Angelo Cataldi, WIP Morning Show Host

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Information is key for things like that and knowing what you're dealing with and how they operate. Being aware of the way your mind works in certain situations has been the most important thing for me. More at iamlistening.org. Talk saves lives. The final few months of his career has been with WIP hosting Mornings Forever, a man that I learned a lot from as I was his intern when I was at Temple University, and that is the great Angelo Cataldi. Angelo, it's great to hear your voice. How are you? Zach, it's a pleasure to be on with you. It's been great. You're national.

I never got there. Somehow the student became much better than the teacher. Well, that's nice of you to say. I think I'll take your contract, though, probably over my contract, Angelo, for being honest.

Money's not everything, Zach. You know that. Well, for Nick Sirianni right now, there's one thing, as you know, to win in Philadelphia and they'll love you forever, but then when you really embrace the city, it takes it to a whole next level. I would have never thought after that flower comment last year that Sirianni would have lasted long in Philly, but it's been just incredible to see the masterful job he's done. Really so, and you're right about the connection with the cities, Zach.

That's the biggest thing. At the end of the Cowboys game on Sunday night, we just found out today, I guess, last year the Cowboys beat the Eagles both games. After the second game, at least one, maybe two members of the Cowboys, saw him on the field and said to him, you guys don't belong on the same field as us. So at the end of the game, the Cowboys are acting like the Cowboys.

It's a cheap shot. What's his name? Kelsey. Jason Kelsey. And he looks across at the field and he goes, that's game.

Believe you. And then going up the tunnel, he's screaming, how about them Eagles? So he's now officially a Philadelphian because he's talking smack like the rest of us. Someone else that's also officially a Philadelphian is Jalen Hurts. Are you a believer that he is the franchise quarterback for the Eagles? No question.

We asked that question on our show today for our internet poll. 91% now think he is the guy. And he proved it in a real slow, steady climb to the point now where he's the leader they want to duck. He's the guy, you know, he has those leadership qualities that are very, very hard to find.

He's going to be really good for a long time in this city. And he's so level headed too. And I remember I talked to him once when he was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy and he always said, I'm always going to bet on myself.

I'm always going to believe in myself. But it wasn't a cocky way where Wentz just got in his head too much. Like Wentz could be a more talented quarterback than Hurts when you look at it coming out of college, but Jalen just is the professional. Exactly.

Exactly. And you know, the more I've heard him, the more I understand where it came from. His father was a coach. He learned from his dad. He played with Nick Saban and Nick Saban taught him. We are, Zach, you and I and all the media, we're what Jalen calls rat poison.

All we're going to do is something that will not help him. He knows how to tune it all out. Where you're really seeing it is in the fourth quarter of games that are still in play. And he'll take those guys on a drive 15, 17 plays eight minutes and they'll score points on those drives and they'll win the game. And you ask the players in the huddle, they say he's this steadying influence. The kid's 24. He's barely 24. And he's already, feels like he's 34.

Yeah, he does. And if you just hear him talk and he's not a good quote, it's not something we're dying to hear in the media, but he knows exactly how to handle situations and he handles pressure spectacularly well for a guy that young. I couldn't be more impressed with him. I remember a few years ago I was on your show and I was crushing Howie Rosebud and a lot of people were.

It's a big tip of the cap to Howie because anytime Howie looks like he's down and out and maybe he's about to lose his job, he finds a way to just come out of nowhere and restore confidence in a lot of people. He had one of the best off seasons I've ever seen. He completely remade the defense.

Now they have a really good defensive secondary. He got James Bradbury. He got the new kid Gardner Johnson. He got so many players. Hasan Reddick. Yeah, Hasan Reddick to add to the pass rush. The young guys he brought in. Jordan Davis in the middle of the defensive line.

He just made one good move after another and he added and added and added and somehow manipulated the cap so he could get all these guys under it. If they don't have the best team in the NFL, they're top three right now. They're definitely there with the Bills and the Chiefs. And also what I love too was they had a good year last year.

They were 9-8. I know no one was thinking that they were going to probably take this step this year with how that season ended. But when you say, okay, we have Jalen Hurts. He's our guy.

There's one thing to say it. But this offseason, they showed we're going to put them in a position to succeed because that move at the draft, giving up that first round pick for A.J. Brown, that was the win now move. Win now. That was a great move.

Oh my God. And A.J. Brown has suddenly made Devontae Smith better on the other side because they're giving more attention to A.J.

Brown. Then you've got a solid tight end core. You've got one of the best offensive lines in the league and a coach in his second year who seems to know what he's doing. I mean, we're pinching ourselves, Zach. We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. 6-0 at the bye.

Wow. And they're not even playing a complete game of football and they're still 6-0. It feels like this is a 30-minute team and their 30 minutes is still good enough to beat all their opponents so far, Angelo Cataldi. They are the greatest second quarter team in NFL history to this point in a season. They literally score 14, 17, 20 points in the second quarter.

Then they go to the break and they come back and nowhere near is good. So we're grilling the coach on this, but how are you going to grill him when he's 6-0? And he goes, well, we're playing a different style after that. All I know is if you're 6-0, Zach, I don't even care how you got there. You got there. We're happy. That's perfect. We know they're going to go on a run here.

We know they're going to be a playoff team and then we'll see what they do against the really good teams in the big games. I forget what month it was. Do you remember Angelo Cataldi when you threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Phillies? That probably would have been June.

Yeah, June. Were you the reason for this turnaround with Philadelphia? What did you say to them when you were walking off the ground? Well, all I can tell you for sure is this, Zach. I threw a strike that day and their control has been much better since.

So if they emulated my delivery, I'm not charging for it. I'm happy to help them. Believe me when I tell you, I had nothing to do with it. And if you really want to watch something, when the Eagles resume play, they're facing the Pittsburgh Steelers at Lincoln Financial Field and I'm going out to coin flip.

Oh, are you really? If they go into a losing spin net, I'm going into a witness protection program. You may have to early retire.

Oh my, you're so right. They lose two. They're going to run me out of town. You know the way it works here. How do you kind of put this into perspective, Angelo? Because you've been on in Philadelphia for decade after decade after decade and you've had so much success.

You've never lost your fastball. Now we're getting into the final months of your radio career. Just what are you feeling?

A relief because I've done this for a really, really long time and it's a challenge. You work with us. You know how much effort goes into a show. I mean, we script a show.

We don't just, you know, go fly on the seat of our pants. I am so ready for it to be over, but I can't deny that right now I'm kind of having a real good time because I've got teams to talk about that are far better than we imagined. So this is perfect. You know, whoever replaces me, Zach, they're going to have, I mean, are they going to have this much great stuff going on at once? I want to thank all these teams in our city for sending me out with some great stuff to talk about. It's been spectacular the last few weeks. And one of those teams right now are the Philadelphia Phillies. What has Rob Thompson brought to this team? Because it just looks like they've been a different ball club.

I know they're built well. They could hit home runs. They got two great pitchers to start things off.

But this team is built for October. What has the manager done? The manager has brought a human being to the position, which is what they didn't have with Joe Girardi, who is a robot.

Joe Girardi did not develop relationships with his players. He consulted a folder, and I guess they called it a binder when he was doing it in New York. And he just applied analytics pretty much to all of his decisions. Wouldn't pitch pitchers in situations because they can't pitch three straight days if they're coming out of the bullpen.

He had all these rules, pitch counts, meticulous adherence to pitch counts. Rob Thompson came in, and it was like he gave the whole organization a Xanax. Everybody just relaxed. Everybody just went, you know what? It's baseball.

Let's just have a good time. And that's all he did. He's not a big personality. He's just a guy that relates to the players, and it's amazing. He's 58. He finally got a chance to be a manager. He's probably better than Girardi. All the years, he was his bench coach. That's the way I look at it now.

But he just brought a human feeling to the clubhouse, and it worked for all the players at the same time. Well, I can't thank you enough, Angelo Cataldi, for doing this today. And also, it was great to spend a few segments with you on the air this past summer at Borgata. Good luck.

Enjoy the next few months. And I'll always say this. Of the two biggest things I learned from you when I was your intern, it was preparation and then the entertainment value. And that helped me a lot in my career, so I can't thank you enough.

Well, Zach, honestly, you are by far the intern who's going to further. So please keep doing great because we want to take credit for you for the rest of our lives. You got it. All the best, Angelo. Hope to continue to make you proud. Thank you. Anytime, Zach. Take care, bud. We'll see you next time. I can't lose sleep over that over worrying about things that are beyond my control. Listen and subscribe to Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.