Eagles announcer Merrill Reese signs new WIP contract

“I will never willingly retire — they will have to remove me with a crane," Reese said on WIP on Wednesday.

Eagles radio announcers Merrill Reese (in foreground) and Mike Quick getting ready for their broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys-Eagles game at Lincoln Financial Field on Jan 8.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer

Published March 16, 2022, 8:21 a.m. ET

If you’re among the thousands of Eagles fans who mute their television each week to hear Merrill Reese call the game on WIP-FM, you’re in luck.

Reese, the radio voice of the Eagles for nearly 45 years, announced Wednesday that he has signed a new contract that will keep him in the booth for three more years, through the 2024 season. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“I will never willingly retire — they will have to remove me with a crane, because this is what I love doing more than anything else in the world,” Reese told WIP host Angelo Cataldi, who is retiring at the end of this year.

Audacy, the owner of WIP, signed a seven-year deal in 2017 to extend the broadcast rights for Eagles games through the 2024 season. Eagles games have aired on WIP and various CBS Radio stations since 1992. It wasn’t immediately clear if Reese’s longtime broadcast partner, former Eagles wide receiver Mike Quick, also signed a new contract. The two have called games together for 23 seasons.

At 79, Reese was sharp as ever in the booth last year. During the Eagles’ Week 13 win against the New York Jets, he channeled CBS analyst Tony Romo and predicted that Jets rookie quarterback Zach Wilson was due for an interception. The very next play, Wilson sailed a pass that was picked off by Eagles safety Marcus Epps.

“The prophetic words of Merrill Reese,” Quick said after the play. “How do you do that?”

Reese has been the voice of the team since 1977, and is the longest-tenured play-by-play announcer in the NFL. He started off as the Eagles’ color analyst in the 1977 season alongside play-by-play announcer Charlie Swift, who died by suicide with two games to go in the season. That thrust Reese into the position he’s held ever since.

“It was shocking. It was the worst possible circumstances you would ever want,” Reese said. “I stood there and they had a moment of silence for Charlie. All the players looked at the broadcast booth and my knees just kept banging together, and all I could say was, ‘Let something come out of my mouth.’”

Over the years, Reese has received many offers from television networks and other teams to call games, but never had a desire to leave Philadelphia.

“What more is there than to broadcast the team you grew up loving?” Reese said.