The Rock Pile
Some call me Coach "Little C," but at my core, I’m a storyteller, sports fanatic, and someone who has never stopped chasing my dreams. I’m a Fordham Football graduate and a current high school football coach, deeply passionate about the game and the impact it has on young athletes.
My journey in sports media started over a decade ago in the basement of my home—a dream that grew into something much bigger. That vision turned into a weekend live show on WKAL 1450 Rome/Utica, and today, I host multiple sports podcasts, including The Mohawk Valley Sportswatch and The Weekly Huddle, both airing on The Rock Pile.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of covering FCS football for FCS Radio Nation, A-10 Men’s and Women’s Basketball for Fordham University, and recently hosting a Coach’s Show for Colgate University. But beyond the mic, my passion extends to giving back to my community, inspiring young athletes, and using sports as a platform to share meaningful stories.
Growing up in a small town in Upstate New York, I’ve always embraced the underdog mentality—grinding, growing, and pushing forward. My love for sports and storytelling continues to drive me, and I’m excited for what’s ahead.
The Rock Pile
Mute the Noise: ESPN's Tony Reali on Life, Sports & Speaking Up !
Tony Reali brings listeners behind the scenes of his remarkable 23-year journey at ESPN in this candid, reflective conversation about sports broadcasting, personal growth, and authentic connection.
Starting with his early days at Fordham University's WFUV radio station, Reali shares how being told his Jersey accent "wasn't good for the Bronx" became just one of many moments where constructive criticism shaped his broadcasting evolution. His transition from play-by-play to hosting wasn't planned but emerged organically from his personality and conversational style, eventually leading to his breakthrough role on "Pardon the Interruption" before becoming the face of "Around the Horn" for nearly 5,000 episodes.
What truly distinguishes this conversation is Reali's philosophical approach to sports television. He reveals the intentional artistry behind "Around the Horn," from the purposefully inexplicable scoring system ("because life scores us all differently every day") to creating a show that mirrored Sunday family dinners where passionate debates ended in deeper connections. His hosting philosophy evolved from showcasing sports knowledge to facilitating genuine human moments – making "Around the Horn" feel less like a television program and more like conversations with friends.
Perhaps most powerfully, Reali discusses his willingness to bring his full self to television, including discussions of anxiety and grief. His transparent sharing about the stillbirth of his son Amadeo demonstrates how vulnerability can create meaningful connections even through a sports show. As he reflects on his final "Around the Horn" episode and placing the mute button on the floor, Reali expresses not bitterness but gratitude and triumph at the journey.
Looking ahead, hear why Reali feels drawn to create content that strengthens family bonds through sports, particularly between fathers and children. His vision for using the car rides to and from games as moments of connection reveals his continuing belief in sports as a vehicle for something much more profound than just entertainment.
Ready to explore how great sports television gets made? Press play and discover the thoughtful philosophy behind one of ESPN's most beloved personalities.
Thank you for listening!
Good evening everybody. Welcome to another live edition here on the Rockpile. Tonight I'm excited to talk to a longtime host on ESPN, Tony Reali. He's going to join me in just a minute and Tony and I were just talking a little bit behind the scenes and he covered me while I was at Fordham. So a lot of people were asking me questions last week and tonight and I got to get into it with Tony. They're asking well, you got to get into ESPN last week into tonight and I got to get into it with Tony. They're asking well, you got to get into ESPN.
Rocky:I'm like forget ESPN. I want to get into the Fordham years with Tony and let him go down memory lane. So I'm really excited to have him on here tonight. So if you're watching on YouTube, make sure to hit subscribe. Twitter, linkedin, wherever you follow us, I continue to the posties, so I'm really excited to bring him on, so I'm not going to keep him waiting. He's got better things to do than talk to me tonight, so let's get him on there's no place in the world I'd rather be than right here, right now I appreciate that man.
Rocky:How are you?
Tony:I'm doing. Great man. I love remember when I know there's a soprano's joke. It's the lowest form of whatever. I miss nostalgia. Nobody does nostalgia like they used to, and what we just did right now, remembering the 2000 fordham rams, oh and 11. Ah, yeah, that, that was. That was a year. I remember well dave clausen, who has turned into. We knew it then. We knew it then. One of the great minds, offensive minds, especially in college football, and you got and you got to learn at the chalkboard from him.
Rocky:You know what, tony, when I got recruited. This is really weird, because I never played for the guy that recruited me. I don't know if you remember Nick Cattaro.
Tony:I remember Nick Cattaro yeah, my first year.
Rocky:He was a coach too, yeah, he leaves, he goes to, I think, iowa State, and then Ken O'Keefe comes in from. Allegheny.
Tony:Yeah, in Allegheny he leaves.
Rocky:Dave Klaassen comes in and I'll tell you what. And I tell Dave Klaassen this all the time because when I went down to visit my wife's family down in Raleigh this was a few years ago and Dave Cohen, who was the defensive coordinator when I was at Fordham, was one of his assistants I went to visit him down at Wake for spring practice.
Tony:Yeah.
Rocky:And we were talking, I said you know what People hated Coach Claussen when he first started? Because he was tough.
Tony:Yeah, yeah.
Rocky:He brought in a lot of his own guys. But we knew right then, and there he was, a young guy.
Tony:I knew it then, and there too, at 0-11,. I knew it then and there too, at 0-11,. I knew the type of character he was putting out there. I do remember one thing that he reminded me of just this past year not directly, through a friend of mine who was calling a Wake Forest game. Was that it's possible? I was late for my first meeting with him, I do think. Bob Hill the basketball coach, former NBA coach, I kept me long in a meeting with him, and here I was late for my first meeting with Dave Klausten, which he remembered to this day. I remember him talking to me about how he loved the slot receiver position.
Tony:Jerry McDermott was playing that for him of course, and would go on to have a record-breaking season in the years ahead and how he really maximized that. But these are the things you remember, Rock. He maximized that for a position. One advantage he wanted to play at was the slot position. I remember that to this day. It didn't affect how I hosted around the horn, but I'll bet Spiro Didis, another colleague of ours, friend of ours, does it when he's calling CBS NFL games right now. Rocky, I believe that.
Rocky:Tony, I had a lot of people that were like, oh, you got to get into Rialia and ESPN, which we will, and I've watched a lot of the interviews with you, the last couple, you've been on just about every podcast radio show.
Tony:As you know, I didn't do interviews for about four years three years I operated in for better or worse you know a world where I wanted to let the work speak for itself and I knew how taxing that's not a bad thing, but I had to put it all in 100% into the work every day. So I did a lot of interviews in the last month, as you're referring to.
Rocky:And a lot of people said you're going to get into all the SPN and I will. But I said you know what the shows that I've done? And I interviewed Rob Manford not long ago, who's from Rome, new York, which is where I'm from, and the thing I like about what I do is I want to hear the stories. You've had the ups, the downs and of course, you've got interviewed by a lot of big time people and we'll get into all that stuff. But your story I've been following since we got out of college. Yeah, it's been fascinating and I want you to just start.
Tony:It has been a fun story to put together, but even goes back to their college days, so rocky. You and I are together, uh, for for two years at fordham I'm calling the games for fordham football and fordham basketball, which was a dream of mine. It's still know, it's not my current dream, but play-by-play Yep, calling a football game, calling a basketball game, is the closest thing I think you can really get to playing in the game. It really is. I mean, especially in basketball. You're on the floor of the game, you know, and you're feeling the beat of the ball and you're sweating through it. Calling a football football game, you're up in the box and and and you're hyper focused, like a coach is. I mean, you're literally in the box next to the coaches. I loved hearing the defensive coaches pounding, pounding the desk, you know, when we were getting a turnover forced right there. Um, you know that is a great feeling.
Tony:So I I went to ford solely with the purpose to call games right, because that's what Michael Kay did of the New York Yankees, that's what Bob Papa did of the New York Giants, that's what Chris Carino and Mike Breen of NBA teams had done. So that was the dream. But I was also now having an opportunity to work at a 50,000-watt radio station in New York. But even then, rocky, in that moment I'm doing newscasts on 90.7 FM as the sports guy and I was asked to be. I was pulled off of the radio because of my delivery, the way I talk. Maybe my Jersey accent at the time was just not good for the Bronx.
Tony:It wasn't good enough at that level. So which I introduced this to say as much as I had a dream. I have a dream job, of course, but I had a dream. I got the call saying we need you to fill in one day and it all played out and I got to do the dream show with it, one of those crazy fluky lucky hookups. Even through it all, there are still always moments that you have to work on your craft. You have to take that call that says you're going to need to stop down and work on your game a little bit. Espn did the same with me. We'll get to it in a second. Well, I'll do it right now. They brought in a voice coach as well. They brought in a voice coach my first year of Around the Horn, so this is my second time.
Tony:Now I'm being really forced to address I would say it was my, my charm but also how I need to get my energy under control a little bit, because I'm a big energy guy and rocky mate. You, you, you operate on a slowly different, different pace, right, and maybe you know you have to get up for certain moments when you're doing a broadcast. I had to learn to get down a little bit because my personal energy needed to come down a little bit so I didn't get carried away in my voice, because I had a call once. You would have been on the field in this game Do you remember Holy Cross? And there was a block kick that got returned and a fumble on the return and went back, so they were missed.
Tony:Have been 150 yards of ball on a play here and I ended with Holy Cross. You can't say, I don't remember exactly, uh, what happened on the play, but my voice must have been, you know, at three octaves above what you would want on the call in that moment. Um, so these are the types of things that I'm just saying. You can get to the highest levels.
Rocky:You always got to work on your craft so everybody jokes with me because I'm about 45 minutes from syracuse university and we always get into these great arguments and obviously so many great journalists and broadcasters from syracuse.
Tony:But I get the guys that always say I like our chance. There's the Fordham guy.
Rocky:Give me the Fordham guys in a fight, man. There's a lot of big time and we'll get into a lot of the Fordham guys. But take me back to Fordham too, because one of the things I've always said people have asked me um, you know, play-by-play guy versus somebody that could host a show. I've always liked hosting stuff. Play-by-play is really tough. There's a lot of good play-by-play guys. When did you know you wanted to get out of that part of it and do the show part?
Tony:Well, I think it was my personality got myself out of that. You know, I was just a little too big in a room and even in a call of a game, you know I enjoyed what became the back and forth you may have seen between myself and Kornheiser and Wilbon, or myself and Woody Page and Bob Ryan, and I would try to, even though I couldn't probably articulate it at the time, work that into a broadcast. So at Fordham it is a cradle of play-by-play guys, first and foremost right, and Syracuse has that. And then Syracuse has also hosts that go through the Bob Costas, mike Tirico line. I would say While they do play-by-play very, very well, tirico outstanding in play-by-play, I think they're really at their best in hosting. I've had a chance to even work next to Tariq once. It took my breath away when I saw him do a read, you know, because there's that much control over your voice and getting into a script, right. But for me, you know I worked with Marty Glickman is the name of a famed Hall of Fame play-by-play announcer.
Tony:Before our time called the Knicks and the Giants, a little bit in our time called the New York Jets, and this was another voice of my youth, but really our parents' youth and he was coming to Fordham University's campus once a week rolling up those sleeves and that tie and that shirt collar was starched, perfect.
Tony:He was a pro's pro as an announcer and he even told me Anthony, anthony, with that voice, you're never going to get national and Anthony, anthony, with that delivery, you're talking a little bit, too much conversation, not enough time and score. He was a big proponent because he did a lot of radio, not not so much tv but more radio, and that you got to paint in the viewer's mind, or the listener's mind, I should say, getting the radio brain. Um, the time and the score, you know, um I was doing, I was doing too much conversational, so it became a natural progression. But it chose me out. Honestly it really did, because of of those lucky phone calls and those lucky conversations you find yourself in the night before a telecast. They need somebody to fill in and I happened to be that guy one day.
Rocky:Now, Tony, was there another school other than Fordham that was in play for you, or was it always Fordham?
Tony:It was always Fordham. I may have applied to other schools and just for the sake of doing that, fordham was my only. I mean, I was on the radio within a week, or at least in the radio room, within a week, on air within a month. It was a singular focus for me, rocky. Since I was five years old, I wanted to be a broadcaster. I've said this and I'll say this again. I say it. You know, I had a fake microphone and I would be in front of the TV, and even now I'm watching games with my middle Enzo, my middle child, and you know he says he wants to be a sportscaster. I think because he wants to, you know, be like his old man, but I think he really wants to be a YouTuber, which is exactly what I would be doing if I were of this generation and I think it's one of the most amazing things.
Tony:Right, I had a. Really, you know, I did have a recorder at some point in my high school years and I did go through some of these. Really, you know, I would try to do broadcasts when I was in high school in a verbal speech, you know, effective speaking way in a class for speaking. But the reality was I wasn't really recording and showing it, disseminating in any way. Now you can have your own YouTube channel. You know I would be. I mean, I would be outside watching recreational soccer and calling those games If I was 12 or 14 right now. No doubt, no doubt.
Rocky:I used to call the old nintendo. This is funny because I had. I don't know if you remember mark carney was the quarterback, my one of my roommates yeah and he's now filling in as the head coach at kent state oh, I didn't know he is yep. So I had him on not too long ago and we're talking. He goes. You know, rock. I remember when we used to play um all the football, all the college and all that, maddens and all that.
Tony:Yeah, I think you're right with this. I did this too, you're right.
Rocky:He goes. You used to broadcast like you were calling a Madden game he goes. I always knew you'd want to be behind the mic. It's just been a passion.
Tony:This is a conversation of people of our nature. I can mention another name from Fordham because I just saw him recently Andrew Bogish.
Rocky:Yeah.
Tony:I name from Fordham because I just saw him recently, andrew Bogish. I know I'm best friends with the guy across the street from him growing up in Queens and he's like I knew Bogish, and he used to do the announcing of our wiffle ball games. I'm like I was doing the same thing. It's a very interesting character trait to also want to describe what you're doing. And you know I mean you could, I know broadcasters, the heights of the game, who, who, for fun, just do the play by play of their family waking up and getting breakfast in the kitchen, just just to keep that pattern of speech going, because it really is a act, reaction type job.
Tony:Hosting is different Hosting, I mean, I know, rock, you have some questions, maybe you have in mind, maybe you haven't written down on a piece of paper, but I know you have to actively be listening to me right now. That's a skill, a muscle. You have to kind of really work and it's a different thing, the act of listening. I knew what it took me when I was 25, when I filled in overnight on Around the Horn and I knew you know, other than nerves, that Iificate or just have an opinion on TV and people were going to ride with that.
Tony:I knew I really wanted to get to a place where I could actively listen to the panelists and then make them prove why their opinion is the right opinion on today's game show, because Around the Horn was had a mechanism of game show and that took that, took years to really feel, and who knows if I would have been given that time or what, just the way it worked out. I mean, some TV shows don't make it six months, so so I, if I had to go back to my, to my self, I would have done it the same way and I would have said the advice is keep on plugging away, but be an active listener. When you're a host which is not kind of your first intuition when you want to get into the business, you just want to talk, you have big, big opinions, you have energy to you or you want to describe what you're seeing, but actively listening, listening, is the key to to hosting.
Rocky:It's an odd thing to say so how'd you get started with espn? When you left fordham, I mean, you started off at espn. You were a kid and here you were, 20 something years later. You know a grown, a grown adult children. How'd you get landed at ESPN?
Tony:The day after the graduation at Fordham, I was working at Channel 11, a local New York institution, wpix. I was writing the sportscasts or editing tape and helping write, along with Sal Marciano, the longtime New York anchor, and also Sean Kimmerling, who is since the late Sean Kimmerling, but I was writing their scripts and I loved that job. But I was only able to get about 20 hours a week. So I'm like this is the time you make that decision, riali. You go to Iowa and you call minor league baseball. To Iowa and you call minor league baseball. And there was just something you know in the back of my head that said you know, stay in New York and try to work in TV, whether you're on air. First prove that you can do anything on a show and then maybe you can go about it that way. I started submitting a writing sample for a trivia game show that happened to be on ESPN. This was a spinoff of the game show who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It was a show called Millionaire.
Tony:Drill so you remember Millionaire being the biggest show in the world and there was energy around. Let's see if we can expand this. And who loves trivia more than sports fans?
Rocky:Was Kenny Mayne the host. He absolutely was.
Tony:Yes, I remember, was he the host? He absolutely was. Yes, I remember this show had many of the great notes and touches of who wants to be a millionaire, lights and music, but it also had a little bit of a timed mechanic. It was called the two-minute drill and trivia. While it's very effective when it's timed, we also were utilizing professional athletes to read the questions. So I was writing these questions.
Tony:But you write a question and it's a challenging question, but it's also challenging then for a non-professional to read it in the time that they needed to read it in for the person who was competing to have the best chance of winning. So the show went three seasons and then they said thanks, that's a good three-year run. And at that moment, just in the office, in her office bulletin board or maybe email, I heard of a show that was starting in Washington DC called. Well, at that moment I'm not even sure if it was called Pardon the Interruption, but it was definitely going to be based in DC around Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon, and you've done the writing now for Anchors before and for Trivia Questions. Would you want to do the research and be part of the debate-making show Pardon the Interruption? I interviewed for that job. That's how I came to work for ESPN show. Part of the interruption. I interviewed for that job. That's how I came to work for espn. I came to work for the pti show, which is still the number one show of its kind on the network. Proud will always be part of that family. It's. It's. It's a debate show that I learned at the feet of two expert sports columnists right, the premier sports columnist in the country. But I learned something about TV and what we call content now Rock, and you know this too.
Tony:You're doing a show solo and you have a guest and some of your guests you know and you have a dynamic. We know each other. Those guys weren't just friends, they weren't just mentor-mentee, they weren't even just brothers from another mother. They were a married couple. Tv works on dynamics. You show me those two guys in a newsroom for five seconds. You walk into that newsroom. You would have walked out saying that's a TV show. Right there, those guys are at each other's throat, but they're also, they have an ability to love each other and I love that, love, that dynamic. You know where you can be at blows with somebody and then also be embraced in a hug by the end of it. That's that to me.
Tony:So I was writing and researching that show at 23 years old and a week before that show is about to launch. I'm going at it with those guys in the newsroom over silly debates that we're having Whatever who's better? You know, larry Bird or Magic Johnson, right, they were happy to have that debate for the hundredth time. And then I chimed in the air and I made my case Like this is interesting, this guy's going for it.
Tony:But then, secondly, you know, we had to work on the camera people a little bit. The camera shots. Tony and Mike wanted to sit in the chair just for a few seconds. Then I sat in their chair and I showed something that I showed at FUV, which was some chops. I had done call-in shows, I had done my games, I was comfortable with a microphone in front of me and they made me the sidekick. This is a week before we went to Air Rocky. This is right when you know this show's about to take off. I wasn't expecting to be the sidekick, but if you'd asked me, it would have been a dream. Absolutely, absolutely.
Rocky:And that's how much work went into behind the scenes to put that show on.
Tony:I mean that day, that show both of the shows I worked on were nine to five days, 40-hour weeks, in an office. But you have to watch sports for a living. You have to go out cover games for Cornheiser and Wilbon or myself. I would go out to games, you know, on occasion, but not as much as those other guys would. So the actual show does resemble a work day, you know, but it resets every day. When I threw that paper ball at the camera or when we said you know, we'll try to do better tomorrow on PTI. Now we do it on a Google document, right? You have a living, breathing document that you're just adding sports stories, clips that you see over the night. So typically I would be watching my games at night for three hours and putting stuff into our Google Doc, as would another producer or two or the researcher, so the show. And then I would be watching my eight hours of football on Sundays and college football as well. So I don't know there was no hour number my eight hours of football on Sundays and and college football as well, you know. So I don't know if there there was no hour number. I don't know what the 23 and a half hour break I know it wasn't really a break Cause you had to watch your sports. You can't I mean, I'm not ever tired of watching sports.
Tony:I'm not jaded to this day we're going to get to having to say goodbye to a show like Around the Horn. That was my living breathing heart, rocky, and I think the show could be going on right now and I think you know it's taken me a couple weeks of decompressing. There's a reason why You're the second interview I've done since I've gotten off the show. The other was Dan Levitard, another friend of mine. You know I'm not ready to just even unpack all of it, but I am.
Tony:I mean, let's be honest, I'm excited for my future. I know I'm going to have a place in this industry that I'm going to enjoy and I've got to a space where I'm not like I don't want to just get a chair, I want to build the next chair. That's where I am right now. But I know I just watched the NBA finals, you know, wrap up in a game, seven, and there was so much in that game to unpack and I didn't get to do a round the horn the next day and that's just like that's something I've done for 20, 23 years and I had to say goodbye in the middle of the NBA playoffs and I'm just like, oh, you know, I still got these things I wanted to talk about, you know, and I'm just like oh, you know, I still got these things I wanted to talk about, you know, yeah, yeah.
Rocky:So did you ever get that wow moment? I mean, you get out of Fordham, you know you get PTI, you're behind the scenes, stat boy, and you know you're in front of two absolute legends in the sports world. Did you ever sit back and say, wow, this is real, yeah.
Tony:I mean, I believed it, you know, achieve it. You know, believe it and achieve it. I believed by the time I took that meeting and then they said we're going to make you the sidekick. I mean I watched ESPN every day of my life. That I can remember, you know, growing up let's take it to age 11, when we got cable or so, right, age 12. So at 12, and then I was 23. So it's only been 11 years, but I had done, you know, a master's course in sports fandom already. You know I had watched ESPN SportsCenter probably three times, the same telecast, probably three times a day.
Tony:I was at Fordham, to the point where you can memorize it. I had I've certainly been in places because of my role at WFUV, where I had interviewed both you, rocky and Derek Jeter on the same weekend, you know, and Bavon Robin and Greg Griffin and Mike Piazza on the same weekend. I was covering the Yankees and the Mets and the Giants and the Jets. You know, when I was at Fordham as the station beat reporter. So I had been around World Series games and then, and by extension, elbow to elbow with Bob Ryan and Frank Isola guys, I would then do a thousand TV shows with Amazing right. So I had proximity to the bigs of the business at a very young age. So I didn't have any like wow, pinch me, I'm here. Moment because I had already gotten that at Fordham, which is why, again, I put the Fordham you know broadcasting and school of communications up against anything I had been with the pros by just sheer. You know you're in New York, you're covering the Yankees. You know If you're in Syracuse you're having a great time covering, you know, the Big East at that time and a great program. But I was covering the World Series for the Yankees. So the long story is. The long story that I just gave you is a short answer. I felt it, I believed it. I thought the show was great from the first weekend.
Tony:As much as Cornizer and I have a healthy cynicism or skepticism to stories and things like that. Contrarians, I've used often Wilbon. I think we all knew that the show was really solid and I began to spread my wings in ways that were just not the sidekick on the back end of the show. I started to now use a producer acumen. I had to do some of the game segments we have Because I, like you know, I like hard-hitting sports news and I also like goofy stuff.
Tony:I'm a personality guy, so I love the idea that Cornelizer and Wilbon would dress as cops. We would play good cops bad cops, you know, and that was my idea. I said let's get them in the outfits and we'll figure out a game after that. You know Odds makers and what's the word, which is just basically Mad Libs. But I wanted smart guys to use big words to describe the news of the day. To me, it was fun building out the show like that. So that's where my focus was how can I really put these guys in a position to win? And the show got even better as the year or two went on.
Rocky:And around the horn. You were a guest on the show numerous times, right, you would guest host it numerous times. That's a different thing.
Tony:I didn't have the bravado or I mean other than I knew I was on the next show. So audience may know me, but when I got a phone call saying can you? Or even a knock on the door because we were in the studio next door, they said we have a problem with our studio today. Can you fill in for Tim Kalashaw? And I was supposed to be a sports opiner in that moment.
Tony:The first seven times I filled in on Around the Horn, that one was, those were nerves. That one was like yeah, I have to come off as an expert, right, and in your mind you're like I'm gonna fake it until I make it, but I don't know if that's the best strategy. I wish you know I mean I would advise anybody and I do, and you know I would pass this advice on to you now as a host of a show, but I do it with, uh, you know, an example would be any new panelists we would have had on around the Horn. I want you to be yourself, and I know I wasn't being myself when I was in those first appearances on Around the Horn. I was trying to be what I thought people wanted the panelists or host to be, right.
Tony:And while that is an understandable strategy, you know I would say for my own, you know I was noisier than I wanted to be. You have a great title here Mute the Noise. You know I would say for my own, you know I was noisier than I wanted to be. You have a great title here Mute the Noise. You know I can be loud, I have no problem with volume, but there's a lot of noise that comes with my train of thought. I want to get everything out. I want to show you how smart I am at all moments. That's what I was trying to do at 23, 25, and I was guesting on Around the Horn and it took, you know, intention to kind of try to scale that back a little bit and think of one or two things you want to do, even in an answer, and not try to give you an eight answer. You know a topic answer right. Does that make sense? You're trying to do too much and sometimes less is more.
Rocky:You know I look at the media today and you're fortunate you were at. You know you had around the horn for so many years and I look at the media today versus the media from you know when you got into the business what? Over 20 years ago, even longer than that. What do you think? What are some of the biggest changes that you see? Nowadays? There's much more competition.
Tony:Sure sure.
Rocky:You're probably the biggest free agent out there, but what's changed on your end? How much has changed?
Tony:I mean even the nuts and bolts of it. Right, I mean, how we consume sports is a little bit different now, but even how, let's say, a sports fan consumes highlights and discussion, in my first five, ten years of Around the Horn, I think I was writing highlight reads where you're describing what happened because you didn't assume everybody watched the game, because not all games were, you know, and then you're breaking down games. Now it's much more reactive and you know somebody has seen the highlights. I mean the viewer's experience is much more reactive. You've seen the highlights immediately on Twitter or you have already, and now you're trying to approach the topic a little bit differently. So I think how people consume sports has dictated that, certainly around the horn and PTI before it, first and foremost, you know, began a saturation of market on sports debate, which is not a bad thing.
Tony:I don't believe sports debate, you know, needs to be one thing. It can be all things right, right, I? By that I mean you know you can have former athletes talking about it and you can have reporters talking about it. I believe you can have, you know, fans even, and I I do think where we're at the precipice, uh, of being in a place where, where the viewer and the fan has a voice involved in in the greater media because of what social media has become. So I think that to me, honestly, social media is probably the biggest change. I mean, uh, that has happened in the greater sports fans experience because they feel they have a voice now. They do have a voice now and and that's wonderful and there still will be a place for people who are journalists and, of course, athletes. And I still am bullish on the industry. I still am. I know some of my friends believe sports media is broken and I believe there are more opportunities to get more voices out there. That's always a good thing.
Rocky:Who have been some people whether it's in the industry, not in the industry that have kind of been role models for you.
Tony:Well, I have inspiration. I mean, I'll say that first and foremost, I went from trying to gauge what sportscasters I admire and like, and some of those names are names of you, Of course. You know Ernie Johnson. I liked his broadcasting style in some ways. Now we're not the same guy in that I am, my energy runs at a different level, let's say and he is cool and even keeled in some ways, and maybe I admire him quite a bit and everything I seem to know about his character. But what I most admire from, and I took from his sports hosting Ackerman is that he subscribed to a school that was, or ascribed to a school that was. The host is the point guard right, which is you know, you set up the play and now point guards, of course, shoot from 35 feet and NBA is different and that's a little bit different analogy.
Tony:Now in today's game, but let's call it the center Snaps the ball, sets up the lead block and lets the panel, the guest hosts, whoever you are your co-pilots to operate, and I like that type of hosting on very many shows. A show like this show is a little bit different. You have to host, you have to really pilot the ship the whole way. But I took Ernie Johnson and Scott Van Pelt as two role models that I really liked from the hosting side of things. I always liked the way Scott Van Pelt hosted golf shows in particular, golf casts in particular, and then I've come to admire hosts from outside of sports and found value in that just as much. So I would say there was a delineation in my hosting of Around the Horn. Even I grew up as an adult on TV, honestly, and I became a husband and a father and that had an enormous impact, as it does, on everyone's life. But I really allowed that to have an impact on my professional life in some ways. But the reality was I went from being a stat-crazed, game-crazed sports fan who was a host who loved that part of it, to loving people, which I always did, but loving people and feelings. And then I realized this was a differentiator, both for myself as a host and for maybe even around the horn, as a TV show, in that and this is something I would pass on to anyone in the industry or any industry you're really in. What makes you you, what makes you special and let's all admit you're special you have your job for a reason. Let's go ahead, be the movie star in your own movie, right? This is not an ego thing. I use a term self-full. You're not going to have control over your life, but you have to go with life and be the active participant in your life. So I began myself trying to be as humble as I could be, because that's how I was raised to be right In the role, while you're even on BTV. Be humble, right, okay. And I did that for and I still do parts of that, but for 10 years. That really motivated me. But what I realized was my skill was being the unique person that I was.
Tony:I feel like anybody could be a sports crazed fan Okay. Anybody could be a know-it-all about sports Okay. Anybody could be a know-it-all about sports Okay. Anybody could be a high energy, positive guy Okay. But I know how I am with people, how I feel about other people, how I want to put other people in a position where they know they have my attention, my energy, my goodwill, and I'm going to now make whatever we're doing better. Right, that is a skill now that I'm comfortable saying I have. I put other people in position to win and I love the feelings that come with that.
Tony:Where do we have feelings in the world more than sports? You know, we all love sports because we're chasing the feeling. You you as a player in your youth, you know chase the feeling of that adrenaline you felt playing or laying a hit on somebody, picking, picking the ball off or outsmarting. You know a quarterback and saying you didn't think you knew I would, where were you going here? And I let you, you know, throw the ball there and then I picked it off right.
Tony:Or solving the puzzle, returning a kick right. You loved the feeling that came with it. Well, I love the feeling that we had shared watching that game, reliving that emotion when we had that game, and that's when I really began to tap into and around the horn. So then, a long answer to your question. I found inspiration from hosts who put feelings in front of their guests, and to me that was one guy who was a chef by the name of Anthony Bourdain Really liked his show, liked the way he told stories and liked the way he unified people through cooking. And I thought I can do that through sports and I've slowly did that in some ways in Around the Horn and wherever I'm going next, I think that's a place I want to occupy too, that connection with an audience.
Rocky:What was that last week like for you leading up until I know you? Obviously, I watched that last show and we'll get into that. But what was that last week like for you up until I know you?
Tony:I, I, obviously, I watched that last show and we'll get into that. But what was that last week Like for you just thinking, yeah man, I had eight months knowing it was coming. I'm always thinking I could change their mind, you know.
Rocky:And you really never got an answer right.
Tony:Well, I mean yeah, I mean we could say that I mean I have an answer, I don't have an answer, and I mean an answer and I mean I'm almost I'm happy to talk about with you, uh, but I've I've moved on from it, but I'm just, I my, my point is I was I'm very sure that the network wanted to go in a different direction, but I knew the other parts of it, that our show was working.
Tony:You, know, whatever, whatever metric you want to use to describe working. I know our show is working on some levels right, so I always thought I could change their mind. When it became clear they weren't going to change your mind, I thought I want to go out. Nobody really ever gets to go out the way they want to go out, but I came as close as somebody could, which is to say I brought back just about everybody who was on the show in some way.
Tony:So we can I mean we couldn't bring back everybody but in real time show what gratitude is, because I wanted to show people the emotion, the sentiment and the feeling of gratitude While talking about the biggest topics in the world.
Tony:He never lost sports along the way, but that last week being able to get Jackie McMullen back on and get Bob Ryan back on and put Woody Page in the rightful place that he deserved to be in Bill Plaschke that was important to me.
Tony:And then showing the seeds that those guys planted, that led to many other names and faces and have risen to the heights of our industry the Mina Kynes and George Sedano and Israel Gutierrez and Clinton Yates and these people.
Tony:So I want to make sure that the audience knew that, the impact they had on our show, that they knew the impact they had on me and vice versa. So I mean this is a long way to say I wanted to continue to demonstrate that I felt this show was different, that this show brought in different voices old, young, men, women, you know. I mean it's become almost in vogue to not care about differences in people right now. I mean because it was stressed so much and I can understand that criticism. For me I wanted to hear all voices. I really did, and I feel like we did it as good a job as any tv show has done in putting as many people out there that that could demonstrate why their voice had value and I I feel they all did so I gotta ask you to prep question for this one too.
Rocky:So a lot of people have asked me to ask you. So your guests that were on there, your panelists, how did it work with, as far as you guys knew, the topics? Obviously you did.
Tony:Yeah, yeah. No, I told them. We had a call, they knew the topics in advance and sometimes they would even know the question I was asking. The direct question I would ask, and sometimes I wouldn't ask that direct question once I got into it because something else pulled at me in the flow of a conversation, right. So the most important part to me was that we were having what I felt and what has become a cliche to some people an authentic conversation.
Tony:I didn't want to just do. You know, alex Ovechkin scored the NHL record goal 895 last night. Is he as important to hockey as Michael Jordan was to the NBA, right, which is now whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are we even? You know, I wanted to live in the moment of that one sport and not be comparative. I didn't want to have just a goat conversation every single day. I was comfortable enough, you know. You know some days you ask did this team win it? Did this team lose it? And I understand that that is. That is a question I like, because it kind of puts you right on the screws immediately.
Tony:But I I really wanted to, wanted to, in some places, defer to an actual feeling. A person we have known was covering games either that game or the games like that in the past. Who was interviewed? Maybe that athlete, or maybe somebody who was in a similar situation, and what was the feeling? What would you be writing about today as someone who's a Hall of Fame broadcaster, right? Those were the important things I wanted to get to on the regular. So for me, that was something that we could script in advance or I could allow the conversation to get to.
Tony:That's what I was trying to uncover. I always wanted to uncover. I always wanted to make people forget they were on TV too as well, because I do. I'm a performer and I like to be performative from time to time, and I know there are many people in the industry who are great performers and do it very well. But I thought the Around the Horn show specifically, while some people could lean into some familiar characters Woody could be your crazy uncle and that's great, but other times I want him to be his genuine self. Give me because I know that guy in there Give me the real deal. Give me the one-to-one of who you are off air on air real deal. Give me the one-to-one of who you are off air on air. That's. That's one of the things I always try to convince you know sports reporters, which is not an easy thing to be because you know, I understand, you know they're not television performers in general.
Rocky:But be yourself please your show was like family, though when you watched your show it was like you were kind of sitting at a bar just shooting a breeze on sports and you could tell you're the point guard that made that show go and your job was to make everybody around you better. Yeah, and watching your show was like nothing was scripted and I think those are even like podcasts and like tonight I have a whole thing and, no, I didn't get to hardly anything. I'm not going anywhere. You know what I mean, but I think that's what made it special.
Tony:Here's the thing. Yeah, that was intentional. There's got to just like with I mean, there's work, that work that goes into it. So that was a little sleight of hand that made it really seem like it was as breezy, but it was the DNA of the show. I can be almost borderline delusional with how I talk about how I put this show together, because it will sound like art. I was trying to make art and it was ESPN's Around the Horn. But I thought about my favorite moments in my life the dorm room at Fordham, the Sunday dinners at grandma's house where my two grandfathers Rock were best friends growing up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They happened to have children who married each other because the families were close. Right, that's my existence. So my two grandfathers and then my father and my uncles would get to drag out fights over pinochle or whatever car game or the ball game they were listening to or watching and they would love each other at the end. And that was something that you know. You grow up as a kid.
Rocky:Why are they yelling at each other.
Tony:Wait a second. Yelling's not bad. Yelling's not bad. They love each other. Look at this. That was seriously. That was really what I was going for. It was.
Tony:It sounds silly, but it really is. It sounds like Sundays back in my household growing up. Exactly that's just how it was. Yeah, no, that's how it was so. So there's a reason why and and this is another thing, I'm part it's a relatability, right, you can relate to that. You can relate to a crazy character in the show, because woody reminds me of my, of an uncle, right, and professor kevin blackstone reminds me I love him of that professor, that, that nerdy professor you had who was going to give you a dissertation and an answer. Sometimes you wanted a hot take and you got a dissertation. Sometimes you wanted a dissertation, you got a hot take from somebody else. But I love that. And then I love that I had my smart aleck sports friend, pablo Torre, and then I had somebody who I really admire in the industry, sarah Spain, who I think is a force of nature, you know, and she she was like, uh, some of my cousins and my some parts of my sister's personality, but not really. She was much bigger than that.
Rocky:I saw a lot of myself in her, but I'm just saying I was trying to go for not characters but relatable people in our lives, cause those are the types of shows I like to watch, even outside of sports, you know a lot of people and you explained that the scoring system and I gotta be honest with it, I didn't know how you did the scoring system, but listening to you talk today but even even prior, it was all about how life changes daily and day to day. You didn't know how you were going to score it. But talk to us a little bit about that.
Tony:I believe that you know I was trying again this is reality referring to Horn as art, but I was trying to make gentle points along the way because I knew we had the sports covered. I knew we had a game show in the show and that was fun. But the scoring system, to me, had value in being inexplicable Because in a lot of ways for me, as I navigated life and through this life of being a public figure on a dream job, it was inexplicable. Life throws stuff at you. This is what I was told at Fordham's graduation by Vince Scully. This is how much it stayed with me, rob.
Tony:Life gives you the test long before it gives you the lesson. What does that mean? That means life's going to throw stuff at you before you actually learn how to do it. That's just the way it is. So the fact that the greatest sports play-by-play guy of all time, sportscaster at the school that I went to, told me this and I allowed it to be the lesson that navigated the scoring system on the show it's very silly but it's true. I wanted to score the show differently every day, because life scores us all differently every day and being able to adapt and roll with it is really a secret to life. I don't have anything figured out, but I do know through you, know through my own personal experiences and then, of course, everybody in my life that knows me knows you know I'm going to be able to adapt and roll with whatever situation comes at me as best as I could in that moment and then even better the next day with the experiences I learned. And we tried to do that in a little way every day with sports debate.
Rocky:So, tony, you were strong about your faith, right. That was well documented with you. And then you became a dad and you got married and you were very open on social media about anxiety, struggles, and I'm going to tell you I'm the same way, because it's been a challenge with me as well over the years but you were very vocal about it, right. You don't shy away from that. How important was that for you to be open about that.
Tony:Well, you know, for me, I am a communicator, right as I turn on a light here, and I really apologize for not doing this before. Okay, let me see how this is All right, here we go. Sorry, the kids took control of what is our studio here, our studio. And so for me, I learned early on I'm best at this, talking through things, and that's not even just talking through things in my head, talking through things out loud. But I also learned when you do that, I mean that there's some vulnerability. You have to be prepared to show some sides of you, that sometimes there's a voice inside you Don't tell people about this, you don't want people knowing about this, but in me I knew that there would be benefit for me getting it out, and then I I saw if I'm going through it, that could help somebody else out.
Tony:My people in my life can do things the exact opposite way.
Tony:I'm married to the, the greatest person in my life and and I know she didn't process losing uh amadeo in childbirth a stillbirth that we had that I talked about on the TV show, and it's been very much a part of my life that has both brought sadness but has brought something that has become very full and a positive feeling in my greater life, right, and being able to communicate that to people on a sports TV show, but have it returned to me because it's a pay it forward thing.
Tony:Those people then begin to process things and then they pass it forward in their lives. I recognize that early on that when you're in a public position, there could be benefits to that for other people. So my point is I was going through generalized anxiety disorder probably all of my adult life, but it became very pronounced when I had children and this was not something that's commonly talked about by men, right. While I'm hesitant to call it postpartum anxiety, it was at one point in my greater sorting out of this described as that. But I would just say I needed to impart to men and I know how many men watch our show, a percentage of men that you have to get your feelings in order.
Tony:Whether you communicate them out loud or not, to a therapist or not. I mean, that's not my. That was my decision to do and that may not be anyone's decision to do and that may not be anyone's decision to do. But giving voice to feelings in any way, even an internal voice to your feelings, demonstrates that you are now at least thinking about it and not just letting it hiding in the shadows and then coming out. In ways Maybe it comes out. In some ways. People have a temper. Some ways people have visceral reactions where anxiety gets them to be breathing heavy, the panic attacks that some people maybe have experienced or at least see in movies. Right For me, I was having it all.
Tony:I was having what I felt was postpartum.
Tony:I was having panic attacks and then I had a very, very pointed moment where we were at delivering Enzo and losing Amadeo and I knew that was something when I wrote the eulogy for the mass for Amadeo that I wanted to share publicly because I thought people could benefit from a public discussion about that.
Tony:So I did it, first on social media, but then I was invited to do it on the TV show and I'm very happy I did it still remains to me a proud moment that made my loss, our loss, like I said, be a very full, full feeling.
Tony:And now I don't, you know I my fear was I was going to think whenever I thought of Enzo's birthday, I would think of Amadeo's um, you know, holding Amadeo and burying Amadeo. And the fact is, I think, when I think of of Amadeo, or when I see twins, or when I think of anything, I think of the lives that have come back to me to tell me they were touched by it, know, and how they've experienced similar things, or how it pursued, it made them pursue getting getting their feelings under control in a little way, whether it's through talk therapy or not, you know so take us back to the last, the last show, and when I watched that last show you're on, then I thought of kobe bryan speak, when you said mom out, and you put the mic down and you, you put the mute button down.
Rocky:Did the last show go the way you thought it would go? Did you get everything?
Tony:Yeah, I mean I mean, I really I was trying to do a couple of things. Um, I was trying to first, in the first three minutes, show a side of me. Everyone knows I love the movie Good fellows, I I like the art of Goodfellas just as much as I like the Italianist, but I do love the Italianist first and foremost, but I love the art of it and the cinematography. So I did a shot that harkens back to that. But I did it for a reason to show everybody who works on a show that doesn't have their face in front of the camera, right. So that was one thing. I wanted to make sure I showed you our producers and our camera people and all these sorts of things. So I was able to do that in two and a half minutes in a way that I like and my children got to get you know, just to get people that are important in my life. I needed to make sure our greatest of all time, you know, whatever the eight panelists that were able to get on that show, but I did want to once again affirm to the viewer what they just experienced. It was a show that has a scoring system that maybe flummoxed you on the scoring, but this is what the scoring was. It was like life, please roll with life. And I wanted to underline that sports was about connection and the way we connect with sports, but the way we would connect with others.
Tony:I thought of two things. Rocky, are you a wrestling fan at all? You know, I grew up with wrestling a little bit, but I'm not a fan now by any stretch. But the actual placement of the mute button on the floor it may have been mom out, but for me I was thinking of wrestlers. I always liked the romance of wrestlers putting their wrestling boots in the ring and walking out. That's what actually that was. And secondly, there was a moment I even reached my hand towards the camera and it was a device that I saw an old wrestler doing a very famous promo, dusty Rhodes, you know. And that wasn't even the wrestler I grew up with. You know, he was more in the south and doing these things, but I love the way sometimes wrestlers did promos. These are the things I would watch on youtube. You know you can watch macho man savage do promos for an hour, right so dusty roads. You know he gave his hard time speech and he used his hand gather for me. He said at one point, and that was one of the things I was doing we're trying to physically show a, a connection between the host of this show and and and the audience. Thank you, I mean, it's just about gratitude again. So I absolutely got everything out. I didn't need to do everything. It's a 23-minute show. You know we had 4,953 episodes.
Tony:I think I was comfortable, happy and thrilled, putting my full self into the show all those 23 years. I didn't take a second or third job really, or take on the podcast. I want to do SportsCenter. You know I want to give everything I could to this show and ride it to the end. I see value in that. You know, basically a full day's work, right, so give it all. So I gave it my all and then, you know, I was able, I felt triumphant, signing off, which I don't think is a word most people would utilize when a show gets canceled and ended. But it's how I felt. I mean, that's the only way to be a reality check. You know, you made it 23 years and 5,000 episodes. You're not canceled, you're just ending. You know, and that's how I feel.
Rocky:Well, a couple interviews you did. I heard you throw out there your show, the. The show had more.
Tony:I mean, we don't have hiatus while we were off, maybe during college bowl week, because he has been showed all the bowls in our place and we were all for the little league world series, the silly things that we were all for. But uh, yeah, we didn't have hiatus, so we were able to put up some real numbers and I value that too. I mean, like, again, I'm joe reali's son, you know, I don't know how many days of work my dad missed in whatever his 50 years or 48 years. You know it can't be more than three or four, you know, with the beat emergency gallstones or something like that, you know.
Tony:So I mean, I was similar to that for a long time until until we really, you know, until I decided to to catch my breath in some ways. So, yeah, that part of it, I admired that too, but in the end it was the connection with the audience. I mean, that's why I came back every day. I loved putting you know new faces on TV and I loved showing different parts of my personality in small ways on the show and talking about new topics. But I, but I, I love the audience, you know, and and they're not going anywhere the viewers, you know. I mean I'll introduce myself to a new group of viewers.
Rocky:Uh, whatever's next, yeah well, that leads to my last thing for you here was I know we're not going to get what's next, but tv sports. I know probably there's games. I know there's a lot of.
Tony:Yeah, yeah, I mean I love sports. I'm staying in sports. For sure, the biggest sporting events is where my attention will be now, maybe not on the daily, doing sports discussion on the daily. I don't know if I've closed that chapter, but I'm in a position now. You know where I'm opening up a door for the first time, so I really want to see that. But you know me a little bit Rock. I mean I love my little games and game shows. I love. I still think there's a place for sports fans average fans to get their voices out there. So any way I can create something that would be that for the average I'm in game for and you know I'm envious of anybody who's doing any type of shows with family-related fare. You know I want to learn how I can put a show together that can talk to dads, specifically sports dads, even because I love the.
Tony:I want people to have better relationships with people in their life kids, parents and kids, kids and parents, vice versa. You want to have a better relationship with your kids. I believe sports is a great way to do that. I believe working out with your kids is a great way to do that. I believe working out with your kids is a great way to do that. I believe that 30 minutes you take driving your kids to the game and your 30 minutes going back from the game is a really, really I'm going to use the word sweet time, because you could just be support for them, you could just be there, they could open up to you and maybe they're not ready to open up to you every time. And building that relationship, though, so they can open up to you every time, and and building that relationship, though, so they can open up to you in those moments through sports, is a worthy endeavor, and that's something I want to try to. That's a nut I want to try to crack going forward well, I can relate to that.
Rocky:I was my dad, who was a long time high school football coach in this area, probably over 35 years. I was, uh, I was his assistant coach for a little while when I moved back here a long time ago and then he retired and then he was my assistant coach for my first varsity job. And then my son now, who is actually a seventh grader going into eighth grade, played for me at the youth level. And then my daughter, who's only nine years old I coached her third and fourth grade basketball team. So sports is in my family, coaching is in my family.
Tony:Coaching is in my family. It's a nice time Again. It is invaluable. The lessons you learn for life you know this as an athlete, you know this. The lessons you learn in sports have turned you know into your career, right, I mean the way. Failures are not failures, they're learning experiences, discipline that you've learned and all these things. But I do believe they're just an open forum where parents can talk with other parents about how to be with their children in and out of. Sports is a place I want to be in. So I'll give you that I'm going to crack that nut. No matter how, no matter. Even if I'm doing the biggest sporting events in the world as a prime job, my heart's going to be somewhere else in the very near future doing that type of sports, parenting.
Rocky:Well, listen, man, I don't want to keep you much longer, so I just want to say this was a true honor. I know I've been chasing you and bugging you, but you've been good to me so I can't thank you enough. I can't wait to see what you do next. I'll be following you. I was looking. You know I had a house fire.
Tony:Rocky, I was looking for some of my old play-by-play charts to see if I can bring up. You know, you take a big manila folder and you draw you know the names and what number were you. I was trying to remember that 23, 23, and can you name your whole secondary? Oh, chris roads I remember big strong safety number 42, uh, I believe maybe 47. I remember ray redden, yeah, ray redden yeah he had very sticky corners, he turned the ball over a lot Lance.
Rocky:Peck.
Tony:John Piella was my year.
Rocky:Yes, he was the strong safety. Small but tough, I think he also okay, yeah, and I'm trying.
Tony:Yeah, that's a good four right there. That's a solid. I'll go with those four. Yeah, that's a good four right there. I'll go with those four guys. That's a solid four right there.
Rocky:It was a good group man. A lot of us still keep in touch. I don't know if you remember Brad Fradenberg that name but there's a lot of us Fordham guys that still keep in touch.
Tony:And that team to go from zero wins to eight wins, to nine wins and qualifying nearly for the end. I mean, that's all you need to know. That you demonstrated what sports can do. You build on something, and I'd like to say I had it, I knew it, even at 0-11, I knew what they were building was right. Yeah, yeah, that was a good program.
Rocky:It was special. But yeah, man, listen, I appreciate you. Keep in touch, please, and uh, very well, I may be having you as my uh next guest on the on the sports parenting uh podcast.
Tony:Yeah, I'd love to talk about uh, coaching, coaching you sports, because you know I'm gonna go back to this. So much of what you hear is about the parents yelling at referees or the coach and the referee coming blows or something like that. It can be more than that. It doesn't that we can. We can have a more full experience and relationship and discussion about what it is to, to make sure that isn't the only thing that happens in it. That that's my goal.
Rocky:All right, rocky well, keep in touch, man, I appreciate talking to you.
Tony:Thanks for playing. Remember when I love it.
Rocky:No problem, thanks, tony, let me just fix my screen here. So how cool was that to have Tony Raleigh on with me to go down memory lane down at Fordham, our time there and just the stories he's had and just where he's gotten to today. And I can't wait to see what's next for him. But I've been chasing him for a while and he's always responded to me and he's always been great to me and there's a long list of Fordham broadcasters that are on TV and I thought he explained it well. Between you know, syracuse is fantastic and I'm not knocking anybody from Syracuse because there's a lot of great ones, but there's also a lot of good Fordham ones too. So I was happy to Tony talk about that as his personal struggles with, with anxiety.
Rocky:Talk to us a little bit about the scoring on the round the horn is time on PTIti pardon the interruption with tony kornheiser and and michael wilbon. And then you know he got his shot in 2000. He was a young kid who grew up right in front of us. So if you follow pti and then you follow around the horn, here's this 20 something year old kid, wallet fordham covered the yankees, covered the mets, covered all the big platforms, and then you saw him grow up in front of our eyes and he's first class, like many of the Fordham guys that came before us as well. So I want to thank Tony for tuning in here tonight with me. Much appreciated that. Hopefully you enjoyed it tonight. The playback will be up on Facebook, youtube, twitter, linkedin. You can hear all the playbacks, too, wherever you listen to your podcast. So I really appreciate everybody tuning in tonight. So, as I always say here, the Rock
