I’d never gone into an interview feeling as jealous as I did last Thursday, when I arrived at Atlantic Video on Massachusetts Ave. to meet Tony Reali, host of ESPN’s daily sports debate show, Around the Horn, and “Stat Boy” on sister show, Pardon the Interruption. As a twenty-something male sports fanatic, I couldn’t shake my envy over how great 27-year-old Reali’s life must be. While the rest of us spend our days in cubicles hiding our fantasy football stats from annoying mid-level managers, this guy gets paid to research and debate sports all day. Plus, ladies will tell you he is a total babe.

This jealously is only exacerbated by the fact that both Around the Horn and P.T.I. are great television shows. In September of 2001, P.T.I. made its debut, featuring Washington Post sports columnists Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon (hence the DC location). Airing Monday through Friday at 5:30pm on ESPN and at 6:30pm on ESPNews, P.T.I. is the show for the intelligent sports fan. 

A year later, Atlantic Video created Around the Horn for ESPN. Around the Horn connects four sports columnists out of a pool of 10 from around the country via satellite to debate the hottest topics in sports each day, with a game show twist: Reali, the host, doles or subtracts points based on the columnists’ answers. Around the Horn precedes P.T.I. at 5pm on ESPN and 6pm on ESPNews.    

Now I was about to meet the man whom I consider to be the luckiest guy in DC.

Born in Staten Island and raised in New Jersey, Reali’s accent leaves no doubt as to where he is from. 
“I have always been a fan of the New York sports scene and wanted to be a sports broadcaster for as long as I can remember,” he says. “I got my chance when I was at Fordham University at a 50,000-watt radio station, WFUV, to host a radio show and call the play-by-play for football and basketball games. So between 18 and 20, I was working side-by-side with some of the legends of the sports industry in New York.”
After college Reali went on to work as a writer in the sports department at a local New York television station, and started his first job with ESPN, writing for the network’s sports trivia show 2 Minute Drill.

“I sort of snuck in the back door working for ESPN without ever having gone to [ESPN headquarters in] Bristol, CT.  To this day I have never been to Bristol. So I work for ESPN—I am on it for an hour every day—but I have never been to the office.”

Reali moved to DC in September of 2001 when he accepted a job as a writer/researcher for P.T.I.; he soon received both the break and moniker of a lifetime—“Stat Boy.”

“I was here for three days and the show was starting in a week," he recalls. "I was goofing off on the camera, helping the camera operators work on their shots for the show’s premier. Since Tony and Mike weren’t there, I sat in their place and was doing some schtick on camera. The producers caught it on the monitor and liked it. Tony said he always wanted a sidekick on his TV show. Wilbon enjoyed it and decided to call me “Stat Boy.” So everyday I got 15 seconds to correct the errors and omissions on each show. They wanted a corrections part of the show just like they had in the Washington Post. They allowed me to go into their world and bust their balls for a bit.”

Reali’s world completely changed in February 2004 when original Around The Horn host Max Kellerman got into contract dispute. Reali was called one night and told to bring a suit to work the next day; Kellerman was gone, the show was his.

 Recently I took in a taping and witnessed first hand the amount of work and the degree of intricacy involved in producing an episode of Around the Horn. On this day, Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy’s son had died and the program's lead off segment had to substitute its usual jovial banter for a more somber tone. Through 10 repetitive takes and nearly an hour and 45 minutes of taping—which yielded just 20 minutes of on-air video—Reali had to maintain the same effort and enthusiasm he had on the first try. However, Around the Horn isn’t about Tony Reali and he is a successful host because he is the first to realize this fact. 

“Both P.T.I. and Around the Horn are character shows,” he says. “Kornheiser and Wilbon on P.T.I. or Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti and Denver Post columnist Woody Paige on Around the Horn are just a couple of old married couples that are entertaining to watch bicker.”

Reali admitted that this particular day’s show was the longest taping that he had ever done, and explained that, despite the constantly changing stories and topics, his days are rather routine. He arrives at 8 a.m.  every morning to scour newspapers and look for the 10 hottest topics of the day for the show.

“You know,” he says, "the topics that you would be talking or e-mailing to your friends that day. The 'Did you see this?' type of story. We do that for the first hour. At 9 o’clock we begin writing the show. At 10:30 we talk to the reporters that will be on the show in a conference call and get their initial responses to the topics, or even their suggestions for new ones. I then formulate my questions that I will ask the writers as well as fine-tune my script. I am on the set from noon to about 1:45. Then I join the P.T.I. crew and work with them. Obviously, the stresses are dealing with all of these deadlines. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. The good thing is when the day is over, it's over. You stop thinking about it.”

Even to those familiar with Around the Horn and P.T.I.,  it still often comes as a surprise to find out that they are taped here in DC, not New York or Bristol.

“The sports fan is 100 percent different between New York and DC," Reali asserts. "There are so many people from different parts of the country in DC. When they come here, they are more likely to stay true to their home teams. The negative about New York sports is that it is so New York centric. Being New York centric would have been a drag on Around the Horn and P.T.I.. By us being down here we have a better national view on the show.”

Off set, Reali is another proud New Yorker living here in DC. As far as going out and socializing, Reali insists that DC needs more sports bars, but he has managed to find a couple of favorite spots.  

“I go to Buffalo Billards," he says. "I like Buffalo Billards. It's not the best spots bar scene but they have cute waitresses. I also go to the Cleveland Park Bar and Grill which used to be called Bricks Tavern. This bar is great because they have totally embraced Hi-Def and you have to watch sports in High Definition. I don’t go out to Virginia much, but I have found that the Crystal City Sports Pub will carry games that you can’t find anywhere else.

“I still wouldn’t call DC home—though I just bought a place in Adams Morgan. But I do like DC. I like the DC life. The best thing about living here is that there are so many young people. Seems like everyone here is between 25 and 35 and has an opinion. And that is something that I can relate to because that is what I get paid to do—listen to opinions.”

Of course, like any true New Yorker, Reali does have one problem with the city: “You can’t get a good slice of pizza or any Italian food anywhere around here.”

Tony Reali is a talent and a big part of the reason Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption are putting DC on the national sports landscape. That doesn’t mean that I don't still bear him a certain jealous hatred—which Reali understands.

“It is a dream job,” he admits. “It is one of those jobs that you get paid to do something that you would be doing in your fun time with your friends. There aren’t that many jobs like that. Musicians, porn stars and sports reporters I guess.”
 
I better start learning to play the guitar because I don’t think the porn star gig is going to happen to me either.