Longtime ESPN host Tony Reali took his final lap “Around the Horn” on Friday, closing out the sports debate series after 23 years and more than 4,900 episodes.
ESPN set the end date months ago for the half-hour series that has been a staple of the sports cabler’s early evening lineup. Reali has not been shy in recent interviews about “Around the Horn” having been canceled despite its long tenure.
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“Around the Horn” featured a “Hollywood Squares”-style assembly of prominent sports journalists talking about teams, athletes and sports issues of the day. The scribes vied to score points, as judged by Reali, by supporting their positions with forceful arguments. Reali came to host the show after working as a researcher and statistician for “Pardon the Interruption,” the long-running ESPN series hosted by respected sports veterans Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon.
“The absence of explanation and the silence said enough for me. And then I maybe come from a school of thought that everything in TV goes away,” Reali said in an interview with Sports Illustrated published earlier this week.
On air, Reali used his final minutes to pitch his TonyReali.com website and YouTube channel. But he closed on a mostly uplifting note, citing the impact that the show has had on his life. He also weighed in on the influence that sports can play in popular culture, at its best moments.
Reali opened his final five minutes with a discussion of the rules and metrics that he followed for scoring writers over the years. Then he moved into more personal territory.
“Life scores us all differently every day, with a rule book that changes every day. You have to roll with it right through good and bad,” he said. “Because what works one day may not work the next, but you’ll work through it, and you’ll work through it with the good people around you, because we’ll get through this together.”
Reali’s voice became more emotional as he zeroed in on his farewell.
“I was 24 when I started on this show. I grew up on this show. This show helped me grow up. Maybe some of you feel the same way too,” he said. “Life came fast, then slow as it does, gradually, then suddenly, I’ve shared through it all the highs and lows, because I believe life is best when it’s shared in full, and fullness has highs and lows.”
Reali paid tribute to the fans who made the show appointment viewing for more than two decades. In a play on his surname, the host often emphasized how he was looking for “the real” in any debate.
“In looking for the real, I found something that was even realer than real. You shared back because to me, that’s what made this show go. It’s the connection. Sports is connection. We watch it from our youngest days. We laugh and we cry,” he said. “Sports connects people. People connect sports and when it’s genuine, it’s the best thing in the world. But this was even better than that. The notes about your families and your notes about yourself, where you opened up to me, that means most to me.”
Reali closed by admitting “you’re gonna call me cheesy” and then he extended his hand out to the camera and asked viewers to “come with me, where it’s real.”
In his final 20 seconds, the camera panned to a monitor that displayed the lifetime score totals for some of the most regular “Around the Horn” guests. Woody Paige, sports columnist for the Denver Gazette, topped the leaderboard with 700.
“I came into this world a stat boy, I’m going to leave it as stat boy,” Reali declared. “Thank you very much.”
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