WIP will hold an Andy Reid appreciation day. Angelo Cataldi is livid.
"Let me make this perfectly clear: The WIP Morning Show will not be participating in Andy Reid Appreciation Day, regardless of the repercussions," Cataldi wrote.
94.1 WIP is going to spend an entire day celebrating Andy Reid.
No, that’s not a headline from The Onion. The station where Reid became a target of ridicule during his disappointing final season in Philadelphia will celebrate the former Eagles head coach on Thursday thanks to his return to the Super Bowl as the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Reid himself was interviewed on WIP Thursday afternoon by hosts Jon Marks and Ike Reese, who played six seasons for the Eagles under Reid. The former Eagles head coach told the duo that despite some harsh criticism at times during his tenure, he loved the 14 seasons he spent in Philadelphia and was proud to see the team (and his former quarterback and offensive coordinator Doug Pederson) finally win a Super Bowl.
While Marks kept things pleasant with the former Eagles head coach, count him among those not thrilled about the over-the-top reaction among Birds fans and his colleagues at WIP over Reid’s return to the Super Bowl.
“Imagine if Andy won a Super Bowl before the Eagles. People would never get over it. So the love isn’t pure," Marks told the Inquirer. “People feel bad how they treated him on the way out the door and now they are overcompensating for it. I have no feeling for him at all.”
Andy Reid Appreciation Day, as Thursday is dubbed, will be promoted throughout the day and feature ex-Eagles players who played for Reid (including WIP hosts Reese and Jon Ritchie). But at least one popular WIP host isn’t onboard with the idea.
“I knew nothing about this until right after our show,” morning show host Angelo Cataldi, who spent much of his show Wednesday railing against the former Eagles coach, told the Inquirer. “Our show will not participate … [Program director] Spike Eskin knows where we stand on this.”
Cataldi expanded his thoughts on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, writing that his show “will never support a coach who enables horrible behavior, lies to the fans and butchers late-game strategy. That is a promise.”
That earned a response from 97.5 The Fanatic morning show cohost Tra Thomas, a former Eagles offensive lineman who also played under Reid.
Cataldi’s beef with Reid stems mainly from his decision to staff his current roster with players that have questionable moral character, such as wide receiver Tyreek Hill, defensive end Frank Clark, and former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy. But as my colleague Mike Sielski argued on WIP on Wednesday, you can make the same case against just about any other head coach.
“You have Dick Vermeil on every Friday during the NFL season. Vermeil did everything he possibly could to keep Lawrence Phillips on his roster for the St. Louis Rams,” Sielski said.
Phillips, the No. 6 overall pick in the 1996 NFL Draft, had his career derailed after just three seasons by off-the-field problems. He ultimately committed suicide in prison in 2016 while serving time for convictions that included domestic violence, spousal abuse, false imprisonment and vehicle theft.
“Vermeil even said years later he regretted cutting Phillips,” Sielski added. “So I’m not going to hold Andy Reid to a standard I wouldn’t hold every other coach in the NFL to.”
» READ MORE: Which reputation will Andy Reid cement in Super Bowl? Great coach or loser of big games? | Bob Ford
Quick hits
• WIP host Big Daddy Graham, who is paralyzed following emergency spinal cord surgery last July, is launching a new podcast called 10 Snacks with Big Daddy Graham. The podcast will debut on Graham’s Facebook page on Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 8 p.m.
“The show will consist of me riffing on 10 different topics of the day — sports, movies, events of the day, audiobooks, music, TV, food, babes — all the stuff I did on my overnight show,” Graham wrote on Facebook. “In fact, consider this podcast step number one to me getting healthy enough to get back on the air at WIP.”
• Former WIP host Chris Carlin, who now hosts the evening show on ESPN New York after being pushed out of New York’s WFAN, got into a Twitter spat with the Mets’ Marcus Stroman over the hiring of new manager Luis Rojas. Stroman took issue with Carlin after he wrote that “hiring Luis Rojas as manager is a mistake.”
Guy has no clue. Just trying to stir up some nonsense to get clicks. You know how the world be. 🤷🏾♂️
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) January 22, 2020
Despite the back-and-forth, Carlin didn’t seem to take offense from Stroman’s barbs.
• Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign is getting a boost from a former Eagles linebacker.
Dhani Jones, who also played for the New York Giants, the New Orleans Saints, and the Cincinnati Bengals during his 10-year NFL career, officially endorsed Bloomberg on Thursday, writing in a statement the former mayor of New York City “embodies the entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking the country needs and deserves to have as their partner.”