Why Angelo Cataldi is back talking about the Eagles; WIP caller compares Hurts to Luke Skywalker

Angelo Cataldi is back. Sort of.

The former morning show host, who retired in February 2023 after more than three decades with 94.1 WIP, is back this season offering his opinions about the Eagles on the newly launched BirdBrains podcast for OnPattison, hosted by longtime Birds reporter Derrick Gunn and ex-97.5 The Fanatic host and former Daily News reporter Bob Cooney.

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.

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.”

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.

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”

In Mark’s analogy, new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion has been Hurts’ Yoda, offering him an Empire Strikes Back level of training. There’s also Jabba the Hutt, the loud villain helpfully played in Week 2 by Tennessee Titans defender and Hurts trash talker Jeffery Simmons.

“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.”