Didinger’s coverage of Super Bowl LII in which the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots 41-33 was a blissful time for this fan and writer.
“It was wonderful. Even though I was there as a reporter and trying to maintain my reporter’s objectivity. That 10-year-old boy was still inside me cheering. And the best part about it was after the game, my son was there shooting the game for NFL Films. He’s a cameraman for NFL Films. And he came and found where we were doing the postgame show. And he walked on the set. And he and I had a tearful embrace on live television that I still hear about to this day. It just kind of represented what everybody in Philadelphia was feeling, that it was about this sense of elation and how people were celebrating together.”
During the height of the pandemic when there were no sports events to cover, Didinger and his radio co-host on WIP, Glen Macnow, imagined a long-form interview program they called “Tell Me Your Story.” The show allowed the hosts to take their time getting to speak with and understand the lives of many sports legends they had covered in their decades-long careers.
“We’d ask: Tell us about where you grew up. Tell us about your family. Tell us about the first time you played football. Tell us about the coach that influenced you the most and then just walk us through your whole career. We did 108 ‘Tell Us Your Stories’ in two years,” he explained, including one that focused on the life of basketball player and coach Dawn Staley of Philadelphia.
“The little girl from North Philadelphia. She was fantastic talking about, you know, how she grew up on the hardscrabble courts of North Philadelphia, playing basketball with the guys and then became a great college player and Olympian and then wound up being such a distinguished multi-medal winner that she wound up carrying the U.S. flag at one of the Summer Olympic Games.”
“One of the most touching things was her saying that while walking into that stadium and carrying the American flag, she asked herself, how did a little girl from North Philadelphia find herself in this position? It was really lovely.”
Eagles fans, and the fans of every other Philadelphia sports team are known for their passion. A popular joke is that Eagles devotees bleed green, as in the color of the team’s jersey. When asked what color he bleeds after five decades of covering the team, Didinger said, “I bleed Philadelphia, whatever color you want to make it. That’s what I believe. I feel blessed. I feel privileged that this is exactly what I wanted to do with my life.”
He said he could have been a sports writer and broadcaster anywhere, “But it wouldn’t have been the same as doing it here in Philadelphia, because I live this history.”
“I’ve been part of this from the time I was born. I grew up watching these teams. I never really had to open a book and look up a record or a statistic because I knew it all. I had lived it all. Being able to do what I’ve done was a blessing, but being able to do it in Philadelphia for a lifetime is the greatest blessing of all.”
Didinger says he’s in good health and will continue to promote his play “Tommy and Me.”
In retirement, he plans to spend more time with his wife and family.
