried to stay away.

Steve Martorano 

If you had to skip the name, I don't think anybody would have caught you. Well, that's it. You know, it's amazing. It's an amazing tenure, and I won't get When I asked you to name all the color, the color partners you've had the guys who do you know the up close and personal but I remember Stan Walters real well, you and he were great together. Now, of course, it's Mike Quick. Mike played for a lot of years, right?

Unknown Speaker 

Well, Mike, believe it or not..this is Mike's 24th year. Its funny people don't even remember -- the young kids don't remember that he was a football player. They think of them as a broadcaster. But yeah, actually, I started...my first colored analyst because I took over the play by play...with two weeks, two games to go in the 1977 season, Charlie Swift had been the play by play guy, and he died suddenly with two games to go. And they called me and said you're doing the play by play Sunday go get a color-man. And the one person who lived in the area who I was friendly with was a Hall of Fame former Packer and Cowboy by the name of Herb Adderley. So, Herb Adderley did the last two games the 77 season was not a candidate to continue, because he had joined the Temple coaching staff. And from there it was Jim Barnyak and Jim Barnyak at gave way to Bill Bergey. And Bill Bergey gave way to Stan Walters, who did it for 14 years. And Mike has done the last 24 

Steve Martorano 

Wow, Mike Quick has been out of football that long! You're right. There is a whole generation that doesn't remember what a great receiver he was for the Philadelphia Eagles. Well, it's it again, it's a remarkable, remarkable career. And we're so you know, I know people in this town are grateful that they got to listen to you call games as anybody who knows, broadcasting around here watching football. It's a right it's an absolute rite of passage when you first realize you could turn down the television sound and listen to Merrill and Mike do the game rather than the network guys. You'd be remiss if I didn't ask you I mean your life like all of our lives, professionally and privately have been impacted by the pandemic, what's going to change about doing play by play for this season?

Unknown Speaker 

Well, first place, you're doing it in a stadium without fans. And they have moved us from our broadcast booth on the 50-yard line, but very, very tight. We were practically sitting on each other's laps down a level. Below the 50 yard line even closer to the action to a suite. We now have a large suite with complete with his own lobby and bar and restroom but everything else -- and an unoccupied suite. And Mike will sit four seats to my right. And then to my left is my spotter bill worn dill and Billy are I are separated by a plexiglass sheet of plexiglass and Our statistician, Terry Small will sit behind us in another row in this suite. And he will be giving me the statistics on a screen instead of flashing me numbers or holding up a grid and pointing to 37 yards on the last play. I'll get it on the screen. My producer, Joe McPeak, will also stand behind me separated with plexiglass. And instead of handing me drop-in cards where I would read on the PNC football network or whatever they see, you know, so-and-so Red Zone, those drop-ins will come upon a screen So it will be it really will be socially set up. Oh, and the other thing. The other thing is, we will not travel. Because our Market Manager felt that since the Eagles playing this year, we usually travel With the team will be occupied by only essential football personnel. He didn't want Mike and I to jump on commercial aircraft walking through airports, grabbing cabs, and Ubers. He felt that was not safe. And so we are doing the away games from that aforementioned suite, but we will have two 60 inch monitors.

Steve Martorano 

So you will be doing professionally what the rest of us have done our entire lives sit in front of the television screen and, and do play by play in our heads. Is that right?

Merrill Reese 

Mm-hmm. And we will have crowd noise piped in by the NFL.

Steve Martorano 

Let me ask you a question. I don't think I've ever asked you this. As you do the games when they are in front of you in the stadium. How much time do you spend watching the field as opposed in real-time as opposed to watching a monitor?

Merrill Reese 

I watch the field 100% of the time really And and for a couple of reasons. One is that the monitor is delayed. We're getting the TV right here has been delayed the other time. The other thing is, I will watch it except in Dallas. And the reason in Dallas is that you have that AT&T Stadium which my son refers to as a "monument to excess." And we are in a suite Dallas, but our suite is way up in the air and it's in a corner of the end zone. So when they move downfield, these little specks, there is that 60-yard screen that sits there in at&t stadium with everything in real-time. So when they move to my right across the 50 I focus on this big screen that hangs from the roof. So that's, what I focused on in Dallas. But other than that I focused on the field. The only time I look over on the monitor and Mike watches it is when they go with a replay, right when they're showing us whether he's in or out versus a contested call. That's the only time I use a monitor.

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, you know, I a couple of other nuts and bolts I love talking. Not so much the game with you, but how you do it and what that's all about. It's fascinating to me. I've always thought someone should write a slim book made up of the expert people who do what you do for a living in any city and they do baseball and basketball and hockey and they do football and ask those guys to write a couple of words on how to watch the game because I think a lot of people who watch sports, you know, don't watch it closely enough to really be knowledgeable about what's going on. Who should a fan be looking at when a play begins to unfold? Should they be looking at the lineman to see if they're past blocking, run blocking should they be looking at the quarterback? What's the smart informed fan look at?

Merrill Reese 

Oh, it's interesting that you say that because a former general manager of the New York Jets, Pat Kirwan, his name is - wrote up, wrote a book a couple of years ago that I read called Keep your Eye Off the Ball. And it's a real education of football and tells you where to look now. As a fan, if I were going to a game, I would do what I do. Basically, I followed the ball. When people say to me hat lane Johnson like I say, Well, I guess he played alright because Carson Wentz didn't get sacked from that great side. But I'm not really watching Lane Johnson. I'm watching the ball as a play by play guy now my spotter Billy. We have about 30 different hand signals between us. And he, after a play can take his right fist and punch it into his left palm, and then point to a number. And I can say, Isaac Seumalo through a great block on that play. Or he can, he can show me that someone so deflected the past, or that selling soap was the second man or give me the two fingers, and then point to a tackler and show me that he was the second man in all the tackle. And there's a whole bunch of we have 30 hand signals between us. But more or less, the only way to enjoy your game is to watch the ball. Yeah, but there's no harm in taking your eye off the ball for a few plays here and there. If you want to see how the rookie left tackle was doing. Follow him put your binoculars on him for one or two plates and then flashback to The ball or look at this, look at the corners to see how they're shifting around. When you go into nickel coverage and things like that, that's fine to do occasionally. But you can't really follow a game unless you follow the ball.

Steve Martorano 

Well, you and yes, it is that regard naturally, you would follow the ball more closely than anybody because they have to throw your principal job is to tell people, what just happened, how far the ball went forward, or the ball went backward. And I want to get into this because this is you know, we're on the behavioral corner, we talk about the things in our lives that affect our health, mentally and spiritually. And that has a lot to do with our behaviors. I want to really talk about what your impression is in the thought you have over the years about what football means. Now we know it's not football coming back now in a couple of weeks, less than a couple of weeks, is not going to cure most of what's going on in the country right now. You know what all that is civil strife, pandemics, politics, the whole thing, but it's also nothing. And I know as a broadcaster, you are first and foremost a communicator, and you communicate in that booth, much more than down in distance. Are you aware that people are hanging on your every word, and you have an effect on their psyches?

Merrill Reese 

Well, that's part of it. That's part of it. The reason I'm aware of it was from the time I was three or four years old, I was huddled up to a radio hanging on somebody else's, every word. I grew up like that. I was the kid who, when my parents told me like that it's time to go to sleep and the Phillies were on the west coast, smuggled the transistor radio under the covers, and listen till the very last out was made at 2:30 in the morning, and that they had to drag me out of bed to go to school so I could say,

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And you're listening to By Saam and Bill Campbell and those guys.

Merrill Reese 

Well, the first one I remember listening to was an announcer by the name of Gene Kelly and then of course By Saam, and with the Eagles was the great Bill Campbell who became a wonderful friend. 

Steve Martorano 

Yeah. We so then you know what I mean when I say if an announcer is is not in tune with who's listening to these broadcasts, they can have a very significant effect on people's you know, not their physical well being but their emotions they can definitely have an effect on their emotions. Is that something you're conscious of? Or are you just in there you know, I'm a pro and how to do this and however people feel that's the way they feel. Which way do you fall?

Merrill Reese 

No, I don't fall in any of those categories. I fall into the category that I study all week. I really do. I study all week. I've memorized numbers. I go to practice. I watch plays. I watch the game tape, I watch what's called and zone offense a defense of the opponent but they're playing And I spent hours and hours and hours preparing. So that when Mike Quick and I go on the air, people get the impression that we're just two guys hanging out watching a football game and enjoying it with them. That's the impression but there's so much going on in the booth mechanically. And so many cues coming on and commercials to do this a lot of business going on. But I want people to be detached from all of that. Just feel that with their friends in the booth, trying to transmit not only the action but also the emotion and the excitement and the entire ambiance of the stadium. I mean, I'd like to give a weather report from the standpoint of the field being three quarters shadowed at that point with the sky being "December serious." I mean, I like to paint a picture that's my job to paint a picture. But it's not something at this point. I consciously do. I just, it would be paralysis by analysis, or it would become contrived. It's just something that's, that's part of me for doing it for so long. And it comes out that way. But I'm, I'm speaking to the listeners, as if I'm speaking to one person to a close friend, telling him or her what is happening, and what it feels like.

Steve Martorano 

Yes. And it's in that thing that I asked the question not so much that you plan to do it. You and everybody else who does what you do and does it well, are then connected on a very deep level, to the fans, hopes, their aspirations for their teams, and their heartache. All of that results in this phenomenon that occurs and I know you've seen it, hopefully, you've not been a victim of it, where the typical fan will hear and listen to a national broadcaster doing a local game. and assume immediately that they don't like the team.

Merrill Reese 

Yes, yes, that's what they think. And it used to when we were in college. I remember one of our communications professors who was also us anchor on the weekends a channel 6 John Roberts. And he once told us that when the public views a news anchor, every republican thinks that that news anchor is a democrat, and every democrat thinks he's a republican. It's the same thing with the network of broadcasters. They come in and everybody thinks that Joe Buck and Troy Aikman hate the Eagles and that they want the Cowboys and I really believe to be honest with you, that as much as Troy Aikman cared about as Cowboys as a player and still they root for them inwardly. He does a professional job and he's, he's being honest and he's being he's really big. candidate in saying that he is watching and what he believes. Same thing with Cris Collinsworth who worked with Al Michaels doing the Super Bowl the Eagles won. There were a couple of times when he disagreed, and he felt that Cory Clement's catch would be overruled. And I think he thought the same thing of Zach Ertz. That was not because he wanted the Eagles to have that play go against them was that he was rooting for the Patriots. It's just how he saw that play. Fortunately, I saw both of those plays in the other direction. But I can promise you that if I thought Zach Ertz' was not a catch. I would have said it. Well, I just said that. And many times I've said that I think the Eagles go just benefit or not play that that should have been overruled.

Steve Martorano 

No, absolutely. Anybody who's listened to you knows the candor is is you ought to be your middle name. I mean, that's, that's there's no doubt you're not a "homer." We know where your heart is. But your professional ability goes beyond that. And this is what I want to get to. First, I want to ask you the question that sort of began this thing and that you think it's important. Maybe there was a question up until a few weeks ago whether there would be any sports in America, certainly, football was going to be the hardest to put together under the circumstances. Do you think it's important that there be football in the fall and through the rest of the year?

Merrill Reese 

I do think it's important. I think it's very important. I think that we need that for our mental health. I think we need the versions I need it. But we need to have a feeling that our emotions can come out that we don't just sit around 24 hours a day, concentrating on the number of deaths of the pandemic or when the vaccine is coming out. We don't know these things, but we need the version. So I think football is a wonderful diverse because there is so much attached to it. And another thing Steve, I was reading, I don't believe there will be high school football. In Philadelphia, there will be in some areas because the governor did not says say or outlaw high school sports, he advised against them and some school districts or complying with that wish. But, for example, I think there were a lot of players, young men who play football, and they need that outlet to channel them in a positive direction, because these are regressive guys who, and some of them come from troubled backgrounds, and they need this to get all of this pent up emotion out of their bodies, rather than turning it into negative pursuits.

Steve Martorano 

This has always been a tough nut to crack. Anybody who thinks it's easy to try to figure out what the right things to do under these circumstances is kidding themselves. It's a very, very daunting task.

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Steve Martorano 

Merrill Reese is hanging with us on the corner. He is the long time 44 years now. Voice of the Philadelphia Eagles professional football team and an old pal as well, by the way for kids usually come by the corner here. They do a pickup game in the street, maybe you can do ahh, you can do color. I want to bring this back to what responsibility or not yeah, not the responsibility, but how aware you are, again, that people have a lot invested maybe too much sometimes in the outcome of a football game or any sporting event. You're their conduit to that you're the guy who brings them the message. Even if they're looking at the same thing you're looking at the announcer shapes the mood can almost set the agenda. If he's bad, he could ruin the whole experience. If he's good he adds more to it. Are you aware of all that responsibility? You do in a sense, have the psyches of a lot of people in your hands on any given Sunday. Are you aware of that?

Merrill Reese 

I am and Angelo Cataldi on WIP morning show used to have me on, used to say to me prior to 2018 February 4 2018. He used to say to me, "You know Merrill, for all the years you've done the games more than anybody. I want you to have a winning Superbowl, the broadcast because that would really really put the punctuation mark on your career, wouldn't it?" And I said to Angelo, and I mean this sincerely. "Well, I certainly want the Eagles to win the Super Bowl. But the Eagles have given me so much -- football has given me so many great memories. I mean, they were the "Miracles of the Meadowlands" - two of them, and they were there. All the great games that I can think of it I wish I could name 10 of them and I bet that every Eagles fan would identify some of them even had names like "The Fog Bow, "The Body Bag Game," you know, they got to all go on about stuff like that. They don't owe me anything. I have a career that I get up every morning and can't wait to get down to practice. I wake up on a Sunday morning scared to death, the nervous pit in my stomach nervous. And so I go over here. I love every second of it." I said, "I want them to win the Superbowl for the fans." These are the people who invest so much in this team. Some of them take on second mortgages so they can get season tickets. People spend their last dollars rather than buying anything for themselves to buy their kids Carson Wentz jerseys, or, you know, any kind of Eagles paraphernalia for Christmas. I mean the money and the emotion of the heart that this fanbase has put in this team is enormous. I wanted to put them yeah. And then when we got to the Super Bowl and I, the week before Paul Domowitch of the Daily News asked me a question. He said, "Will you write an ending? Will you write what you're going to say if the Eagles win the Superbowl?" And I think you know that a lot of broadcasters do things like but so they have exactly the poetic words that they want at their hands if that occurs. And I said to Paul, "No, I will not because I just want my emotions to spill forth." I've been doing this long enough to believe that if it happens, that I will just react in an appropriate way. So we came down to the last play. And it was one last heave for the end zone by Tom Brady. And I'm sitting there scared to death. Now, I'm not scared to death that the Patriots are going to complete that pass. Because, first of all, the Eagles were up by eight points, not seven. So they would have had to complete a Hail Mary, and then complete a 2pt conversion. And plus, I think Brady had quite the arm like Aaron Rodgers to put it up there that far that high. But what I was frightened about is that we were seated in the corner of the opposite end zone. And that pass was going to come down approximately 110 yards away from where I was seated, and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to pick it up clearly enough. 

Steve Martorano 

You'd be the last guy. They'd be the last guy in the building to know what happened.

Merrill Reese 

Oh, I did not want to be known as the broadcaster who blew the finish to the Super Bowl. But anyhow, I saw it come up and all of a sudden, everything seemed to go in slow motion. It just slowed down. And I clearly saw it battered around. And finally, when it hit the ground, I said, "It's incomplete. The game was over." I looked up at the clock and it was nothing but zeros and I said, "The game was over. The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions!" And then I paused and I said, "Eagles fans everywhere this is for you. Let the celebration begin." 

Steve Martorano 

That was perfect. 

Merrill Reese 

That was all I had to say. 

Steve Martorano 

Yeah, it was perfect. Listen, by the way, now that you refreshed my memory, you know, as well as I did if he'd completed that pass at the end of the game, they would have scored the two-point conversion. You know, those sons of bitches would have done that again. Okay. Anyway, listen, Merrill, thanks so much for this because like I said at the top we do need a break every now, and then it is not selfish or foolish to just shut down the craziness. It's not going to go away, but you need a respite from that and you're going to provide that along with that football team as we go into the fall and I'm not here to tell -- and neither you -- anybody that football is the most important thing, but it ain't nothing. And so I'm glad it's back and I'm glad for the 45th year now, I guess we will hear you and Mike do those games.

Merrill Reese 

Well, this is the 44th. Do people say how long you want to do this? I said, "They're gonna have to take a crane to remove me because it's what I love to do more than anything else in the world. And I'm not leaving." 

Steve Martorano 

Well, they got you in that nice suite now. You can kick back and really take it easy.

Merrill Reese 

You know, it's gonna spoil us because hopefully next year this pandemic is over and we go back into our closet.

Steve Martorano 

Well, give my regards to your team, whom I've known for a very long time. I know your producer Joe McPeak was just a great kid in the story about how he got the job is fantastic. I got to have you back on someday to talk about him praying in the plane with Buddy Ryan. There are so many stories. Merrill, thanks so much have a great season and I hope you get to call a lot of W's not for your sake, but for mine.

Merrill Reese 

I hope so, Steve, I have no idea what's going to happen. You have 32 teams with question marks. I thank you so much, and it's always a delight to catch up with you.

The Behavioral Corner 

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