Angelo Cataldi

Tom Brookshier, according to his friends, knew how to tackle. Whether on the football field or as a television and radio personality, his impact was equally immense and intense. He was an all-pro on the last Eagles team to win an NFL championship, in 1960, and was part of CBS's top NFL broadcast team during the 1970s along with his close friend Pat Summerall. In the late 1980s he hired Angelo Cataldi, launching the 610 WIP sports-talk format that remains in place today. Mr. Brookshier, 78, died Friday of cancer at Lankenau Hospital.

Angelo Cataldi, the bellicose morning host on WIP-AM (610), was suspended yesterday for two days without pay over a remark he made on his morning show last Tuesday, during a diatribe inspired by the Eagles' new policy prohibiting outside food at Lincoln Financial Field. During a rant over comments by team president Joe Banner, Cataldi said that if the team was responsible for picking the people running the security at the stadium, he expected the guards to be wearing swastikas.

RE WHAT Mayor Street said the other day regarding the boos he received in Jacksonville. Just so the mayor knows, I cannot stand Angelo Cataldi. He is a knucklehead for doing what he did to my team's quarterback on draft day. Mayor Street is giving Cataldi too much credit for changing people's opinions. I made up my mind years before Street was even mayor. And the things I've seen on TV and read in the papers makes me want to boo him more. Example: the firefighter waiting for benefits and Hepatitis C care outside his office.

At WIP-AM radio, the 10 a.m. to noon host's chair is reserved for . . . Glen Macnow. Macnow told the Daily News last night that he has resigned as an Inquirer sports writer. Macnow is expected to succeed Chuck Cooperstein, who hosted the 10 a.m. to noon show for 16 months. Cooperstein is returning to Dallas to host the afternoon drive-time show on an all-sports station. Sources say Macnow could be paired with an on-air WIP personality in a 10 a.m. to mid-afternoon slot.

Cataldi vs. Verna. The Italian Stallion versus . . . better not go there. City Council President Anna Verna was getting roughed up on Sportstalk radio station WIP yesterday morning, and after getting calls from constituents, called in to the program to defend herself. Verna said later she was "personally insulted" by some of the banter among the morning yakkers, led by host Angelo Cataldi. "I insult everybody," Cataldi said later. "I did challenge her on the air. I felt somebody had to do that, since the woman's been walking around for two days ignoring what a lot of people believe is a surprisingly fair plan by the Eagles.

Personalities from WIP Radio will serve as guest hosts of "Daily News Live" on Comcast SportsNet beginning Tuesday. "Daily News Live" airs weeknights at 5 p.m. with sports writers from the Daily News. Here is the schedule: Tuesday: Rhea Hughes Wednesday: Al Morganti Thursday: Rob Ellis Friday: Glen Macnow Monday, July 11: Anthony Gargano Tuesday, July 12: Angelo Cataldi Wednesday, July 13: Rhea Hughes Also, CSN has compiled the stories of five high school stars who appeared on "Daily News Live" in May into a half-hour special called "High School Hot Shots.

Miss Pennsylvania, Marla Wynne, who was dismissed by Miss America judge Larry King as the ugliest of the pageant's 10 finalists, got her chance to respond to the talk-show megalomaniac yesterday on The Joan Rivers Show. Frankly, she pulled her punches. "I think Larry King didn't understand what the pageant was about," said Wynne, who said she had been wounded by King's comments. "If he knew the work and hours and the blood, sweat and tears that went into it, he wouldn't have been so quick to be insensitive.

Tony Bruno knows how it feels to be wanted. Really wanted. Since February 1992, Bruno has been part of WIP-AM's five-days-a-week morning fraternity party. For more than two years, he also has worked weekends for ESPN Radio and ESPN2. When Bruno agreed to join ESPN Radio full-time at the beginning of this month, he thought his seven-day grinds were over. Wrong. As his WIP contract was expiring, the station decided it wanted to keep its popular morning show intact. "The day I was leaving," Bruno said, "(WIP)

RE "SOURCES: Birds will let Owls use Linc for $15M upfront" (sports Aug. 7): Thank you Rep. John Perzel and Gov. Rendell for getting involved in the Eagles/Temple fiasco. Over 15 years, the Eagles will get $1 million a year for five to seven Temple home games each season, plus 90 percent of concessions, 100 percent of parking - and Temple pays all game-day expenses. That sounds like a real nice deal for the Eagles. Unbelievably, that isn't enough. They want the $15 million up front!

Former Eagles defensive back Tom Brookshier has decided to step down as the co-host of all-sports-talk WIP radio's morning drive-time show effective at the end of the year. And while yesterday's official on-air announcement might have caught listeners by surprise, it was not news to the station's management team. "This decision was made last January," said Jack Williams, WIP's president and general manager. "We asked him to stay on for one more year because the show was really cooking, to help us move forward.

At this point in time, it's almost beside the point to refer to WIP-FM (94.1) as a mere "radio station. " Sure, that's what it is, technically speaking. But a quarter-century after it first got involved with sports-related programming (while it was still on the AM dial), the outlet has established itself as something more than just another over-the-air outlet. Instead, it can be argued that WIP has become so embedded in the culture of the Delaware Valley that it has taken on the status of a public utility.

SHANE VICTORINO was in Waynesville, Mo., yesterday, shooting an episode of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," along with Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz and Mets infielder Daniel Murphy . The Phillies outfielder tweeted yesterday about how excited he was to work with show host Ty Pennington . (The show, we must add, regularly makes Daily News Tattle columnist Howard Gensler cry.) Singer Jewel was also involved in yesterday's shoot at Waynesville High School.

Just a few months after the Eagles drafted Donovan McNabb, another thing happened to Angelo Cataldi that infuriated him for years. McNabb is long gone, but bring up beach tags and the longtime 610-AM sports personality's bitterness over his 1999 beachfront brouhaha with Avalon comes surging back. "I try to avoid Avalon whenever I can," Cataldi said yesterday. "I am one of the top enemies of Avalon, and I am proud of it. " Cataldi was renting a home in Avalon in August '99 that came with beach tags.

Personalities from WIP Radio will serve as guest hosts of "Daily News Live" on Comcast SportsNet beginning Tuesday. "Daily News Live" airs weeknights at 5 p.m. with sports writers from the Daily News. Here is the schedule: Tuesday: Rhea Hughes Wednesday: Al Morganti Thursday: Rob Ellis Friday: Glen Macnow Monday, July 11: Anthony Gargano Tuesday, July 12: Angelo Cataldi Wednesday, July 13: Rhea Hughes Also, CSN has compiled the stories of five high school stars who appeared on "Daily News Live" in May into a half-hour special called "High School Hot Shots.

PENN GRAD John Legend , who once performed outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Welcome America! July 4 concert, will entertain inside the museum May 7 at "Step into Spring. " The event benefits Steppingstone Scholars Inc. and will also honor Constance Williams , former state senator and current board member of both Steppingstone and the art museum. Steppingstone helps local students achieve academic success. For tickets and info, visit steppingstonescholars.org or call 215-508-5150 ext. 15. Out and about Maria Shriver was in town briefly a few days back touring the University of Pennsylvania with her son Patrick Schwarzenegger . The former California first lady sent regrets to old friend Harry Jay Katz , whom she met while working at KYW-TV, that she and Patrick wouldn't be able to meet up with him since they were in and out. Phillies infielder Placido Polanco stopped by Talk of the Town (3020 S. Broad)

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell writes a weekly sports column for the Daily News from a fan's perspective. His column appears Wednesdays.   IN LESS THAN a month, the most entertaining 3 weeks in sports gets under way - March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament. (I mean the most exciting annual event, so I'm not counting the Olympics or World Cup.) The win-or-go-home tension of every game; the crazed, gung-ho effort expended by the players; the raw emotion from the players and fans that surrounds every game; the inevitable upsets and dark-horse midmajors that captivate our imagination - no event can match it!

THIS SUNDAY, again, I'll do something uncomfortable for me - I won't root for the Eagles, "my team" since the pre-Dick Vermeil days, when they were a skunk at the picnic. I won't root for the Redskins, because they're not my team. But neither are the Eagles with Michael Vick at the controls. When he was signed, I accepted it, but I didn't like it. The deal was, he'd be a backup for a year or two. He wasn't the face of the team. I could put up with that. Now that he's the starter, and possibly the Eagles' future, I can't root for them.

LAST MONTH we told you that somebody had sliced a caricature of 610 WIP's Angelo Cataldi off one of the walls full of famous faces at the Palm (200 S. Broad). We now know the whereabouts of the missing cartoon. On our desk. On Wednesday afternoon a large envelope addressed to Your Humble Narrator arrived with no return address bearing six Purple Heart stamps and an East Falls postmark. Inside was Cataldi's face, with plaster from the Palm's wall on the back, under a sheet of clear plastic.

SOMEONE OUT there hates 610 WIP morning host Angelo Cataldi so much that they sliced his caricature off the walls full of faces at the Palm (200 S. Broad). Palm GM Jim Haney , who noticed Cataldi's mug missing this week, says that to his knowledge the last cartoon defaced was that of O.J. Simpson during his murder trial. Fittingly, a steak knife was shoved so far into Simpson's head that only the handle was sticking out of the wall, Haney said. "I've often lost my head on WIP, but this is a first," Cataldi told us yesterday.

Tom Brookshier, according to his friends, knew how to tackle. Whether on the football field or as a television and radio personality, his impact was equally immense and intense. He was an all-pro on the last Eagles team to win an NFL championship, in 1960, and was part of CBS's top NFL broadcast team during the 1970s along with his close friend Pat Summerall. In the late 1980s he hired Angelo Cataldi, launching the 610 WIP sports-talk format that remains in place today. Mr. Brookshier, 78, died Friday of cancer at Lankenau Hospital.