CBS Sports and Tony Romo have officially parted ways, one month after the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback pleaded no contest to charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
“CBS Sports and Tony Romo have mutually agreed to part ways,” CBS Sports said Friday in a statement. “We thank Tony for his contributions over the past nine years and wish him the best moving forward.”
Analyst JJ Watt had joined play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson on CBS Sports’ lead NFL team during Romo’s absence. Watt will continue in that role now and all other CBS teams will remain the same.
Romo was arrested following a traffic stop as he was driving south on Interstate 43 in Wisconsin. He pleaded no contest to a charge of operating while intoxicated on Sept. 1 and issued a statement apologizing for the actions that led to his arrest.
According to Milwaukee County court records, Romo lost his driving privileges for six months and was ordered to complete an alcohol assessment program.
“The past month has been difficult, but it has also been personally significant,” Romo said Sept. 1 in a statement on Instagram. “It has required me to confront and own my mistakes fully — to the Lord, to myself, to my family and now to the public.”
Romo said the multiple back surgeries that led to his retirement as a player “left me with constant, debilitating pain.” He noted that the pain “led to a dependence on pain medication, and my efforts to get off those medications led to an over-reliance on alcohol.”
“None of this is an excuse,” Romo said. “These are my failures and I take responsibility for them.”
Romo said he is working with a team of doctors to address his health and “make the necessary changes.”
The 46-year-old Romo made four Pro Bowl appearances during a playing career that ran from 2004-16 and was spent entirely with Dallas.
John Baer was the son of a Harrisburg newspaperman. He literally grew up in the Pennsylvania state Capitol. And he never left.
His father, John H. Baer, was a political reporter for what is now the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, and Mr. Baer spent many Sunday afternoons hanging around the old Capitol press room while his father worked on stories. Decades later, in 1972, Mr. Baer joined the Evening News in Harrisburg as a reporter and went on to work for nearly 50 years in that same press room.
“I’m probably unique in Pennsylvania politics and journalism,” Mr. Baer said in a 2020 oral history interview for Pennsylvania State University. “I dare say there probably aren’t any who can say they worked in the same state capitol newsroom that their father did.”
In 1987, the Daily News hired Mr. Baer to cover state politics in Harrisburg. He became a political columnist for the newspaper in 2000, and his plainspoken, no-holds-barred stories later appeared in The Inquirer as well. Before he left the papers in 2019, he covered hundreds of political campaigns, conventions, and elections, and wrote about thousands of local, state, and national politicians.
Mr. Baer’s column on politics appeared in The Inquirer and Daily News from 2000 to 2019. Newspapers.com
“He was the most feared reporter in my eight years in Harrisburg,” former Gov. Ed Rendell said. “He did his work. He did his digging. He really cared about the issues.”
On Thursday, Sept. 24, Mr. Baer died of cancer at his home in New Cumberland, Pa. He was 79.
For 32 years, Mr. Baer was a hard-hitting, award-winning political reporter and columnist for The Inquirer and Daily News. He was also a columnist for PennLive and the Patriot-News, onetime public TV producer and show host, former press secretary, author, teacher, and mentor.
Many of those Mr. Baer covered in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Washington praised his “deep integrity” and “fierce independence,” and called him a “keen observer of Pennsylvania politics” and “a heavyweight in Pennsylvania political reporting” in online tributes. State Rep. Ben Waxman called Mr. Baer a “legendary Capitol journalist.” U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans said he was “authentic and a one-of-a-kind journalist.”
Mr. Baer told Penn State he wanted to “let people see the inside of the game in Harrisburg.” His Inquirer.com online profile reads: “John Baer has written about politics and government since 1987. Neither subject ever fails to provide him with stories of policies and politicians walking on or skirting by paths to perdition.”
In addition to covering nine Pennsylvania governors, the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, and the ascensions of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, Mr. Baer wrote about the execution of serial killer Gary Heidnik, the pleas for more research funding by a cancer victim, and the battle of a state policeman’s widow to receive her husband’s pension benefits.
He said some of his favorite columns were the mea culpa pieces he wrote at the end of each year that highlighted things he got wrong. “I truly just had a ball at the Daily News,” he told Penn State. “I just loved it. … I’ve always said I had no adult supervision, and it was wonderful.”
Mr. Baer joined PennLive in 2019, and his last column was published in July. “The depth and breadth of his knowledge was beyond compare,” said Amy Worden, his editor at PennLive.
Mr. Baer and his wife, Rosemary, married in 1969.Courtesy of the family
Before the Daily News, Mr. Baer spent 14 years in total as a reporter for the Patriot-News, an award-winning public TV producer and show host for WITF in Harrisburg, and a press secretary during Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton’s unsuccessful run for governor in 1986.
He wrote freelance stories for Philadelphia Magazine and national publications. He was a frequent guest on political TV and radio shows and moderated several statewide candidate debates.
A lifelong foodie, he also reviewed Harrisburg-area restaurants for a magazine under the pseudonym “the Phantom Diner.” His book, On the Front Lines of Pennsylvania Politics,was published in 2012.
“He was so good at writing strong opinions with depth,” Paul Vigna, a retired Daily News editor, said.
Mr. Baer earned awards for his journalism and was inducted into the Pennsylvania News Media Hall of Fame in 2024. He was cofounder of the Pennsylvania Press Club and onetime president of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association.
In tributes, colleagues praised his “sharp wit” and called him a “journalism giant,” “terrific writer,” and “mentor to many of us.” The internship program at the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association is named in his honor.
“He was an All-Star, a Hall of Famer,” Vigna said. Rendell said: “He didn’t take any BS.”
John Baer was born June 25, 1947, in Harrisburg. He graduated from Bishop McDevitt High School in 1965 and earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland and a master’s degree in education later from Temple University.
He coached basketball and football teams while teaching English for three years at Trinity High School in Harrisburg after college. He married Rosemary Ruggieri in 1969, and they had sons Johnny and James.
Mr. Baer and his wife hosted many memorable Christmas parties and enjoyed road trips to Georgetown University basketball games, New York Mets baseball games, and their sons’ many sporting events. He played racquetball and tennis, and ran a marathon at 50.
He was a longtime member of St. Theresa Catholic Church in New Cumberland. “He liked interesting people and had lifelong friendships,” his family said in a tribute. “He loved his friends.”
On Facebook, colleague Diana Robinson said: “Here’s to you, John Baer. You’ll always be The Most Interesting Man in Harrisburg.”
In addition to his wife and sons, Mr. Baer is survived by three grandchildren and other relatives.
Services were held earlier.
Donations in his name may be made to Vickie’s Angel Foundation, 511 Bridge St., Box 174, New Cumberland, Pa. 17070.
Ruth Weisberg, 70, formerly of Philadelphia, longtime award-winning radio, TV, and online news anchor, features reporter, and show host; onetime voice of Shadow Traffic, Bell Telephone, and other voice-over clients; voice-over instructor, writer, speaker, pianist, art model, actor, Miss Greater Philadelphia 1980, volunteer, and stand-up comedian, died Wednesday, Sept. 2, of ovarian cancer in an assisted living center in Sarasota, Fla.
Reared in Oxford Circle and a graduate of Northeast High School and Pennsylvania State University, Ms. Weisberg was a prolific media personality for nearly 50 years in Philadelphia and Florida. She was the radio voice of Shadow Traffic in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a news anchor and features reporter at WXTU, WCAU, WIFI, WPEN, and WSNI radio in the mid-1980s, and a radio, TV, and online talk show host from the late 1980s until recently.
She hosted Frank Talk With Frank Rizzo on WCAU radio in 1988 and ’89, and told The Inquirer in 1989 that working with the former mayor was like flying a “careening aircraft for three hours.” She also hosted Storytime and Show ’n Tell with Miss Ruthon local cable TV and online in 2015, and Funny You Should Ask, a radio show and podcast about comedy, in Florida in 2023.
Always drawn to the theater and drama, she started producing TV and radio shows while studying special education at Penn State in the 1970s, and wound up cohosting a local rock and roll radio show as a senior exchange student in England. “All of the sudden,” she told The Inquirer in 1989, “I had this new-found love of radio. I never pursued it. It just came calling.”
Ms. Weisberg reported on all kinds of lifestyle issues and earned radio awards from the Associated Press, the Philadelphia Press Association, and other groups. In 1994, she was named member of the year by the Philadelphia chapter of the International Television Association.
She called herself Miss Ruth and Ruth Weisberg Philly on Facebook and reveled in her constant innovation and free spirit. She told The Inquirer: “I like to think sometimes that God is laughing at me. I imagine Him shaking His head and saying: ‘Weisberg, what are you up to?’”
As a voice-over narrator and actor, she recorded corporate training videos, audiobooks, and radio and TV commercials. Bell Telephone hired her to record “We’re sorry. Your call cannot be completed as dialed” and other phone messages in 1985 because, a top official told her in a letter, her voice was “congenial yet persuasive.” She also taught voice-over classes for organizations and individuals, and mentored others on whatever she was doing wherever she worked.
She modeled for artists — some called her their “muse” — at art centers and colleges, and starred in a short video called The Accidental Art Model. “I love being part of a creative, imaginary, intrinsically artistic world,” she said in the video. “I would like to think of myself as the inspiration and the template for the work that happens.”
Ms. Weisberg co-hosted a talk with onetime Mayor Frank Rizzo in 1988 and 1989.WCAU Radio
Ms. Weisberg was drawn to beauty pageants, she said on Facebook, by the glitz and glamour. She was named Miss Central Pennsylvania as a Penn State freshman in 1975 and Miss Greater Philadelphia in 1980.
She held seminars on career networking, spoke to groups often about radio and voice-over work, and read stories to children in bookstores. She wrote op-eds for The Inquirer and articles for the Main Line Welcomat and other publications.
She posted videos on YouTube. She cohosted the 2001 Miss Greater Philadelphia Pageant. Former Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky called her “both an eyeful and earful.”
Ms. Weisberg was featured in The Inquirer in 2016 (above) and 1989 (below).Newspapers.com
She also acted in local stage productions and performed stand-up comedy routines in brewpubs and restaurants and at gatherings. She was featured several times in The Inquirer and Daily News, and moved to Sarasota in 2016.
“My work motto is that I will accept any job position that does not require wearing a hair net,” she said in a 2016 online interview. Her family said in a tribute: “Her life and influence were an inspiration and a sparkle of joy to so many people.”
Ruth Maxine Weisberg was born May 31, 1956, in Philadelphia. She was a cheerleader, was active in theater class, and got straight A’s at Northeast High School.
She and her mother, Libby, volunteered to entertain people in hospitals and nursing homes when she was young, and she knocked on neighborhood doors for Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern when she was 16.
Her family spent memorable summers in Atlantic City, and she earned a bachelor’s degree in special education at Penn State.
She married Peter Kerch in 1988, and they had a daughter, Talia. After a divorce, she married James Herbert, and they had a son, Elliott. They divorced later.
Ms. Weisberg liked crossword puzzles, collected classic telephones, and attended concerts and beach drum circles. She was a certified scuba diver and wore a hat emblazoned with “The Queen of Everything.”
Jeff Scott, 72, formerly of Hilltown, Bucks County, longtime award-winning TV and video scriptwriter, director, and producer, former columnist and editor at the Quakertown Free Press, and green-thumb gardener, died Saturday, Sept. 19, of pulmonary fibrosis at Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington, N.J.
Born in Philadelphia, reared in Hilltown, and a graduate of Pennridge High School, Mr. Scott turned his lifelong interest in sports, affable collegiality, and writing, reporting, and editing skills into an award-winning career as a TV and print journalist that spanned more than four decades.
For 32 years, from 1983 to 2015, Mr. Scott wrote scripts, directed talent, and produced shows for TV, film, video, radio, and DVDs. He worked for Major League Baseball Productions through Phoenix Communications from 1988 to 2015 and wrote more than 1,000 TV show scripts for ABC, NBC, ESPN, Fox, and other networks, including 176 episodes of ESPN’s Major League Baseball Magazine and 450 consecutive episodes of the popular This Week in Baseball.
His dramatic scripts detailed many memorable baseball seasons, went behind the scenes with championship teams, and shared stories about star players on and off the field. They were narrated by iconic announcers such as Mel Allen, Curt Gowdy, Bob Costas, and Harry Kalas, featured thousands of players, coaches, and managers, and earned 16 New York Emmy Awards.
Mr. Scott earned 16 New York Emmys.Courtesy of the family
Former colleagues at MLB Communications posted a video tribute to Mr. Scott on X and noted his “indelible impact” on This Week in Baseball. Buzz Brainard, a former narrator for This Week in Baseball, said on Facebook: “Honored to bring his words to life every season for 11 years.”
Earlier, from 1983 to 1988 at the old Halcyon Days Productions, Mr. Scott wrote scripts for the weekly This is the USFL for ABC and other shows about John Madden, Mike Schmidt, and other sports and entertainment notables. Sports reporter Jayson Stark said on X: “You may not know the name, Jeff Scott. But you should.”
In print, Mr. Scott was a columnist and weekend magazine editor for the Free Press in the early 1980s. In the 1970s, he was sports editor and a features writer for the Perkasie News-Herald, and a part-time sports reporter for the Doylestown Intelligencer.
At the Free Press, he won awards and covered all kinds of local stories, including his publisher’s triple-bypass heart surgery. At the News-Herald, he wrote a sports column called “Time Out” and a news feature called “Know Your Community.”
To know Mr. Scott, a friend said, “was to like him.”Courtesy of the family
In 1976, he opened a News-Herald sports story with: “Some would call it luck. Some might call it breaks. And some might even consider the fact that somebody upstairs is carrying the fate of the Pennridge football team this year. We prefer to call it pure, unadulterated hustle.”
A former Pennridge baseball player said in a tribute: “It always was a big deal when he came to our games.” A former colleague at the Free Press said: “He made me feel important, and he made sure I knew that he was my friend.”
Other former colleagues praised Mr. Scott’s “sense of humor,” “warmth and kindness,” and “quick wit that never waned” in online tributes. “To know Jeff was to like him,” longtime friend and colleague Jim Burger said. “To know him well, which I had the good fortune to do, was to love him.”
Jeffrey Llewellyn Scott was born Nov. 18, 1953. He played street hockey in Hilltown and baseball at Pennridge, and attended what is now West Chester University.
Mr. Scott wrote a sports column in Perkasie in the 1970s.Newspapers.com
After college, he drove a truck, worked as a disc jockey, and traveled across the country. He married and divorced Lorrie Greenly and Amber Hudson.
He met Lenore Homeward on vacation in Tobago, and they married in 1991 and lived in Manhattan and Pittstown, N.J. He created seven flower beds on their property and tended many flower pots. “It was like a full-time job,” his wife said.
Mr. Scott enjoyed music and followed the Phillies, Eagles, 76ers, and Flyers. “He was a homebody,” his wife said.
His niece Shanice said: “My uncle Jeff had a big heart and meant the world to me.” A longtime friend said: “The world will be a less warm and kind place without him in it.”
Mr. Scott enjoyed time with his family.Courtesy of the family
His wife said: “He was loyal, funny, humble, and compassionate. He had the ability to see the better in people. He was friends with everybody.”
In addition to his wife and niece, Mr. Scott is survived by a sister, Kathleen, and other relatives. Three brothers and one sister died earlier.
Private celebrations of his life are to be held later.
Buck has had a lot stacked against him in Philly during much of his broadcasting career. Eagles fans have hated Buck because of his association with Hall of Famer Troy Aikman, who led the Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl victories. Phillies fans felt like he was rooting against their team because they were used to hearing fan-friendly announcers like Harry Kalas and Tom McCarthy.
“Philly fans are at times hard to please, and that’s what makes them great,” Buck said. “They demand effort and excellence.”
A good example of the divide was 2008, when Buck was broadcasting the Phillies’ World Series victory on Fox while Kalas provided the radio call.
Kalas’ passionate call of the final out, a strikeout by closer Brad Lidge, still gives goose bumps to Philly sports fans: “Swing and a miss! Struck him ooooooooout! The Philadelphia Phillies are 2008 world champions of basebaaaaaaaall!”
Buck’s call, by contrast, was dry and direct: “Phillies are world champions.”
“I was raised in a house where I was taught to dislike Joe Buck,” Kylie Kelce said last year on her husband’s short-lived ESPN late-night now. “It seemed as though he was always cheering for the other team,”
Buck’s voice is one of the few in the sports world that signal a big game, and fans have come to view him and Aikman as one of the best broadcasting duos in the league. This year, the two will be back calling the Super Bowl, their first together since 2020 at Fox.
Joe Buck (left) and Troy Aikman have been calling games together since 2002. ESPN Images
Buck isn’t sure what to attribute his newfound respect from Philly sports fans to. Likely it has something to do with Aikman being far removed from his playing days with the Cowboys, but the more likely culprit is that he no longer calls national baseball games.
“Everyone is listening to every tone that comes out of your mouth and assigning some rooting interest that just doesn’t exist,” Buck said. “There would just be no reason why I would root against Philly. It’s just silly stuff.”
“I think people have come around on Joe over the past five to 10 years,” Cataldi said. “He’s always accused of rooting for the opposite team, but if you listen to his broadcast, it’s right down the middle.”
In his fifth season on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, Buck won’t have a rooting interest when the Eagles take on the Chicago Bears. But his stat guy in the booth will.
Ed Sfida, a Villanova grad, has worked with Buck and Aikman since 2003, dating back to their days at Fox Sports. They’ve become so close Buck invited Sfida to his wedding when he married Michelle Beisner, who now works alongside her husband at ESPN.
“Back at Fox, if the Eagles were playing the same time we were doing another game and scored a touchdown, we’d look down in the corner of the booth where Sfida stands and he’s doing the Eagles’ wing flapping thing,” Buck said. “He’s the best.”
Buck doesn’t see himself following in Merrill Reese’s footsteps
Merrill Reese is in his 50th season as the radio voice of the Eagles. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Buck is in his 33rd year calling NFL games in a career that dates back to Fox acquiring TV rights to the league in 1994.
That’s a long time, but he has a ways to go to match Eagles radio announcer Merrill Reese, who is in his 50th season calling the Birds, easily the most-tenured announcer in the league.
If Buck were to make it to 50 years, he’d be 74. So does he seem himself lasting in the booth that long?
“The answer to your question is no,” Buck said. “It’s just amazing to me, whether it’s Merrill or Al Michaels, the mental clarity and strength it takes to find your way through these games and not say something ridiculously stupid.”
“I’m just blown away by Merrill and how smart and clear and energetic is he,” Buck said.
A future without Troy Aikman at ESPN?
Troy Aikman’s ESPN contract expires at the end of the season. Jayne Kamin-Oncea
Buck recently signed a contract extension reportedly worth more than $100 million that will keep him at ESPN through the 2032 season. But Aikman hasn’t and reportedly won’t until after the season ends, after he and Buck call the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in February.
There’s been uncertainly about the longtime duo before. When Aikman signed with ESPN in 2022, Buck had a year remaining on his deal with Fox, but executives let him out of his contract early so he could move to ESPN with Aikman.
Buck hasn’t spoken with Aikman about his plans, but he hopes the two will remain together at ESPN and keep the NFL’s longest-running TV booth going.
As for Aikman, there could be plenty of options. With uncertainty at CBS due to Tony Romo’s arrest and subsequent suspension, Aikman could solidify their No. 1 booth ahead of their Super Bowl next season. There’s also Amazon Prime, where Thursday Night Football announcers Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit have contracts that expire at the end of the season.
“I’ve been in this business long enough to know nothing is a guarantee,” Buck said. “So my only answer to any of that is we’ll see.”
It’s not a regular thing — he appeared after Week 1 and plans to join the show about once a month, depending how angry the Eagles make him. And the only reason he agreed to it was because of the involvement of his former producer, Joe Weachter, who was all but forced to retire from WIP in 2025.
“I wanted to do right by him, so I said I would do the first one and sprinkle a couple more in during the course of the season,” Cataldi said, bristling at the idea of being locked into a regular gig talking about Philly sports.
“I’m too old for that crap. I did it for so long,” Cataldi said. “People really need to hear me anymore? I don’t think so.”
In a way, he never left. After retiring he wrote columns a few times a week he shares on his website, shades of his previous career as a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist with The Inquirer. He’s also made appearances on a handful of podcasts, and even stoked controversy by harshly criticizing longtime NBC Sports Philadelphia reporter Reuben Frank.
Angelo Cataldi and Tom Brookshier during WIP’s morning show in 1991.
He still has strong and sometimes head-scratching opinions — Jalen Hurts is underrated, Nick Sirianni is overrated (“Love Hurts, hate Sirianni, I’m done.”), and Andy Reid is a fraud — but what’s changed in retirement is the need to spew them to the largest audience possible. Cataldi credits the therapy he received from Philly sports psychologist Joel Fish after sliding into a retirement-induced depression with shaping his newfound perspective.
“He said, ‘Look up at the scoreboard. The game is over. You won. Now just enjoy every day you have left,’” Cataldi said. “It connected with me and totally changed the way I looked at competition, scrounging for more listeners and trying to get more people to read my stuff.”
That also meant shedding “Radio Guy,” which is what his wife, Gail, dubbed his loud and cantankerous on-air persona. Off the air, he remains a self-described “shy nerd from Providence” who turned his dream of becoming a TV critic into The TV Show, a weekly podcast he’s co-hosted for more than three years alongside longtime WIP co-host Rhea Hughes and Philadelphia comedian Jay Black.
“The radio guy now may not be dead, but he’s on life support,” Cataldi said. “I get defibrillated like maybe 10 times a year, and the rest of the time he’s going away slowly … I’m just trying to be a regular human being for whatever time I have left.”
Current WIP morning show hosts Joe DeCamara (left) and Jon Ritchie.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
As for the state of sports talk radio in Philly, Cataldi doesn’t have an opinion, because he doesn’t listen. Not even to his former show, which still features Hughes alongside Joe DeCamara and former Eagles fullback Jon Ritchie.
Jalen ‘Jedi’ Hurts
Has Jalen Hurts become the Luke Skywalker of Philadelphia?Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Cataldi’s tenure on WIP included a number of WIP callers who turned into household names among Philly sports fans — “Big Rube” Harley, “Arson Arnie,” “Cowboy Dave,” “Eagles Shirley,” Levi in Overbrook Park.
It’s a trend that continues, for better or worse. On WIP’s midday show Tuesday, it was Mark in Jersey who stole the show by offering a cosmic analogy to Hurts’ evolution into a more complete quarterback, a “2.0 version” which carried the Eagles to a 2-0 start.
“You’re looking at a man that has now achieved Jedi status,” Mark said, immediately catching the attention of co-host and former Eagles defender Hugh Douglas.
“Oh, talk to me,” Douglas shot back.
“Early on, in Star Wars one, Mark Hamill … He was good, up and coming, but he had Han Solo, Chewbacca. He had like a team around him,” Mark said. “By the time Return of the Jedi showed up, and he want to Jabba’s cave with that hoodie on, he was the man. He could do everything”
“He told Jabba, ‘Look man, you’d better give up Han Solo and Chewbacca. Bring them to me, or I’m going to burn this whole place down,” Mark continued. “Jabba laughed … and [Hurts] burned the place down.”
“Love the analogy,” co-host Joe Giglio said. “That one of the better ones we’ve had.”
I don’t listen to that show but had to find the clip. Great call. So is Mannion Yoda?? 😂 pic.twitter.com/UpjCHWchVD
Is the NFL media world ready for even more Kelce?Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Is Travis Kelce going to follow Jason Kelce’s footsteps and seek a media job when he retires? Troy Aikman, who spoke with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end leading up to Week 1’s Monday Night Football game, certainly thinks so. “It sounds like he wants to do television … And I think there’s going to be a lineup of suitors for his talents,” Aikman said on the Sports Media with Richard Deistch podcast.
While Mark in Jersey went with the Hurts-Skywalker comparison, the Eagles quarterback reminds Super Bowl champ Russell Wilson of a familiar face — himself. “I think Jalen Hurts and I are very similar,” Wilson said Tuesday on Set, Hut!, the weekly CBS digital series he co-hosts with former Chicago Bears defender Kyle Long.
ESPN Radio host and ex-Eagles defender Mike Golic retold the wild story of an early 1990s training camp fight between offensive lineman Ron Salt and beloved defensive end Jerome Brown, which nearly escalated into a full brawl. “It was like West Side Story, but one group was naked,” Golic said Tuesday on ESPN’s This Is Football.
Ned Warwick, 81, of Philadelphia, former foreign correspondent and foreign, national, and Pennsylvania editor for The Inquirer, former news director for WPVI-TV (Channel 6) and international news director for ABC-TV, former reporter at the Bulletin, mentor, sailor, pilot, and die-hard Phillies fan, died Monday, Sept. 14, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at his home near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Born in Philadelphia and reared in Germantown and Mount Airy, Mr. Warwick graduated from Chestnut Hill Academy and attended Temple University. He knew he wanted to be a newsman when he was 16, his wife, Joan, said, and he spent much of his free time reading newspapers in the high school library.
He went on to work as a young city-side reporter for the Bulletin from 1969 to 1974 and a veteran editor and reporter for The Inquirer from 2001 to 2008. For TV, he was a news writer and assignment editor at WPVI from 1975 to 1981, news director at WTVD in Durham, N.C., from 1981 to 1986, and back as news director at WPVI from 1986 to 1990.
Regarding the transition from print to TV work, he told Inquirer TV columnist Gail Shister in 1977: “The TV reporter’s job is more difficult because they have to be journalists and performers. It is in fact easier for a TV reporter to move over to print than vice versa.”
Mr. Warwick became a foreign correspondent for The Inquirer in 2006.Newspapers.com
From 1990 to 1995, Mr. Warwick was based in London as ABC’s director of news operations for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He worked with celebrated anchorman Peter Jennings, supervised dozens of other international TV types, and directed coverage of many of the world’s top stories.
Actually, he told The Inquirer as he left for London, he did not expect the job to be much different from covering news in Philadelphia. “You can gather news around the corner or across the border,” he said. “But the essential business of newsgathering still remains the same. You’ve still got to get the story.”
He nearly became the story in 1992 when he got pinned down in a gun battle while traveling in Somalia. “He always wanted to be a newsman and travel the world,” his wife said, “and he did. He loved the news. He loved ABC.”
At The Inquirer, Mr. Warwick was the foreign and national editor for five years and a foreign correspondent in Jerusalem during and after the 2006 Lebanon war. He returned to Philadelphia in 2007 to be deputy business editor and Pennsylvania editor for a year.
The Inquirer covered Mr. Warwick’s return to WPVI-TV in 1986. Newspapers,com
“He was a good listener and could manage a reporter’s needs,” former Inquirer staff writer Miriam Hill said. Former Inquirer staff writer Sally Downey said: “He was a very classy guy.”
In 2006, his byline appeared in The Inquirer over dozens of war zone stories from Gaza City, Bethlehem, Acre, Ramallah, Huwwara, Turmus Aya, and elsewhere in the Middle East. On Oct. 17, 2006, he opened his story from Kafr Qalil with: “The sharp heat of summer lingers on the stony hills of the West Bank, and the pale olives are still ripening on the trees, thirsting for just a little of the fall rains that won’t come for a few more weeks.”
“He was a lyrical writer,” Hill said. Former Inquirer editor William K. Marimow called his style “fluid” and “very solid.”
Mr. Warwick also reported on the royal family from London and reviewed books for The Inquirer. He worked briefly as an editor at large with Bloomberg News after leaving the paper in 2008 and retired in 2010.
Out of the office, Mr. Warwick was a sailor and a pilot. Courtesy of the family
He mentored others wherever he worked and with the Rittenhouse Writers’ Group, and completed a first draft of his own book. “His mind was always crafting a story, seeing a story, or preparing to tell one in a way that made everyone near him want to listen,” said his daughter Katie Bishop.
“No matter what was going on,” said Nathan Gorenstein, a former colleague at The Inquirer, “he was a good human.”
Out of the office, Mr. Warwick was a sailor and a pilot. In 1986, when he was news director at WPVI, Shister asked him whether flying an airplane or directing a newsroom was more challenging. “Clearly,” he said, “if you don’t pay attention in either business, you’re going to crash.”
He cheered openly for the Phillies even during the lean years and continued to follow them closely after becoming ill. “One of the first things he would ask in the morning,” his wife said, “is who won the game.”
Edward Ramsey Warwick was born May 19, 1945. The oldest of three children, he was the great-grandson of former Mayor Charles Warwick. He left Temple and earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., in 1969.
Mr. Warwick’s local TV work was covered in The Inquirer in 1988. Newspapers.com
He married Polly Price, and they had a daughter, Katie. After a divorce, he married Gayle Roth, and they had daughters Megan and Eliza.
“He always made us feel like having three daughters was his greatest joy in life,” his daughter Megan Osborne said. “He taught us to throw a ball and let us braid his hair.”
After a divorce, he married Joan Hunter, and they enjoyed museums, the theater, and the orchestra. They traveled the world together. He was a longtime runner and a fashionista, and studied Buddhism.
He lived with Parkinson’s disease for eight years. But he refused to quit city living for the suburbs, his wife said, and he never lost his sense of humor and zest for life.
Mr. Warwick was a longtime runner and a fashionista, and studied Buddhism. Courtesy of the family
“Dad was a giant of a man in every sense of the word,” his daughter Eliza said. His wife said: “He never, ever complained. He made me a better person.”
In addition to wife, daughters, and former wives, Mr. Warwick is survived by four grandchildren, a sister, a brother, and other relatives.
A memorial service is to be from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Germantown Cricket Club, 411 Manheim St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19144.
Newly minted Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees was a mixed bag calling the Eagles’ 24-20 win against the Tennessee Titans for Fox Sports on Sunday, and a lot of Birds fans were unimpressed.
Count former Eagles wide receiver Jason Avant among them.
Avant, now part of NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Birds pre- and postgame coverage, blasted Brees after the game as one of Jalen Hurts’ “biggest haters” without going into much detail.
“Drew Brees is on the broadcast talking as much crap as anyone, and it was a negative broadcast,” Avant said on Eagles Postgame Live, adding Hurts’ game-winning drive “shut his mouth.”
Brees is certainly a work in progress at Fox; the network hired the former Saints star and Super Bowl MVP early last season to replace former Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez following Sanchez’s arrest in a downtown Indianapolis fight. Brees hasn’t even called a full season’s worth of NFL games yet — the Birds’ win was just the 11th in his career — but he certainly wasn’t hating on Hurts during the broadcast.
Jalen Hurts led his 8th fourth-quarter comeback since 2023, second-most in the NFL.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
During the first few drives, Brees repeatedly praised Hurts and the plays being called by new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion. Coming back from halftime, Brees said Hurts’ play was “absolutely outstanding” and highlighted his ability to extend plays with his legs and spread the ball around — as my colleague Jeff McLane noted, Hurts completed passes to nine different receivers for the first time since 2022.
“For the Philly fans out there — if this is what the Sean Mannion offense looks like, you guys are in good hands,” Brees said after the game, calling Hurts’ performance “the next iteration” of his evolution into a “true passer.”
So what ruffled the feathers of Avant and other Eagles fans? A comment Brees made in the second quarter, when Hurts slid during a third-down run to avoid being hit by Titans defenders, something every quarterback is taught to do.
“I was hyping up Jalen Hurts, and now I’m going to get on him,” Brees said. “Lower your shoulder and go get the first down.”
"Lower your shoulder and go get the first down" – Drew Brees did NOT like Jalen Hurts protecting himself with a slide in the second quarter of Week 2 against the Titans pic.twitter.com/q8nePomNdP
Context is important. Would this comment be appropriate in a playoff game or during a game-winning drive? Certainly. But Brees offered his criticism in the first half of a Week 2 game against an opponent that isn’t even in the Eagles’ conference, so his analysis seemed misplaced.
Birds fans also have a long memory. Last year, before Brees entered the booth, he appeared weekly on ESPN’s First Take and omitted Hurts while highlighting other quarterbacks like Jordan Love and Dak Prescott, despite the Birds’ 3-0 start.
“You realize you mentioned these dudes before you mentioned Jalen Hurts, you do know that, right?” asked Stephen A. Smith.
“I do,” Brees said. “I respect Philly. They are winning games … I can’t stand to watch that offense. It’s the most boring offense.”
He was certainly correct about the offense, which cost Kevin Patullo his job in the offseason. But Brees’ comments appear to have been added to the lengthy list of anti-Hurts remarks Eagles fans love to track.
As far as his broadcasting career comes, Brees is fortunate to be paired with Adam Amin, who has a knack for supporting recently retired athletes and isn’t afraid to coach the Hall of Famer on the ins-and-outs of broadcasting.
“I think he’s starting to improve as a presenter,” Amin said of Brees before the game. “He still has to learn some of the timing and rhythm, but a lot of that just comes with doing the job. And the rest of it, the presentation, is going to come with timing and confidence.”
Amin is in his seventh season with Fox after spending nine years at ESPN, and he’s quickly developed into one of the NFL’s best play-by-play voices. He call of Hurts’ game-winning touchdown pass to Darius Cooper hit all the notes, including letting viewers hear the roar of Eagles fans who flooded Nissan Stadium.
Merrill Reese also wasn’t perfect, but had a vintage TD call
Merrill Reese is in his 50th season as the voice of the Eagles. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
While Brees is still learning how to be a broadcaster, even the most experienced announcers can make a mistake now and then.
Over on the radio, Merrill Reese — in his 50th season as the voice of the Eagles — struggled a bit while calling Amani Hooker’s interception of Hurts in the first quarter. Hooker returned the interception 92 yards and ended up being tackled by a hustling Makai Lemon at the Eagles’ 10-yard line, but Reese thought he made it into the end zone.
When the Titans lined up on first down, Reese called it as if the play were a two-point conversion. It wasn’t until the Titans’ Tony Pollard was tackled after a 5-yard run did Reese and broadcast partner Mike Quick finally let listeners know what actually happened.
“They were ruled not in,” a surprised Reese said during the broadcast. “They said [Hooker] was down so that was not for two, that was the play.”
The Hall of Fame broadcaster more than redeemed himself on the Eagles’ game-winning drive, screaming “There’s life!” as the Birds moved down the field in a vintage Merrill Reese performance.
“TOUCHDOWN! DARIUS COOPER!” said Reese, who finished the call after Quick interrupted with some analysis on how the receiver got open. “WHAT A PLAY! HURTS TO DARIUS COOPER! WHAT A DRIVE!”
Reese and Amin weren’t alone in excelling at the end of the game. Spanish radio announcers Rickie Ricardo and Oscar Budejen also offered an A-plus call of the winning touchdown.
During the Cowboys’ win against the Commanders, Jayden Daniels left the game with a dislocated left elbow. The footage was so gruesome it caused Tom Brady to go blue.
Brady wasn’t done. Later in the game, he used language so colorful to describe Dak Prescott’s missile of a pass to receiver CeeDee Lamb we can’t print it in our family newspaper.
Over on CBS, J.J. Watt is in his second week in the No. 1 booth. That means millions and millions more fans are listening to his call, but his broadcast partner Jim Nantz didn’t appear to be among them on a few plays.
The Philadelphia Eagles (1-0) are on the road this week to take on the Tennessee Titans (0-1), and a Hall of Fame quarterback is joining them in Nashville.
Drew Brees, the Super Bowl XLIV MVP who spent 20 seasons in the NFL, will be in the booth to call the game on Fox alongside play-by-play partner Adam Amin. Kristina Pink will report from the sidelines of Nissan Stadium.
Similar to his playing career, Brees has been forced to overcome adversity as a broadcaster. He was hired by NBC in 2020 and appeared to be on track to replace Cris Collinsworth on Sunday Night Football, but a widely criticized performance in his first NFL broadcast — a 2021 wild-card game — led to his departure from the network.
“When Drew shows up in the booth, who wouldn’t want to listen to him?” Fox Sports’ president and executive producer Brad Zager told Sports Business Journal before the start of the season. “You saw with Tom [Brady] that he had 18 weeks of reps with an ‘A’ crew his first year, and you saw that improvement. Drew never really had that on the NFL level. He does that playoff game, and everybody has their opinions.”
Drew Brees spent 20 season in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl with the Saints. YONG KIM / Staff Photographer
Fox turned to Brees last season to replace former Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez, who was fired following a late-night fight in October where he allegedly attacked and stabbed a delivery driver. Brees has now called nine game in the network’s No. 3 booth alongside Amin, who has been impressed by the Hall of Famer’s deep understanding of the game and the gravitas he brings to the booth.
It was certainly on display last week when the pair called the Chicago Bears’ 59-37 drubbing of the Carolina Panthers. Bears quarterback Caleb Williams credited advice Brees offered during a production meeting before the game with helping him focus on sticking with his reads and not overlooking open targets in search of a big play.
“We want to encourage him to use his voice and take [viewers] another layer deeper,” Amin said. “And I think he’s starting to improve as a presenter. He still has to learn some of the timing and rhythm, but a lot of that just comes with doing the job. And the rest of it, the presentation, is going to come with timing and confidence.”
Adam Amin and Drew Brees are paired together in Fox’s No. 3 NFL booth.Fox Sports
In a way, Brees is fortunate to have been paired with Amin, who is in his seventh season with Fox and has a track record of working with recently retired players. That includes Sanchez on the football side and Adam Wainwright and A.J. Pierzynski on MLB games. Despite working with former All-Stars and MVPs, Amin has found most of his on-air partners to be coachable, and Brees has been no exception.
“Most people don’t get a lot of coaching or guidance when they first step into the booth,” Amin said. “I have a process. I know what the feel of the broadcast looks and feels like and what the timing and rhythm of it is. And I go, ‘Man, here’s the timing and rhythm that I work off of. Let’s start there.’”
“It’s funny to listen to him use television terminology,” Amin added. “Like, ‘Hey, let’s talk about this graphic’ or ‘Hey, what does the viz do?’ It’s like learning a new playbook for him.”
“Simmons did not get a whole lot done against Landon Dickerson the last time they met in 2022,” Amin said. “Obviously, Dickerson is hurt, so who gets the assignment on Simmons?”
“The All-Pro lines up at multiple spots inside, but it’s likely Titans coach Robert Saleh will concentrate his efforts vs. Kendall,” McLane wrote.
How to watch and stream Eagles vs. Titans
Eagles-Titans will air on Fox Sunday at 1 p.m. Troy Taormina, Imagn Images
Sunday’s Week 2 game between the Eagles and Titans is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Philadelphia time on Fox.
The game will stream on Fox One, the network’s subscription streaming service. It’s also available on any so-called skinny bundle that carries Fox, including fuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, and DirecTV Stream. Most offer a free trial.
If you live in Philadelphia or any other TV market where the game is airing, you can also stream the game on NFL+, the league’s subscription streaming service, which runs $6.99 a month.
If you’re looking to stream the game for free and you live in or around Philadelphia, your best option is to use a digital antenna, since the game will air on broadcast television on Fox 29.
The last time the Eagles played in Nashville Carson Wentz was still QB and Nick Foles was his backup. Michael Bryant / Staff Photographer
Sunday’s matchup is just the fourth time the Eagles have traveled to Nashville to face the Titans since the franchise moved to Nissan Stadium in 1999.
Overall, the Eagles are 8-5 against the Titans, but they haven’t had much success down in the Music City, losing all three games they’ve played there. The most recent was an overtime loss to the Titans in 2018, when Carson Wentz was quarterback and Nelson Agholor — who recently joined NFL Media as an analyst — was still dropping passes.
The last time the two teams played was in Week 12 of the 2022 season, with the Birds dominating the Titans in a 35-10 win in something of a revenge game for former Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown.
Mike Bowe, 76, of Audubon, Camden County, longtime local disc jockey and popular radio show host at WMGK, WPEN, WHAT and other stations, Army veteran, devoted Phillies fan, and proud son of Gloucester City, died Monday, Sept. 14, of complications from cancer at his home.
Mr. Bowe enjoyed music and socializing as a teen at Gloucester Catholic High School, and was skilled at chatting with people about their favorite songs and other interests. So he was a natural fit later as a radio show host and disc jockey for more than 40 years in studios and at remote appearances, dance parties, charitable fundraisers, and other events.
“I like to think I communicate with people,” he told the Courier-Post in 1987. “I think I can relate the same way to somebody whether he’s on Ninth Street in South Philly or at a bank in Center City.”
Fellow DJ Chris McCoy said. “He had something intangible. He made you feel like he knew you, and you knew him.”
Using what his fans and colleagues described as a “calming and smooth voice” and “velvet intonations,” Mr. Bowe hosted music shows at WMGK from 1977 through the early 2000s, at KISS 100 in the 1990s, and at WPEN and WHAT between 2000 and 2011. Colleagues called him “loyal, dedicated, witty” in online tributes, and praised his “down to earth and friendly style.”
They credited him with making WMGK’s Saturday Night ’70s show a hit in the mid-1990s. “He was the very foundation of that success,” McCoy said.
Listeners called him “truly a master of this craft,” “one of the best ever,” and “a memorable radio legend.” He worked after 2011 at other local stations and iRadioPhilly.com.
He teamed up with other popular DJs on morning, afternoon, and evening shifts, interviewed performers, took phone calls from listeners, and broadcast from Phillies games and charitable benefits. In 1989, he dressed up as George Washington to cross the Delaware River when the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge was finally reopened after repairs.
He liked to air remotely from his favorite clubs and pubs, and ride shuttle buses with listeners to concerts. He also worked DJ dance party gigs at nightclubs, holiday parades, and private events in Philadelphia and South Jersey.
Mr. Bowe appeared often in The Inquirer and Daily News, including in 1987 (above) and 1989 (below.)Newspapers.com
His favorite song was “Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I’ve Got)” by his favorite group, the Four Tops. “He knew Philadelphia from A to Z,” McCoy said. “He brought a smile to your face.”
Mr. Bowe served three years in the Army, 11 months and 11 days in Vietnam in 1968-69, and earned several medals and service stars, and an achievement badge. Fellow DJ Sue Serio said online that she enjoyed annual Veterans Day lunches with Mr. Bowe, “a treasured tradition that we never took for granted.”
One day, a former WMGK colleague said online, Mr. Bowe took him to Mr. Bowe’s favorite three local landmarks: the Melrose Diner in South Philadelphia, Mel’s Italian restaurant in Bala Cynwyd, and the pool table at the VFW in Gloucester City.
“Mike was a gift to Gloucester City and to the Delaware Valley professionally and as a man,” longtime friend Patrick Healey said. Longtime friend F. Emmett Fitzpatrick III said: “He prized honesty of character above all else.”
Mr. Bowe, right above, was an avid Phillies fan. Below, he worked morning, afternoon, and evening shifts in the studio.F. Emmett Fitzpatrick III
Mr. Bowe’s niece, Debra Ann Leblang, said: “He lived the ultimate American dream.”
Michael Joseph Bowe was born Nov. 4, 1949, in Gloucester City. He graduated from Gloucester Catholic in 1967, studied broadcasting in Minnesota, and worked his way through the radio ranks in South Jersey and Philadelphia.
Mr. Bowe and his wife, Debbie, married in 1985. Where one of them went, family and friends all said, the other followed. F. Emmett Fitzpatrick III
Off the air, Mr. Bowe played softball and enjoyed visits to Atlantic City and Brigantine. He was a Sunday morning usher at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and belonged to the Townsend C. Young VFW post.
He used to take dates to Jim’s Pizzeria in Gloucester City, and he told The Inquirer in 1994 that he enjoyed the place’s acerbic camaraderie. “Gloucester’s always been like that,” he said. “People love it. It’s a sarcastic, get-under-your-skin kind of thing. You don’t even get to order your own food.”
His family said: “He was funny, quick-witted, sentimental, outspoken, and unforgettable. He carried his South Jersey roots with him wherever life took him.”
In addition to his niece, Mr. Bowe is survived by a sister, a brother, and other relatives. Two brothers died earlier.
Visitation with the family is to be from 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, at the McCann-Healey Funeral Home, 851 Monmouth St., Gloucester City, N.J. 08030. Funeral services are to be at 11 a.m. at Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 350 Province Line Rd., Wrightstown, N.J. 08562.
