Fox announcers excelled during Eagles-49ers melee that led to ejection of Birds’ security chief

During the Eagles’ blowout loss Sunday, there were several minutes of absolute chaos in the third quarter, which ended with the ejection of San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw and Dom DiSandro, the Birds’ beloved head of security.

As the situation unfolded, Fox announcers Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen and the entire broadcast team did a great job navigating viewers through the melee. Veteran reporter Tom Rinaldi, a Penn graduate who joined Fox in 2021 after a long career at ESPN, was within feet of the incident on the Eagles’ sideline, and delivered concise reports to viewers explaining what went down.

Fox’s cameras also caught the moment Greenlaw made contact with DiSandro’s face.

“Dom is just going to continue to raise the ladder of local heroes here in Philadelphia,” Fox announcer Greg Olsen said as the drama unfolded on the field. “He’s going to sell a lot of sweatshirts.”

DiSandro, 45, is in his 25th season with the team, and has become a favorite among Eagles fans. Jason Kelce dubbed him the “Papa Bear” of the Eagles, and he is selling custom “Big Dom” merchandise to support the Eagles Autism Foundation.

This is the second straight season Burkhardt — who grew up an Eagles fan — and Olsen have called games as Fox’s top broadcast crew. That included Super Bowl LVII (where Olsen received praise for his call on a controversial late penalty) and three Eagles games this season. They’ll be back in South Philly to call a fourth on Christmas, when the Eagles host the New York Giants.

Tom Brady is set to replace Olsen in the booth next season, and it’s unclear where the former Carolina Panthers tight end will land. As of September, Olsen hadn’t heard from Fox about his future with the network.

“All I can do is try to be as good as humanly possible” and make it a difficult decision for Fox Sports, Olsen told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch. “I’d be doing those guys a disservice and I’m doing myself and my team a disservice if I went into it half-assed that I’m just a placeholder until Brady comes in and takes my spot.”

» READ MORE: NFL explains ejection of Birds’ security chief Dom DiSandro

On Sunday, Brock Purdy and the 49ers shredded the Eagles defense, which gave up 456 yards in the blowout loss at Lincoln Financial Field.

After the game, cornerback Darius Slay wasn’t ready to hear criticism of the team’s performance by former Eagles linebacker Seth Joyner, who ripped the secondary as weak and unwilling to get physical.

“Deebo Samuel ran through this defense today without an iota of fear whatsoever,” Joyner said on the JAKIB Sports postgame show. “Our corners are as disinterested at tackling someone as a young kid coming out to play football for the first time.”

“The only guy in that secondary that will hit you is Reed Blankenship,” Joyner added. “Everybody else on that defense, if it’s not the defensive front, if it’s not the front five, they don’t want to hit nobody. They don’t want to tackle nobody.”

Those comments didn’t sit well with Slay, who responded on social media late Sunday night.

Joyner isn’t afraid to offer an opinion, and has developed a reputation of being overly pessimistic about the Eagles. But last week he praised the Birds as being “the best damn team in pro football” and seems on point criticizing a defense that allowed six straight touchdowns to the 49ers.

During an appearance on 94.1 WIP Monday, Joyner responded to Slay’s remarks.

“My job is to be an analyst of the game, Darius Slay. And guess what? You didn’t tackle worth a damn yesterday. That’s just the truth. What did I say was a lie?” Joyner said. “The big eye in the sky don’t lie.”

» READ MORE: Super-troll Deebo Samuel crushed the Eagles after talking trash for months. Was he right?