The Long Goodbye: Tony Reali and the End of “Around The Horn”

He has hosted the same television show nearly 5,000 times — every weekday, at 5 p.m. Eastern, for more than two decades. (More than Oprah or Letterman ever did.) But now, counting down to Friday's series finale, Tony Reali is feeling the love... and revving up with all the gas left in his tank. Pablo says thank you, with a celebration of an endlessly likeable, familial and deeply weird pipeline of sports journalism — plus a special look back at when Stat Boy first took control of the mute button. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Pablo Torre?

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• 2:56Pablo Torre?

  Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.

• 3:02Speaker 02

  Do you say goodbye to something that is your heart outside of your body? I'm about to be showing people that in real time.

• 3:12Pablo Torre?

  Right after this ad.

• 3:15Speaker 02

  You're listening to DraftKings Network.

• 3:30Speaker 03

  We've never encountered this, but your arm has hit this and turned your mic off.

• 3:37Speaker 02

  You are not the first person to say we've never encountered this before with something that I do.

• 3:42Pablo Torre?

  If there's anybody whose voice could overcome the lack of active microphone technology, it would be you. So wait, hold on. Set the scene for me because you just finished.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  So we just finished, and we've got Kate on, who I haven't seen in five years. We got Jermell on, who I haven't seen in three years. And I want them to be able to have the experience that they want on this show. I want them to, I want to play Remember When. I want them to feel the love because a big part of what the last couple of months have been for me is being able to say goodbye. You don't always get the chance to say goodbye. Life will not give everybody the chance to say goodbye. That's a very sad part of people's lives.

• 4:23Pablo Torre?

  Certainly not on air.

• 4:25Speaker 02

  That too. So a big thing I'm feeling right now is tell the people in your life what they mean to you. Right? And apply this to everybody across the world. Do this at home. These are homework assignments I'm passing out in the middle of our little sports banter show, right? So we had all this stuff going on and I've, you know. Putting the work to make the show work for Kate and Jamel today. And then they show me this video of the guy outside hanging up, you know, doing the sign thing, "Good Morning America", Today Show type thing. It's got my name written all over it and hearts and all these things. "Thank you, Tony, around the horn." We picked... That's my cousin! No.

• 5:05Speaker 02

  This literally happened today. I just left him. This, his name is Eric Ingram. And I said to him, "Could you get a few more fantasy touchdowns for everybody?" But I don't know if that landed. And this was a day, again, Kate Fagan and Jamel Hill on the show, all my attention is making, get to a place where they, where they kind of...

• 5:24Pablo Torre?

  Yeah, you're bringing back some of the old cast members.

• 5:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, and they have to be in a position to win.

• 5:27Pablo Torre?

  And by the way, again, a scripted thing that is so well planned and sweetly thought out. And then what do you see?

• 5:34Speaker 02

  I see a guy holding that sign out there that they just dropped on me. I had no idea. And I said-

• 5:38Pablo Torre?

  And the sign says?

• 5:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, what does it say? "Thank you, Tony. I love you. Around the horn. A-T-H."

• 5:43Pablo Torre?

  Hearts on white poster board.

• 5:45Speaker 02

  On white poster board. And the A, the O is a target for our logo, which is well thought out.

• 5:50Pablo Torre?

  He's holding this like John Cusack.

• 5:53Speaker 02

  He is. You're right. So to say anything type feeling to it. My say anything, I said something. I said- Can you give me five minutes? I'll run down there and get- And this is one minute before we were ostensibly about to go on air for a live tape show. I mean, we don't have any time. Now, I was not... I mean, maybe I pitched it in a way that I was asking for permission. I wasn't asking for permission. I was gonna leave no matter what. And I was gonna go hug this guy. And I was gonna go invite him back to the show.

• 6:24Speaker 04

  Tony, I'm releasing you, but make it five. No more than five, okay?

• 6:27Speaker 02

  All right, all right. This is a great moment. All right. I'm coming down and I'm hugging that guy.

• 6:33Speaker 05

  Oh. That is the coolest thing that's happened in my three years doing the show. That is amazing.

• 6:40Speaker 06

  Yeah, that was really cool.

• 6:41Speaker 02

  And it's his 40th birthday and he's from Birmingham, Alabama. Oh, my God. From Florida before that. Let me introduce you here. This is the most special day. He already knew Jamel and Kate were on, so he's already prepared for this. Jamel Hill. We got some great pictures. I set him up with some good, a good slice afterwards. And I think he had a good day. I think he had a good birthday. And if we can have a good birthday, or we can have a good day, that's a good start.

• 7:04Speaker 06

  We thought you were a paid actor.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  We are thankful for that. We thought you were my cousin for the first few minutes. So we do have a couple of drifters staying in the studio at the moment.

• 7:13Pablo Torre?

  And also people who are genuinely, in the case of the man who just texted me, Woody Page, someone whose psychology requires the padded wall that you have provided for 20 years.

• 7:25Speaker 07

  Absolutely. I've been over there, watched them, and there, there's a lot more intercourse during the game between the coaches and the fans.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  There's been what? There's been, there's been more what? There's been more discourse. Yes, more discourse. Well, I recognize what that is too, because Woody is now viewing the last two weeks of Around the Horn, I think, in a existential life sort of way. And I need to be there for somebody who I care about in that way.

• 7:53Pablo Torre?

  And so I just need to jump in here to properly explain what exactly is happening right now for all the people who are not already familiar with a television show called Around the Horn, which is, I'm not naive, is likely the reason a lot of you first discovered me, because I've been a part of this show and its family of panelists since October 2012. But the show itself has been airing at 5:00 PM Eastern on ESPN every single weekday since November 2002, meaning I was watching this show for a decade before I ever spoke a single word to Tony Reali, AKA Stat Boy from Pardon the Repression, who had taken over as host from Max Kellerman in 2004.

• 8:39Pablo Torre?

  And now Around the Horn is ending. This Friday, May 23rd, 2025. And so what I just need you to know here, in case you didn't know any of this, is that very, very few television shows last for 23 years. And exactly one of them, actually, has asked its host to personally score the arguments that his panelists have on screen, handing out points and congratulating a winner and literally muting for often Hall of Fame journalists who are beaming in from newsrooms all across America. I'm looking at the Around the Horn Wikipedia page.

• 9:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:18Pablo Torre?

  Where the panelist statistics are updated by somebody every day.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  By the day, yeah.

• 9:22Pablo Torre?

  I don't think it's the same guy with the sign, but also can't rule it out. An investigation is ongoing. More on that later. But maybe the most surreal part of Around the Horn's history, even more surreal than Woody Page's league-leading 687 wins, is what happened on March 4th, when ESPN announced publicly that the show was gonna get canceled. And it wasn't getting canceled for any explicit reason in particular, by the way. Our bosses in Bristol, Connecticut, simply wanted to do something different with that time slot. They wanted to evolve it. And while this was breaking news that day in March to millions of sports fans, it wasn't

• 10:04Pablo Torre?

  to the people behind the scenes.

• 10:08Speaker 02

  So I've known we were gonna be saying goodbye for now eight months or so. And maybe the first report I didn't know was coming, so then I'm on vacation and then I read it and then, you know.

• 10:21Pablo Torre?

  That's a fun, that's a fun vacation.

• 10:23Speaker 02

  And you know, and it was terrible because Courtney or Frank were hosting the show, Cronin and Isolan, and that, you know, that's the job of the host, to be the one out there to say, I know there's stuff coming out about our show, we don't know anything, but we're happy to be here today. That's the job, that's my, that's my weight that I should carry. So I felt bad about that.

• 10:39Pablo Torre?

  But to be clear, this wasn't just Tony's weight to carry, as much as he felt that way. All of this also fell on our coordinating producer, Aaron Solomon, and producers Josh Bard and Jeff Weiner and Caroline Willett and Tierney Corrigan. Not to mention our directors, John Dursley and Miriam Leger. Most of whom, incidentally, have been working quietly on Around the Horn out of Washington alongside, pardon the interruption, at Ride Home Projects for two decades now. Only to realize now that this clock was ticking and ticking and ticking down to one final goodbye.

• 11:24Speaker 02

  But even with that, I operated for months thinking, well, we'll do good shows. We're still on in 120 countries. We're gonna perform and we'll change their mind. I'm a we'll change their mind type of guy.

• 11:36Pablo Torre?

  The pace has not abated. It's been, I think, undeniable how you've hosted.

• 11:42Speaker 02

  I mean, I'll tell you this. The day I got the meeting, the meeting now, and I'm being told to my face that, you know, the show is going away, was an hour before I went on air. And then-

• 11:53Pablo Torre?

  You think you could see it in that one?

• 11:55Speaker 02

  No, absolutely not. And that's my point. And the next day was career day at Enzo's school. What does Enzo wanna be? A sportscaster, not just a sportscaster, the host of Around the Horn, okay? And then that night, I'm hosting an event for the network. Big event. Conference. People. Paid money, tickets, whatever.

• 12:19Pablo Torre?

  Super well coordinated by everybody involved.

• 12:20Speaker 02

  And this is the timing of it all. And this is life. This is what I mean to show everybody. This is life. And you gotta still do the job. You gotta perform. So I think then, I found out, and I still don't think the press release came out. So then you go back to another day when the press- so now, I've known for months, and now, you know, we're still doing the show. We were doing good things, and there were a number of times when we went viral for certain things.

• 12:44Pablo Torre?

  And the show was rated by-

• 12:45Speaker 02

  There were days where our ratings were better than every show but PTI.

• 12:48Pablo Torre?

  Yes.

• 12:48Speaker 02

  You know, and-

• 12:49Pablo Torre?

  As has been the case often for 20 years.

• 12:51Speaker 02

  But so it was nothing new, but I just made him, somebody's gonna change their mind here. It's, you know, right? I mean, it would only stand to reason we're doing good stuff. And then, you know, the press release comes out. And now, you know, it's really out there. But this is where it got me, just inundated with just love and nostalgia and 6 million views on a ESPN PR release?

• 13:19Speaker 02

  You know, Timothy Chalamet is doing something amazing on College Game Day and it's getting a great number, six figures, whatever. And we're at 6 million because the show, which had already been out there rumored, but it is now official. And that made me think, this is a long way to tell you, that there is gas in the tank. There is a place, even for old videos and old shows people ask me about. Wherever I go next, and this is still TBD, Dad's gotta find a job.

• 13:47Pablo Torre?

  But the larger thing that you're describing is one of the most profoundly impactful and truly weirdest families.

• 13:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:58Pablo Torre?

  That has been assembled with you as, again, when you're here, you're family. Like, this has been...

• 14:05Speaker 02

  Only with real Italian food.

• 14:06Pablo Torre?

  Exactly, of course. Just the highest standard Italian food that I know that you definitely cosign when I make the reference.

• 14:30Pablo Torre?

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• 18:02Pablo Torre?

  But just the idea of me being somewhere on a list in which there is some element of...

• 18:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, you and I grew up with this too, right? I talked about how we just feel for the elders in our life. But I interviewed Bob Ryan when I was at Fordham, 20 years of age, on a radio call-in show that had no business being broadcast past the five meters of the studio.

• 18:27Pablo Torre?

  Yeah.

• 18:27Speaker 02

  But it was a 50,000 watt station in New York. And Bob was magnanimous with his time and came out and did an interview with a kid. And I got to work with him thousands of times after that. And pay it forward, I did that for Clinton Yates. I was on his radio show when he was at Miami of Ohio. And then I got to work with him thousands of times on television. You have been elbow to elbow in probably locker rooms and clubhouses or press boxes with some of the people then you got to. You know, you shared bylines, not maybe the same story, but in Sports Illustrated with Jackie McMullin. And then there you are, you're on the show with her. It's an amazing part of this industry.

• 19:10Speaker 02

  And it's something that I think this show, more than any other show, really put in the forefront. We celebrated what that was. I affirmed it. I was intentional about how I affirmed it. You know, Tony and Mike would have worked with their Five Good Minutes guests on any occasion. But I was wanting to show how the thread of something we believe in, sports journalism, won't go away even if newspapers are going away.

• 19:36Pablo Torre?

  I marvel at it a lot these days in retrospect, including the fact that somehow I have done this show 604 times.

• 19:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:43Pablo Torre?

  Just like, by the way, as a side investigation on this episode, I'm looking at like who's been making these updates, just so you're aware.

• 19:52Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 19:53Pablo Torre?

  Every day, there's a guy whose username is Trekkie E L O.

• 19:58Speaker 02

  That's... ELO is a band I kinda dig, though. I'm down with that. I didn't, I don't mind Star Trek. I liked the Chris Pine ones more recently, but ELO I can get down with.

• 20:07Pablo Torre?

  So if you look at this guy's log of just like edits he's made to pages,

• 20:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:12Pablo Torre?

  it is Around the Horn overwhelmingly, just like every day updating the panelist stats because-

• 20:17Speaker 02

  I need one more, though. I need something else to show me a breadth of expertise.

• 20:21Pablo Torre?

  And he has made edits to the following pages in addition. Number one, El Dorado, the Electric Light Orchestra album. He made a change to the British musical film from 1974, Son of Dracula. So he's just very on top of-

• 20:36Speaker 02

  This is art form. These are art forms he's working in right now, music.

• 20:39Pablo Torre?

  And also the page for Pork Tenderloin Sandwich.

• 20:44Speaker 02

  Hey, you know, recipes? Good. This conveys. This is, this works for me. That absolutely works for me. I think that's a wide breadth. Food, music, theater, and the art form of Around the Horn.

• 20:56Pablo Torre?

  It's, it's really something that-

• 20:58Speaker 02

  I say that because people laugh when I say that. This is how I've dealt with it in my head for 23 years, Pablo. I was, I elevated it to something that it clearly wasn't for some people in my head. It was. It absolutely was. Every day was a movie. Every day was, was something that I was trying to give, turn it up to 11 on. And that's not my energy. I have to lower my energy to do TV.

• 21:25Pablo Torre?

  You're naturally-

• 21:26Speaker 02

  This is one of the things I learned early on. Yeah. But, but every show I was trying to have an imprint and elevate it to a more than just what it was the day before, whatever that was.

• 21:38Pablo Torre?

  Yeah. So like right now, we're talking in the tense of the present.

• 21:41Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 21:42Pablo Torre?

  And we are looking ahead to the conclusion, the, the series-

• 21:47Speaker 02

  The series finale of Around the Horn.

• 21:50Pablo Torre?

  I am not ready to think about that yet. We will in this episode, I think, what that finale would, could, will be like.

• 22:00Pablo Torre?

  But I just need to ask you before I subject you to this. When was the last time you watched your first episode?

• 22:06Speaker 02

  I have not watched my first episode. I don't think I even allowed myself to stay in the room when it was taken in for the 10th anniversary.

• 22:14Pablo Torre?

  Right.

• 22:15Speaker 02

  And then the 20th anniversary, I was not in DC. So no, I have not watched my first episode. You're gonna play it now and I'm gonna watch it with you. Let's do this together.

• 22:23Pablo Torre?

  I am going to, um, I'm gonna make you do this because I need to find out what that was like.

• 22:32Speaker 02

  Where am I looking here?

• 22:34Pablo Torre?

  We're, we're, we're, we're about to stare into that television together. And look into what day? Can you give us a date line?

• 22:41Speaker 02

  Yes, February 1, 2004. Now, this will be my first time hosting as full-time host. I, I think that's what you have, not knowing what you have. But I had appeared seven times as a panelist. And won two shows. Good winning percentage. It's up in the high twenties.

• 22:59Pablo Torre?

  Yeah.

• 22:59Speaker 02

  And then.

• 23:00Pablo Torre?

  Oh, you're on the Wikipedia page.

• 23:01Speaker 02

  And then I hosted it probably four times in those first 200 episodes as well. Season one, Max had a sty in his eye one day. I literally wore his clothes on TV. So that happened once. There may have been two or three other opportunities that I hosted the show. So this is not the first first, but this is definitely February 1, 2004, the day after Patriots-Panthers Super Bowl. Very good game. Won in the last minutes as the Patriots did for all their Super Bowls. Panthers scored a late score. John Casey, the kicker, left-footed kicker for Carolina, kicked the ball out of bounds, which is a terrible thing to do in that instance, and then enabled Brady to have a short field

• 23:41Speaker 02

  and lead to yet another game-winning Patriots Super Bowl. So that happened, but of course, it's also known for the halftime.

• 23:48Pablo Torre?

  Well, your, I mean, statistical memory bank, which is, I believe, underrated and undercover when it comes to just stuff that you've retained. I'm curious if you retain the vibe of this.

• 24:00Speaker 02

  These four things I know are true. Make no mistake, Super Bowl 38 was the best Super Bowl ever. I know Joe Montana and Tom Brady is, well, he's Joe Montana. The Super Bowl MVP might have been Justin Timberlake, and I'm Tony Reali. JT saved me 20 bucks on the lingerie bowl. How about that?

• 24:21Pablo Torre?

  of competitive banter. Here, Tony Reali. You sound like you've been hosting this show for a long time.

• 24:29Speaker 02

  Funny you say that. I don't hear that.

• 24:31Pablo Torre?

  I hear, I hear a confidence.

• 24:33Speaker 02

  A little bit of television talk that people try to drill into me to lose what was my, my accent. Right? Okay. So I'm from Jersey and I had a Jersey accent. My parents are from Staten Island and Brooklyn and I took on some of that accent. I've been thrown off radio in the Bronx, which is an incredible, I put that on my Wikipedia page. WFUV, it wasn't necessarily, I just wasn't polished enough. And in the near future for this young man here, he's going to be working with a voice coach brought in by Bristol to work on his accent or delivery or just polish. But I'm hearing a little bit of this, you know, which is what a 25 year old is trying to do to sound like other people want someone in that position to sound.

• 25:18Speaker 02

  So this is the first window of imposter syndrome. I'll say second is I don't wear suits. I'll wear it at your wedding.

• 25:24Pablo Torre?

  Yeah.

• 25:24Speaker 02

  But I'm not going to wear suits. I mean, the job dictated that. Dress for the job you like.

• 25:29Pablo Torre?

  You did wear black leather pants for the record.

• 25:30Speaker 02

  I will wear your wedding, your wedding specifically and other weddings.

• 25:33Pablo Torre?

  No, but I see a level of confidence.

• 25:35Speaker 02

  I wanted to be on air for a living, Pablo. I've said this.

• 25:39Pablo Torre?

  Yes.

• 25:39Speaker 02

  Far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a sportscaster.

• 25:43Pablo Torre?

  But you're going, but.

• 25:44Speaker 02

  I'm going for it.

• 25:45Pablo Torre?

  This is a 24 year old going for it.

• 25:47Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 25:47Pablo Torre?

  Knowing that this at bat, in which by the way, the rules of this insane television show must be explained to people who perhaps are tuning in for a post Super Bowl analysis and are getting, I think.

• 26:01Speaker 02

  It's the highest rated show we'll do all year. They're getting a new host who they will know from the show after, because I really nail 15 seconds a day. So I'm about to do 30 minutes of the highest rated show that we're going to have at 5 o'clock in a network with, I could go through the list now, but you know the list. Why isn't Stu Scott sitting there? Why isn't Linda Cohen sitting there? Why isn't Kenny Maine sitting there? They would have been phenomenal hosts because it was the Super Bowl. Everybody was either in Miami or in Connecticut. And it came very quickly that somebody needed to be in DC and couldn't get there. And now I'm hosting around the horn. That's how it happened. This is sneaking in through the fire escape. But you're telling me I sound like somebody who at least was faking it, then, then I'll make it.

• 26:47Pablo Torre?

  If I'm watching this show, my first thought is, okay, yeah. What's, what's, all right.

• 26:52Speaker 02

  I grew very late, and you know this about me, Pablo, but I was five foot, 90 pounds, well into junior to senior year.

• 26:58Pablo Torre?

  Yeah, you were, you were like Ruth Bader Ginsburg in your.

• 27:00Speaker 02

  Twenty-five there.

• 27:01Pablo Torre?

  School yearbook photos.

• 27:02Speaker 02

  Right, that. I hope some people post those, some big glasses. But the whole, you know, still having acne and that sort of thing, you know, that was, that was me at 25. I'm at 28 inch waist. I, I barely was filling out, you know, the, those shoulders in that suit, I'm sure.

• 27:17Pablo Torre?

  It's a, it's a time machine back to 04 also, in which I'm like, oh, my God. By the way, the topics.

• 27:27Speaker 02

  After 24 minutes of painfully scoreless football, the Pats and Cats turned it on. Jake Deloem and Tom Brady led to supposedly vanilla offenses back and forth like Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson, out toughing, out gunning, and out cooling each other until Brady and the Pats were the conquering heroes and Deloem and Carolina, the valiant but beaten runners-up. Guys, with Super Bowl 38, the greatest Super Bowl of all time, around the horn, we go to Woody Page.

• 27:53Speaker 07

  After celebrating all night with my friends from New England, I have given this careful deliberation on the trip back to Denver, and my answer is an unqualified no. It's not even in the top five.

• 28:07Speaker 02

  Woody, it's 2004. It's for the masses. The Super Bowl is for everybody. It's about an entertainment extravaganza, starting with halftime, like it or not, and then you build up to this great rush at the end. What more could anybody want?

• 28:21Speaker 04

  Jay, Jay, you're right. It's about entertainment. The first 27 minutes of the game were the most boring Super Bowl ever.

• 28:26Speaker 02

  Good point, good point.

• 28:26Speaker 04

  27 minutes without a point, 20 penalties, bad special teams.

• 28:30Speaker 02

  I think it was the greatest Super Bowl ever. Three 80-yard drives by the Panthers in the fourth quarter. You can't beat that. Next topic.

• 28:38Pablo Torre?

  So just to get a sense of like what the show is.

• 28:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:42Pablo Torre?

  It's fast.

• 28:43Speaker 02

  Well, that's high octane.

• 28:44Pablo Torre?

  It's a lot of voices. And if you're not already versed in the rhythm. And just like how to sort all that in your head.

• 28:53Speaker 02

  It's a lot.

• 28:53Pablo Torre?

  It's scary to 99.9%.

• 28:56Speaker 02

  I want to run through a wall right now. I know about you. I mean, I feel, yeah, that, that. So these are maybe things that fits me. That feels natural to me, what we just went.

• 29:06Pablo Torre?

  Absolutely.

• 29:07Speaker 02

  That is probably close, except for the reality, I'm going to make my ruling at the end based on my opinion. This was the greatest Super Bowl ever, which I can't imagine I felt at that time. And I was probably thinking make TV, or I was probably thinking it needs a extra, you know, an exclamation point at the end of it. But take, put that to the side. That's my pace. That's my energy. At that stage in my life, that was enough conflict for me. That's something I would be craving. Because if you went back and I've done interviews for the last month, if I went back and thought about it, I would have said, I needed to evolve the show to fit me a little bit better because I didn't want to be as abrasive or I didn't want the show to be around these four things I know are true, which is how we started. I wanted to be about these four sportswriters. And I believe that. I believe that in my heart.

• 29:52Speaker 02

  But in this first show, I'm definitely selling the show that we got.

• 29:55Pablo Torre?

  And also, everybody on screen, you can hear it, let alone see it, if you're just watching or listening. It feels like this is very important to them.

• 30:06Speaker 02

  It was important. It is important. We're on in 120 countries. This is a pep talk I give everybody. We're on in 120 countries. Right now. And I could have said at any point, I don't really ever focus on ratings.

• 30:17Pablo Torre?

  The ratings, by the way, have been great for 20 years.

• 30:20Speaker 02

  But yeah, but I never made it about that. But I just made it about this is. Somebody said six months ago, they told you the show's getting canceled, you know, are you, are you going to, you know, walk away or something? I got a chance to do international television for the next 100 episodes. I'm still going to do that. I mean, I like that.

• 30:36Pablo Torre?

  But also, the energy is fundamentally contagious. If you, the host, are setting the pace at a certain level and everybody is trying to fit in. The natural human instinct is a bit of like the sympathetic nervous system is. Man, we are after it right now.

• 30:53Speaker 02

  Right.

• 30:54Pablo Torre?

  And, and by the way, it proceeds.

• 30:57Speaker 02

  Out of bounds, where it's all in bounds and today all nude. Easy, Woody. Janet Jackson made every jaw in America drop when she allowed Justin Timberlake to unbear her right breast as the halftime show ended. Ya'uzza. The NFL and CBS were quick to run from the incident. Timberlake called it a wardrobe malfunction. Guys, besides your animal instinct, what was your reaction to 2004's leading TiVo moment? Jay?

• 31:22Speaker 07

  Well, the NFL was punked. I mean, this is Janet getting attention. It's the oldest trick in the book, but you don't do this in front of all these people. And, and I thought about something Plasky would as a moralist. I thought about kids for a minute there, but I also realized kids watch MTV. They're more accustomed to this than we think. The NFL's at a crossroads. They gotta figure out what they wanna do in future halftime shows. Gibroni, you and Reverend Bill used to sneak around with Sears catalogs and National Geographic magazines.

• 31:52Pablo Torre?

  Sears catalogs? National Geographic?

• 31:55Speaker 07

  A long time. We're talking about a country that needs to catch up with the rest of the world and stop being so prudish.

• 32:00Speaker 02

  So that's the biggest story in the world at that moment.

• 32:04Pablo Torre?

  The day after a thing that, by the way, like for, to fast forward to the present tense for a second, like that story and who's responsible and Justin Timberlake finally owning up to any amount of it, it took decades.

• 32:18Speaker 02

  Took decades, but I was there as a 25-year-old in my first show parroting things that, you know, maybe I would not want to say right now.

• 32:27Pablo Torre?

  Sure, but that was, the point being that there is something closer to a representative conventional wisdom in what it was like to react to that at the time. I remember it at the time.

• 32:36Speaker 02

  It's impossible for me to, to kind of not winset that. I'm okay with it, of course, because I said it on national TV. I think it was such a big story and there would be no way to avoid it. I mean, that, that is the dawn of YouTube. The dawn of YouTube came about because on the Super Bowl on international television, we had that moment and then the next day people were like, how can we see it? How can we see it? And they literally invented YouTube out of it for that one clip. So now I'm on TV and my first show talking about it. I was happy to say we evolved out of that, so.

• 33:11Pablo Torre?

  It's the time capsule dynamic.

• 33:14Speaker 02

  It's a time capsule. You gotta live with it. You did it. I hear my voice doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

• 33:18Pablo Torre?

  I did hear and see some Seinfeld in that.

• 33:21Speaker 02

  Yeah. What's the deal with that? I also can't believe how mean I was to Plasky over and over again. The mutes were firing in fast and furious. I don't really care exactly. Okay. 37 points in the fourth quarter. What a finish on a kick. Oh, outstanding game. I think it was. Wait, hold on, hold on. You wait, you hold on, you know, there was a lot of traffic cop. I'm, I'm proud of that. I can bring that back for the last episode if we want. I can go like that. I mean, why did I evolve as opposed to who, who went a different way? The scoring changed to not be as high scoring. People got more time to cook instead of less time. I don't know. I, I, a lot of it was intentional. I wanted more space to breathe, you know?

• 34:04Speaker 02

  I always say it's not just having an opinion. It's proving why your opinion is the right opinion in that moment. That's the actual way I think of the show and what I would tell somebody if they were going to appear for one day.

• 34:16Pablo Torre?

  Well, look, I always considered the mute button to be a love language.

• 34:19Speaker 02

  Mm hmm. Yeah, me too. The mutes come with smiles, just like the murderers come with smiles, you know? There was a man who walks around.

• 34:26Pablo Torre?

  Ray Liotta, bone case.

• 34:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. I got this after he died. Felt very sad, you know, how people's lives touch you. I got hats, T-shirts and, and cell phone covers of Ray Liotta.

• 34:41Pablo Torre?

  Man, I, I wanna go to showdown.

• 34:45Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 34:45Pablo Torre?

  Cause I wanna see what that was like.

• 34:47Speaker 02

  Okay. Yeah, this was, I think, did we still do trivia? I'm not sure. Let's see. Next topic.

• 35:04Speaker 04

  Even after scoring 36 points on Sunday, evidently Shaq was not happy with the way officiating was in the Lakers win over the Raptors. Meanwhile, LeBron James went for a career-high 38 points Sunday against the Wizards. What was the most overlooked performance this weekend? 15 seconds each. Bill, go. As a man in L.A. with children, I think Shaquille Neal needs to apologize to the city of L.A. for those profanities. That aside, his was the best performance because it's the best game of the year and it shows. He's back. He's surly. He's nasty again. He's young about the referees again. All good for the Lakers. A huge day. This week, it was one big weekend of indecent exposure. I don't even want to talk about Shaq and his foul mouth. Give him soap. Janet Jackson the rest of it. How about appreciating? You said you liked Janet Jackson. We haven't talked about LeBron in weeks.

• 35:48Speaker 04

  He has a great game and not a soul in America has it on the radar screen. A great game against the Wizards, all right? Come on. Points, Blatsky. It's a sweep. Shaq is back and the winner is Bill Blatsky. 15 seconds of yours. Go. I'm going to mention one person we haven't even mentioned on the show so far. Adam Vinatieri. How come he's forgotten here? He may be the greatest pressure athlete of any sport of our era. I don't care. I want to see Tiger Woods win the Masters with a putt. 40-foot putt with everybody yelling at his face, doing it twice in three years. I want to see Michael Jordan do it. Vinatieri, great athlete. Give his props. We're on a 23-and-a-half-hour break. See you Tuesday. Around the Horn. I told you that last week.

• 36:29Speaker 02

  No paper toss. No paper toss. Oh, that's fine. I grew into that one a little bit. I am stunned. That's watchable. I would put that on a YouTube page right now.

• 36:45Pablo Torre?

  Cozy makes furniture for the part of life that nobody warns you about. Getting the couch into the room, making the room feel like you, then actually living on it. Spills it all. With Cozy, your home can grow with you by adapting to new spaces, new styles, and every era of your life. It's modular furniture, so you can actively adjust your furniture to fit any space. It's all built around making the entire home comfortable and easy, so that your stuff works with your life, not around it. The covers are washable and interchangeable, so a refresh is only one wash away. And the spill goes from panic to shrug. And it all ships to your door in easy-to-move boxes. Plus, Cozy's free one-on-one design consultations make the whole home vision a lot less intimidating. Cozy has everything you need to make your home feel like it has a plan,

• 37:30Pablo Torre?

  because Cozy makes every part of the process easy. So visit Cozy today, that's C-O-Z-E-Y dot com and make yourself at home. Life in 2026 is tough. We all have our struggles and we could all use some help. But trying to figure out how to get the right mental health treatment for you can feel overwhelming. Talkiatory helps you move from "I know I need help" to actually having a psychiatrist who listens and a clear personalized treatment plan. Talkiatory is 100% online psychiatry practice that provides comprehensive evaluations, diagnoses, and ongoing medication management for conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression, and more.

• 38:14Pablo Torre?

  With Talkiatory, you can meet with a licensed psychiatrist, who takes the time to understand what's going on, builds a personalized treatment plan, and supports you over time with consistent, evidence-based care. And all 800-plus clinicians are in-network with major insurers, so you can use your existing insurance instead of paying monthly subscriptions or out-of-network costs. Head to talkiatory.com/ptfo to complete the short assessment and get matched with an in-network psychiatrist in just a few minutes. That's T-A-L-K-I-A-T-R-Y dot com slash P-T-F-O to get matched in minutes. Talkiatory dot com slash P-T-F-O. Did you know over 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated?

• 38:58Pablo Torre?

  And 90% don't get enough potassium, which is a chelectrolyte responsible for energy, muscle function, and clear thinking? Well, that's why you can be drinking water all day and still feel tired or foggy or just off. And while most hydration packs really load up on the sugar, Instant Hydration contains zero sugar. There's no glucose spike and no sugar crash. And that is really important to me, because it not only gives me electrolytes without loading me up with sugar, but it also helps me avoid that late afternoon crash. You know, that time of day when your eyes start drooping as you reply to yet another email and you need something to get you back on track. Just mix a packet of Instant Hydration with water, and I am feeling ready to push through to the end of the day for a better way to stay hydrated.

• 39:43Pablo Torre?

  Go to instanthydration.com/ptfo and use my promo code PTFO for over 40% off your first subscription order. It's instant hydration's best offer available. That's instanthydration.com/ptfo promo code PTFO.

• 40:07Speaker 02

  I want to go to a place where where there's a community reach as well, where I'm talking to the people who saw this show for 23 years and have always told me, I want to do around the horn with you. Well, I want to do it with you. Couldn't do it on ESPN because I could understand why they would want professional sportscasters. But wherever I'm going next, there'll be a community forum where I'll go around the horn with you guys. I love that. I would love that opportunity.

• 40:33Pablo Torre?

  You know, I hadn't heard you say all of that. And of course you would.

• 40:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:38Pablo Torre?

  Of course, because you give more time to sports fans, strangers than any person I've ever met.

• 40:46Speaker 02

  That was the job all along, honestly. I've worked for ESPN for 25 years and I feel in my bones, even despite, or maybe they've tweaked the company line now, meet sports fans anytime, anywhere, or something like that.

• 41:03Pablo Torre?

  It used to be on like the business cards.

• 41:04Speaker 02

  It's on the business cards and then every five years you get a new company slogan. I was doing that before. That's in my heart. That's who I am. That's the only way I wanted to do whatever it is I do. Meet people absolutely where they are. And when you find me there, I'm going to be exactly who I was on TV.

• 41:20Pablo Torre?

  I want to actually ask about that, about looking ahead to the last show, how vividly you are trying to imagine it. Are you trying to imagine what it's like to be you that day?

• 41:32Speaker 02

  I have. I've thought about it. I've written scripts starting five months ago. There's a possible I'm going to bring a callback to one of my favorite things I've ever done on television. It's just a real feeling. So how do you say goodbye to a show? I've watched how shows have said goodbye. This is talk about.

• 41:46Pablo Torre?

  You're studying game tape?

• 41:47Speaker 02

  Oh, Frasier. For 11 years, you've heard me say.

• 41:50Speaker 06

  I'm listening.

• 41:53Speaker 06

  Well, you were listening too.

• 41:57Speaker 06

  And for that, I am eternally grateful.

• 42:03Speaker 06

  Good night, Seattle.

• 42:05Speaker 02

  And cheers, you know, we're closed, lights turn out. Sorry, we're closed.

• 42:13Speaker 02

  I think there's beauty in finale.

• 42:15Pablo Torre?

  Mm-hmm.

• 42:15Speaker 02

  I'm almost too actively thinking about it. But I've been a little bit strapped because I've said this before, Dad's gotta find a job. And I'm taking, I'm taking all the opportunities now to imagine what the future is and not, you know, I wanna go out on my terms on horn, but I have, uh, I'm red panda right now. I'm spinning plates. I am spinning multiple plates at one time. And I'm recognizing, and people in my life are also worried about that, are you burning it too much right now?

• 42:43Pablo Torre?

  I am one of those people, just because I know your approach is going to be with the energy level that was established on, on that show that we relived. And it's also, it's also, of course, something that if I had ever

• 43:02Pablo Torre?

  faced what you are dealing with, which is basically saying goodbye for months to something.

• 43:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, that's an odd feeling, isn't it?

• 43:10Pablo Torre?

  Everybody who does this show is blown away most by the people who come up and talk to you about it. Still, that's their point of reference on you. Because one of the things you can't recreate at this time in human history is the scale, the accumulated tonnage of people who got truly welcomed into a community

• 43:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:36Pablo Torre?

  that was every weekday for two decades.

• 43:40Speaker 02

  And I felt that more than anything. I valued going to work every day and putting in the number. I love that number, 4,953 is where we sign off. That that number is more than The Oprah Winfrey Show. And that number is more than Late Night with Letterman. And that number is more than Jerry Springer. That means a lot to someone like myself.

• 43:59Pablo Torre?

  What I want us to recognize is that what you oversaw is something that is so

• 44:07Pablo Torre?

  Massive in ways that cannot be replicated today by anything that replaces it, A. And that we need to acknowledge that as much as you can measure it online in ratings, it's the human [BLEEP] of like this person who devotes their life to editing the Wikipedia page. The people that stop you on the street still today that will stop you on the street without knowing that the show is gone.

• 44:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 44:33Pablo Torre?

  And you know that's coming too.

• 44:34Speaker 02

  I know that's coming too, yeah.

• 44:35Pablo Torre?

  Right? And this is the collected audience that can only come around when you hosted anything. 4,953 times.

• 44:45Speaker 02

  Yes, yeah.

• 44:46Pablo Torre?

  And so the thing on my phone that has survived.

• 44:51Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 44:51Pablo Torre?

  Since, I'm gonna just make sure I get my own dates, right? God, October 23rd, 2012, right? This is 6:37 PM.

• 45:02Speaker 02

  Running, I'm walking out of the set of PTI.

• 45:04Pablo Torre?

  I am.

• 45:05Speaker 02

  Just had Kornizer and Will Bond probably complaining about something and then I'm like, oh, let me call Pablo.

• 45:11Pablo Torre?

  I am somebody who has done some television but is terrified by the call that.

• 45:17Speaker 02

  You send me straight to voicemail. You've admitted this, let it say it again. You didn't pick up the phone.

• 45:23Pablo Torre?

  I was, I was on a block in Williamsburg.

• 45:25Speaker 02

  There were other people, that goes a different way. I didn't answer the call, you didn't, literally didn't answer the call.

• 45:29Pablo Torre?

  I didn't answer the call, but I, I did listen to what you left.

• 45:34Speaker 02

  Immediately.

• 45:35Pablo Torre?

  And I heard this.

• 45:38Speaker 07

  Pablo, this is Tony Reali from ESPN. Got your number from my producer, Ari, and I just wanted to call you and tell you how excited I am to have you on the show this week. And I was gonna give you the rundown of how we do things and how much fun we have and how much you can enjoy working with some of the guys we have. So, we can talk, we cannot talk till Thursday, it's no big deal. All right, buddy, take care.

• 46:05Pablo Torre?

  It was the voice that I think of when I think about earnestly, like the thing that absolutely changed my life.

• 46:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, we all have those calls in our life. It's amazing that you have it saved. I don't have

• 46:19Pablo Torre?

  There's a reason I

• 46:21Speaker 02

  During the Super Bowl, you know, that I got.

• 46:23Pablo Torre?

  There's a reason I kept it.

• 46:24Speaker 02

  And that's a wonderful thing that you do have that time capsule. I think, you know, one thing I always want to be aware of is that

• 46:33Speaker 02

  that was gonna be a moment for you, right? You were gonna be on TV, you were gonna be on ESPN. And your mom was gonna be watching, your pop was gonna be watching.

• 46:40Pablo Torre?

  I was gonna, I was imagining superimposing myself onto, you know, the, what felt like the fighter pilot cockpit that is Woody Page in Denver, or Tim Kalashon in Dallas, or Jay Mariotti in Chicago, or Bill Plasky, in this case, from the remote set of the Super Bowl. It was terrifying and it ended up being one of the single greatest things that ever happened to me, that proved to me.

• 47:05Speaker 02

  You have shown me this love, and I know, I know you want to get it out of your body, and this is great.

• 47:09Pablo Torre?

  I need, I need, I didn't save this voicemail because I was like, one day, 13 years from now, this will be a good podcast. But it is the thing that everybody I know, who I am now friends with, who came to my wedding, who I still... I mean, you're right. The underrated line in that voicemail is, "You're really gonna like the people that you're gonna work with." And it's, it's

• 47:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, maybe that.

• 47:35Pablo Torre?

  It's a family.

• 47:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:38Pablo Torre?

  They remind me of that.

• 47:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:40Pablo Torre?

  But the thing that comes through, that has always come through every time you do an April Fool's episode, every time I am being muted to minus 100 points.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  I love those special episodes.

• 47:48Pablo Torre?

  All of the special stuff.

• 47:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:50Pablo Torre?

  It's a reminder of something that I have, I have taken and been inspired by, which is to take the show seriously, but not yourself.

• 48:01Speaker 02

  I think every show likes to, like to feel that it does that, right? It was a big part for me, self-deprecating, you know, in some ways, but that was also built into the PTI fabric as well, wonderfully. You know, Tony's getting dressed up, so we didn't invent any of that, but I, I definitely pushed it. I wanted to push it, you know, again. So, so that's part of it, and that will also be evident in the next place.

• 48:25Pablo Torre?

  I am, uh, gonna briefly bring it back to Ricky Vendel II, AKA, the man who seems to be behind, as I have been doing my investigation, Trekkie ELO. He is followed by one person in common with me, or you, I must imagine, and that is Woody Page. And I asked Woody.

• 48:45Speaker 02

  Are you the mole?

• 48:46Pablo Torre?

  Hi Woody, it's Pablo. Do you have any idea who Trekkie ELO is? Any response? No idea Pablo. But, we've all met 50,000 people.

• 48:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:57Pablo Torre?

  I will see and get back to you. I've got three birthday parties and a Shriners Parade schedule.

• 49:05Pablo Torre?

  And I don't, as always, I have no idea if any of that is a joke.

• 49:10Speaker 02

  Well, that's the other part of it, right? Kalish had the great line where he said, I'm still not familiar with what show he's doing, but we're doing it around the horn. And that's, that's, that's great, you know? And I always appreciated that we had, you know, somebody who wanted to be a little performative in a cartoon character, and somebody who wanted to be a professor of journalism, or, you know, is now, like Blackstone, and somebody who was as dry and hilarious as Kalish. I loved him.

• 49:39Pablo Torre?

  I know.

• 49:39Speaker 02

  I loved him.

• 49:40Pablo Torre?

  It's remarkable, the bonds I will have for the rest of my life. It's the most obvious thing to say that I brought you on the show, to say thank you for changing my life, for being my friend, for being somebody who-

• 49:52Speaker 02

  You've said this so many different ways.

• 49:54Pablo Torre?

  That has been unrivaled in sports television, that has not simply diversified national sports television, but also like found just, I don't know, ways, ways to do this in a, in, in a way that feels humane. Which is all underrated at the moment in which we live. But mostly,

• 50:20Pablo Torre?

  mostly I, I just wanted to find out how you thought-

• 50:23Speaker 02

  How I was doing. I know. People, people are just checking in, being like, how are you? I mean, it is, so, so I know, I put myself out there in ways and I've shown, you know, you know, the ability to be vulnerable on camera, which, you know, it's, I don't even mean to say on camera, just vulnerable in life, right? And people, you know, are just like, yeah, how you doing? You know? You know, I am, I'm gonna be surprised about how I, how I am on TV that day, I think. I am, because I have no idea. I don't think I'm gonna be a mess, but my kids are gonna be there and I'm gonna be, you know, trying to, trying to have the best moment possible. How do you say goodbye to something that is your heart outside of your body?

• 51:05Speaker 02

  I'm about to, about to be showing people that in, in, in real time.

• 51:27Pablo Torre?

  So at this point in the episode, you might be noticing, in case you are a longtime fan of Around the Horn, exactly how much we haven't even gotten to yet. I mean, there's an entire section we could have done about just the times we all got to learn from Hall of Famer Bob Ryan, in between segments, by the way, not even on air, including earlier this year.

• 51:48Speaker 07

  And you know what other word is misused? Dynasty.

• 51:53Pablo Torre?

  Oh, yeah?

• 51:53Speaker 07

  The point is, there's only been one dynasty in American sports, true dynasty, and that's the Yankees from 1923 to 1964. And the other one would be the Canadians.

• 52:04Pablo Torre?

  The Celtics don't even qualify?

• 52:05Speaker 02

  Celtics?

• 52:06Speaker 07

  No, because the, the point being, you have to have a handover of, of power. It's not the same people involved.

• 52:13Pablo Torre?

  See, this is...

• 52:13Speaker 07

  Celtics were, Russell was there for 11, 11 up.

• 52:17Pablo Torre?

  We also could have talked about the time that Lil Wayne was a panelist back in 2009.

• 52:24Speaker 06

  Here I am, for all my years and days, I've been afraid of one player. This player is Mr. LT. But now, Mr. LT, Lawrence Taylor, has agreed to be on Dancing with the Stars. Today, I announce I am no longer afraid of Mr. LT. T, Little Twinkletoes.

• 52:46Pablo Torre?

  And then there's also the time that Woody Page mounted a last-second horn-beating comeback to knock out J.A. Adande in a debate about Tiger Woods back in 2011 with Michael Smith and Bomani Jones, both cheering this on.

• 53:01Speaker 07

  I'd like to make six points here, starting with number one. That was a better field than people would think of at the end of the year. The fact that he finished strong in 17 and 18, the fact that he's got his confidence back after the president come away, the way that he could go into next season. Oh, sure. Yeah.

• 53:23Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 53:25Speaker 07

  That's a 95-yard drive right there.

• 53:28Pablo Torre?

  All of which brings me to one more final bit of tape, one more voicemail, actually, that I did need to play for you today, as we sound the horn on this investigation that I told Reali was still ongoing when he was visiting me in our studio, because I'd like you to meet Trekkie ELO. Hi, Pablo. My name is Rick Vendel II, aka Trekkie ELO, whose family is from northern Indiana, Chicago, and I used to live in SoCal. And I'm the one who's been updating the Around the Horn Wikipedia page for the last eight to 12 years. I've been watching ATH and PTI

• 54:09Pablo Torre?

  since 2003. Thanks, producers, Tony Reali, Woody Page, Brian, along with all the other panelists. I'm humbled by your words. After 35 years, I've been feeling like life has been passed and left me behind. But whenever I get into something, especially if it's sports-related, I'd always delve into the statistics and history. That's just one reason I'll miss Around the Horn. And make no mistake, Rick Vendel II, aka Trekkie ELO, is not alone in this sentiment. He is an avatar for it. Not unlike Eric from Alabama and his sign that he brought to the

• 54:48Pablo Torre?

  seaport, these are the people who help comprise this enormous and unusually devoted community of people that Around the Horn has built, mute by mute, over 23 years.

• 55:04Pablo Torre?

  And it's really hard not to think about them at the end here. Because when people ask me what it is that I find most confusing about Around the Horn going away like this, what I find myself most mystified by is the fact that you would take a show, a brand that lots and lots of people know about, and discard it. Particularly because we do live in this insanely fragmented era when it is so hard to ever achieve anything like that level of scale again, let alone favorability, let alone family.

• 55:44Pablo Torre?

  Which brings me back to my conversation with Tony Reali and what it's gonna be like to say goodbye. So what this is telling me then, because I will be there, whether you want me there or not, and we're gonna find out together.

• 56:03Speaker 02

  We're gonna find out together. So that, if that is the overarching Pablo Torre finds out, we're gonna have to, have to say he finds out that day, May 23rd.

• 56:12Pablo Torre?

  Which is a hell of a tease. A hell, a hell of a promo.

• 56:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:16Pablo Torre?

  For 4,953. My god. Tony, I'll see you, I'll see you there.

• 56:23Speaker 02

  I'll see you there, man.

• 56:35Pablo Torre?

  This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out, a Meadowlark Media production.

• 56:41Pablo Torre?

  And I'll talk to you next time.

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