WIP host Angelo Cataldi’s car egged at Flyers game

“I prefer to believe it was a random egging,” Cataldi told The Inquirer

WIP host Angelo Cataldi doesn't get to many games. But when he does, he car ends up covered in egg. (Colin Kerrigan / Staff file photo )Read more

Published Dec. 3, 2019, 8:41 a.m. ET

Longtime 94.1 WIP morning show host Angelo Cataldi doesn’t get to many games due to a brutal schedule that requires him to be in the office around 3 a.m. But on Friday night, he ventured out to the Wells Fargo Center to catch a Flyers game with his son Neil and his twin grandsons, Dylan and Chase.

The game was great — a 6-1 drubbing of the Detroit Red Wings. Hoping to beat the traffic, the Cataldi crew left the area with six minutes remaining. It wasn’t until the sports talker got home that he noticed his car was streaked with the remains of several eggs.

“I parked right under the pole at D1, a hard right from the entrance where they charge you $22 for parking,” Cataldi told The Inquirer. “Obviously, that fee doesn’t include security.”

There haven’t been any reports of egging incidents at recent Flyers games, according to a spokesperson from the Wells Fargo Center, who said they’re not taking the situation lightly.

Cataldi said NBC Sports hockey broadcaster and part-time WIP host Keith Jones suggested that someone must have been targeting the host and knew what his car looked like. But Cataldi suspects he was just the victim of a random act of egg violence.

“I prefer to believe it was a random egging,” Cataldi quipped.

Booger McFarland makes embarrassing slip during Vikings-Seahawks

An unfortunate mistake had Twitter bearing down once again on ESPN’s Booger McFarland.

During the Seahawks’ big win against the Vikings on Monday Night Football, there was a bizarre play where Minnesota scored a touchdown on a pick-six off a ball batted by Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson.

That’s when McFarland stepped into it by mistakenly claiming the Minneapolis Miracle — a last-second touchdown that lifted the Vikings over the Saints during the 2018 playoffs — somehow went against the Vikings:

“These are the type of plays that historically have gone against the Vikings — the Minneapolis Miracle — plays that are fluke plays that went against this team. I’m sure Vikings’ fans are saying, ‘It’s about time we get one of these plays to go our way.’”

Announcers make mistakes, and it’s worth pointing out this is McFarland’s first season in the booth as the sole analyst alongside play-by-play announcer Joe Tessitore. He also jumped on Twitter following the game and apologized to Vikings fans for the flub.

But to Vikings fans, the Minneapolis Miracle is an iconic play fresh in their memory because it happened just two years ago, so naturally McFarland’s comment struck a nerve in the Skol community.

Even Hall of Fame quarterback and current Westwood One announcer Kurt Warner — who called last night’s game alongside Kevin Harland — weighed in:

Criticism is nothing new for the Monday Night Football crew, who were mocked relentlessly last year thanks to Jason Witten’s repeated flubs and McFarland’s “Boogermobile,” which ESPN thankfully scrapped near the end of last season.

Next week, the Eagles will face off against the Giants on Monday Night Football, so we’ll see what Birds fans think of the Tessitore-McFarland combo. Let’s just hope they don’t somehow screw-up the Philly Special.

Quick Hits

• CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz has an idea I am 100 percent in favor of: Let viewers watch and hear the decision-making on NFL replays from the league’s officiating center in New York.

“I think there ought to be cameras in there so we can watch them make a decision on it,” Nantz said on Sportsnet, according to The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch. “The fans need to know what they are looking at. We show them the replay but we don’t hear what they are saying. It needs to be mic’d and it needs to have cameras in there. This is an entertainment business.”

Deitsch has more about the idea, which apparently several NFL producers are in favor of. Considering the impact in-booth rules analysts have had on NFL broadcasts, this seems like a no-brainer.

• NBC Sunday Night Football executive producer Fred Gaudelli has been involved in five of the NFL’s top 10 plays, selected as part of the league’s 100th anniversary celebration. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Gaudelli offered some tidbits about all five, including No. 10 on the list — the aforementioned Philly Special:

“They didn’t practice it in Minneapolis, because they were paranoid someone might see it... Now that it happens, we think: How’s the best way to replay it back? We had to see it in its totality first, so we have a wider shot. Then, we can go to the tighter snap, pitch, throw and catch and the reaction — and a phenomenal shot of [New England defensive coordinator] Matt Patricia."

• Best NFL celebration ever? You be the judge: