The Eagles won’t have to worry any more about NFL referee Pete Morelli

Just a year after four NFL referees hung up their whistles, Pete Morelli and Walt Coleman will retire following this season, the league announced Monday night.

Everyone hates the refs, but Morelli — who has spent 22 years in the NFL — has been particularly despised by Eagles fans over the last few seasons for appearing to go out of his way to penalize the Birds.

Last season, several Eagles players (and national media pundits) criticized Morelli for calling what many viewed a sloppy and lopsided game against the Panthers. In that game, Morelli’s crew penalized the Eagles 10 times for 126 yards, while the Panthers were hit with just one penalty, for just one yard.

As NBC Sports’ Dave Zangaro pointed out, it was the first time in NFL history one team had more than 120 penalty yards while the other had fewer than 10. Even my colleague Les Bowen, who noted he isn’t big on conspiracy theories, called it “odd” and wrote that “the lack of flags on an aggressive Carolina defense was pretty astonishing."

"We felt like a lot of those were ticky-tack, or weren't good calls,” Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said following that game.

Morelli didn’t call any Eagles games this season. But over his last four Birds games, he’s hit the Eagles with 40 penalties for 396 yards, while opponents received just eight penalties for 74 yards.

Coleman has spent 30 years in the NFL, and is probably most well-known for making the infamous “Tuck rule” call that helped the Patriots defeat the Raiders during the 2001 playoffs. Coleman hasn’t officiated a Raiders game since that ruling.

Both Morelli and Coleman will call the Pro Bowl before folding up their stripes.

Roughly 38.2 million viewers tuned in to watch the New Orleans Saints defeat the Eagles, 20-14, in the NFL divisional round game on Sunday, according to FOX Sports. That’s a 7 percent increase above last year’s Saints-Vikings thriller.

The Eagles loss was both the highest-rated and most-watch game of the NFL season, knocking out the “double doink” miracle win against the Bears in the wildcard game, which drew an estimated audience of 35.9 million.

But as Sports Media Watch points out, the game is on the lower end of the historical ratings scale, down 21 percent from the 48.5 million viewers who tuned in to the Packers-Cowboys playoff match-up in 2017.

The game had a streaming audience of 628,000, which FOX said is a new playoff record. About 79,000 more watched the game on Fox Deportes.

• The Sixers will honor NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Marc Zumoff on his 25 years of calling games Tuesday during the team’s match-up with the Minnesota Timberwolves, which tips off at 7 p.m. It’ll be Zumoff’s 1,883rd regular-season game. He’s also called 61 Sixers’ playoff games since first donning the headset back in 1994.

• NASCAR racer Martin Truex Jr. will be back “Inside The Glass” at the Wells Fargo Center Wednesday night when the Flyers take on the Boston Bruins on NBCSN. Truex joined Pierre McGuire during the broadcast two years ago, and had such a good time, he wanted to get back on the ice again.

• ESPN has re-signed senior golf analyst Michael Collins to a new contract, the network announced on Monday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Collins — a Lancaster, Pa., native — has one of the most interesting paths to journalism, beginning his career as a stand-up comedian before becoming a golf caddie. His colorful personality landed him segments on USA Network’s Sunday golf show before landing with ESPN in 2011.