Tony Reali On a New Gig and His Year Away From TV

All right.

Joining me now, thrilled to have him.

We last spoke to him about a year ago.

Now he's back with a new venture.

Can't wait to hear all about it, catch up.

Me too.

I can't wait to hear all about it.

Uh, and he is Tony Riali.

Tony, Jimmy, how are you?

I'm good.

I'm good.

You, um, we, we, we had a brief moment before we started.

You like Chris Mad Dog Russo's top 10 presidents.

Of course I like Chris Mad Dog.

I mean, come on, Jimmy, you and I, you know, hand in glove or whatever the expression is, we're, we have, we, we share a love for a few things in this world, uh, you know, all things Costanza and Seinfeld, uh, all things Christopher Mad Dog Russo.

One of the great thrills of my life was being able to just walk by him in a couple of, uh, moments as he went to First Take and I went to the other one on horn.

Hello Anthony, how are you?

You know what I mean?

Ah, you know, and he called me Anthony, which is so perfect because I love my mom calls me Anthony, my priest calls me Anthony, and now I could say Christopher Mad Dog Russo.

That's perfect.

So yes, to rank the top 10 now that I'm, I'm in a world that is less TV, although I'm not viewing podcasts as anything different.

TV podcast, yeah, we gotta get into that.

Yeah, it's all the same thing.

But now that I'm in that world where I, I'm, I'm.

I'm hanging out a little bit more in front of camera with absolutely nothing to say, but a lot to say.

I'm here for all these lists, and I, of course, I, I rank my top 10 presidents on the daily, you know, for people who don't, for people who don't even know what we're talking about on Monday.

On Monday on Sirius XM Mad Dog was breaking down the top 10 Americans of all time.

And The people who don't get Mad Dog, who either if you are not familiar with him, don't listen to him, or if you've listened to him and you don't like him and you just don't get what the people, people don't, I can get it all.

I can get it.

Not everybody's everybody's cup of tea, but the people have a list for everything and it comes out of his one ear.

And it's always got some sort of, you know, he's like playing jazz in a vaudeville carnival barking with a little bit of, you know, it's just amazing.

It's great.

So we had Eisenhower in his top 10 greatest, but the people who get him understand, like you and I, is that the fascination, there's there's a lot of levels to it, but he will break down the list of the top 10 Americans like it's the Monday morning after the Super Bowl.

Oh yeah, yeah, that's the other part of it.

There's no switch in him that says.

And I share, uh, a lot of these tendencies, and maybe that wasn't on display when we were in a structured show like Around the Horn or PTI.

I do share that tendency because I, I grew up with, well, hearing him, but that's kind of how my mind works.

Frenetic Mad Dog is not so far from me in some headspaces, and it is, I would have to say.

I'm not trying to do a show promotion here, but it's part of where this show came out of, right?

And it's part of where YouTube is now, if, if I could even extend it to that.

So he, yeah, so he, he was adamant that Dwight Eisenhower had to be in the top 10, adamant, and gave again broke it down like it was Reagan.

I mean Reagan, Reagan did nothing compared to Eisenhower.

I just got into a Bob Ryan halfway through that.

Sorry, Bob Ryan and the Chris Russo are very close in my head.

So it is funny, um.

Because I, you, you have a new show.

It's called Real Deal with Toner Reali, and I wanna get into all that and we'll go backwards and all that stuff.

But it is funny because I, in thinking of having you on, I was gonna say, OK, you know, you've got this new podcast.

And I have, Complained isn't the right word.

I have observed and maybe ranted a little bit every now and again here about how we're now calling everything a podcast.

Like, I feel like what you have now from what I've seen, it's a show.

It's a show.

It's a show.

It's a show.

It's a show.

We're just calling anything a podcast, and it's starting to bother me.

Yeah, you're, you're not, you're not off base here.

I mean, you have a show.

You have a new show.

I have a show.

Um, let me, I'm, let me just quickly ask because it's, we, I know YouTube.

Is there an audio version of it or is it just YouTube for now?

Yeah, there's an audio version, and then there will be on Apple and Spotify.

OK, yeah, yeah, it'll be all that too, and I'm happy to be working with a partner like iHeart who knows that sort of thing, um, uh, but for me.

Um, I mean, how I got here was a lot of things .

Someone once told me, you know, you're gonna love your first idea.

But the 24th 1, Jimmy, let me tell you, the 24th 1 is that, I went through a lot of different machinations in my head.

I love sports debate.

I was, you know, it's, it's part of who I am, that wasn't, you know, it wasn't a put on, but, and I had ideas and, and, and, but it just wasn't.

It be the right one for me.

I want to be playing in a lane that's just a little bit more me, and that's, you know, people are gonna say mere human stories or whatever all this is.

I like little sports moments, little ones.

I like big ones, and I can do plenty of episodes in Real Deal or whatever show I, you know, on, on the big ones, all right?

You can do a documentary on LeBron's block.

Tell, tell the listeners, give them one, like one minute on the concept of the show and what it is, um.

Those moments that come up in your feed that you already know, you've already seen them, but you could still care to see them again.

The stuff you send your friends in the group chat, that, that are ongoing, you know, inside jokes between you and them, but, but it doesn't have to be the biggest moment or biggest play.

I, I'll give you an example of next week's episode.

Uh, I think it's just so crazy fun.

That Leo Messi , the greatest in the history of his sport, finally got to the mountaintop 4 years ago, won the World Cup, and within seconds of him holding the trophy on the field was Salt Bay.

The main character social influencing clout chasing chef, right?

And then he's got his hands, his sodium drenched hands all over the trophy that Messi just worked his whole life for and his career was hanging, you know, would he be the GOAT he needs to win?

OK.

It was everything was, it was directed towards that and Sopes on there because he's got a hook up and now he's on the field grabbing the trophy like he wanted it, finger wagging two year olds, sons of players, and he's got it over Messi, and there's a moment, so here's the moment I send this photo to my, my friends, uh, it's.

Salt play with his arm around Messi and Messi looking with the most, the look that says everything and nothing at the same time, like, how is this happening?

And I send that when, you know, I wanna tell my friends they're trying too much, you know, trying too hard, right?

So it's, it's moments like that, uh, that are in sports and that are part of our sports culture.

So on the pod you break down the moment that are you, do you have segments though where you're talking about current stuff, or is it you're strictly, this is, I wanna live in the moment.

I wanna live in an irresistible sports moment.

So I would call this, uh, evergreen is words that people use.

I mean, uh, um, uh, I, I, I've done daily reaction and I may do it again.

Uh, this is not going to be that.

I've done daily debate, may do that.

This is not that.

This is me wanting to live in a, live in a small thing and, and unpack it.

maybe there'll be oral history type feel to it if I have multiple guests on who lived it, but I really want to get to the, the human feeling, the feeling underneath.

I wanna relive the moment, you know, I know this podcast.

Yeah, yeah, no, no, I love the concept because you, you hit it, you said it earlier, and, and it's weird because I wish I could articulate it, but like , Every single day I spend way too much time that I would care to admit scrolling, and every day I see shit that I'm like, Oh my God, I totally forgot that.

I, and, and you, you remember and you forget it and you want to see it again.

You already know the more things you just maybe missed the first time around or like I didn't know.

There was something, I, I wish I could remember.

There was something even over the weekend, I think I scrolled and I'm like, totally forgot about that.

Or, and there's other things, you know, I saw, you'll appreciate this.

This was maybe 3 or 4 days ago.

I'm scrolling.

And someone had posted a clip of an old interview that George Steinbrenner did on Letterman.

Talking about this, I don't remember how, OK, now here's a, now I didn't know any of this, and here's the story, and this is episode three.

I gotta get on the.

You're gonna love it.

You're gonna love it.

They were talking about how when they had the strike, I guess what year was the strike?

1987 was the strike, I think.

OK, the stoppage in the because it was old.

It was 1987 and how when the strike was over.

The Yankees, I guess, like called Ricky Henderson to tell him the strike was over and he still showed up late and missed a game or two after the strike.

And George is talking about how he had to fine him and how, um, you know, Letterman was like, oh, so what do you do for discipline?

He's like, well, I let the players take care of that.

But, fascinate.

Like, who would have thought a player would miss a game after a strike and you have these characters of Steinbrenner, Ricky, and then Letterman's in the mix.

And I see that and I'm like, That whole thing can be a whole column or podcast and like now you're doing precisely, and it's, I mean, it's so, uh, the word and it's one of the segments in the show that I do, but it, it, I like the irresistible nature of some of these things.

It doesn't have to be unforgettable, you may have forgotten.

It doesn't have to be biggest, sure, we, we may do biggest, but for a little while, I mean, my first episode, Jimmy, it just got me.

It was there for me.

I don't know.

I wanted it to be a personal one.

I don't swim, I've said this, I, I know how to not drown, that's about as far as I go, right?

And when it shows up, and it's the relay in 2008 Olympics, and it's Jason Leezak touching the wall 8100 of a second or 1000 of a second before Alain Bernard, and it helps Phelps win a medal on his way to 8 for 8, so it's a big moment.

So, I think of the world in, in images.

I've got 300,000 photos in my phone, Jimmy, that's not a lot.

And some of them are my kids, but a lot of them are just like, let me screen grab this thing and let me, let me think about it later.

And it's Michael Phelps, you know, flexing and screaming, which is an incredible image, but that story wasn't about that for me.

It was about a teammate, Jason Lezak, doing the impossible and coming back.

But I really cracked open in me, and I knew this in advance, that's why I wanted to talk to Rowdy Gaines, you know.

Right.

Um, was that I, his voice, while making the call of the race, he, he, you know, something in the vocal cord cracked on him, and that's what gets me teary-eyed, just like at another moment, and there's plenty of moments for sports, and this won't just be Tony doing therapy, like this is the one that made me cry.

Salt Bay doesn't make me cry, uh, uh, you know, but, but, but, you know, Carlos Beltran going down looking.

To Adam Wainwright , you know, I feel like we, we blamed him in the greater sports fan for being caught looking, but we were looking for somebody to blame.

No, that's the greatest pitch of all time that Adam Wainwright throw.

That's an Uncle Charlie that dropped 38, you know, I mean, that, that was, he was the greatest postseason hitter of all time.

I'm doing the research now, of all time, going into that at bat.

His OPS was 1300.

It was higher than Ruth and Gehrig in the postseason, going into the one second before that pitch.

So I will start with the moment, as, as I do, focused on in, in this picture, it's Beltran's face and it's Molina behind him , and there's a president standing behind him with a very long uh tie behind him, starting that moment, and then uh slowly pull ourselves out, we're really trying to get to the human thread of it.

So do you have episodes in the can?

Are you gonna do this like week?

I have a , I have a couple in the can, but I, I, I wanna be a little bit more um.

Some of them will be based on maybe on anniversaries.

I'm trying to be true to the 1st 5 or 10 in my head.

I was gonna say, can you give us a couple you wanna tackle that you're looking for actually, let me ask you this.

Well, let, let, I'm doing research, constantly doing research here.

What would be your moments?

You just mentioned one with Steinbrenner, but I mean, I'm looking for a moment where it, it could be, you know, where, where there, there's just a very real feeling inside you or something you saw on your feed.

You're like, I could, I could do a little.

Well, uh, does, what are you, what are you looking for in terms of like, do you want something old?

Would you want something that was like if it was recent, would you care, Jimmy?

I'm in a, I'm in a, a wonderful position where I, I know you and other people may talk about this show and write about this show, and that would be wonderful, and I'm happy when everybody says my name in a nice enough way in a kind way.

No, no, I mean they could be my point, my point is I'm experimenting here.

I really am.

I wanna, I, I'm, I'm trying in my head.

It's, of course, the those types of moments I've already saved to my phone because they mean something to me.

But if I was being a little bit more, um, artistic about this, as stupid I'll give you a couple.

I can give you a couple of moments that I know I've mentioned on the pod that I would love to see like more.

Well, there's a couple, well, I, you know what could be a really fun episode is remember, and it wasn't long ago, maybe it was like 89 years ago.

Maybe a little, um.

When I guess it was a cat ran on the field and Kevin Harlan did play by play, or is that a or a streaker or something like that.

That's a, that's a great one.

Yeah, that's a fun one.

That's a fun one because then, so I'm, I say thematically speaking, as, as ridiculous as I sound as a human when I say that, you know, I wanna deal with.

I, uh, ideas of, uh, identity and reinvention and recognition.

An example would be, I, I just, you know, I'm, I'm working on at the bones of this right now, but Peyton Hillis is on the cover of Madden, right?

That's an absurd thing.

If you were to show that to a 16-year-old now, they would be like, wait a second, who's this dude?

Is this, you know, OK , so Peyton Hills, and that happened to be a fan vote, but I believe part of that happened, well, it happened for a couple of reasons.

He was a white running back, which was a unicorn at that time, so he's very old, but, but fantasy.

He had 100% he had a great season on the back end of a year after he became a spot starter and now he's on the cover of Madis.

So I wanna unpack why we love, why, how we fall in love with people that are, that are surprises, you know, because they're more about discovery than it is about greatness, you know, we, we to be first.

On him.

Those types, so something as simple as that.

I'll just take that image and then just go from there and kick around the feelings.

I wanna, I wanna relive the feeling I felt when I first saw he was on, what?

He's on Madden and then try to imagine it today.

I can, I got another one for you.

I, this is, again, I saw it on TikTok and then I, I think I put it in my column because I was so, now you have to be of a certain age to sort of remember it, but even if you're not, the, the concept itself will fascinate you.

Do you remember Morgana the kissing bandit?

Now think about, yeah, think about in 2026, a woman coming on the field, walking up to the batter, kissing them, and then walking off the field, and there wasn't a mad dash.

Of security and like, they like allowed it to happen.

I mean, the other part of this is that she had these massive breasts, which is why, but it got a lot of attention.

But they like allowed it.

There was no security.

There was no freak out.

I think if you took like an 18 year old or 20-year-old and showed them that video, they wouldn't believe this was real because it happened and it was a periodic, like she did it like several times this season.

I love where your mind is.

This is where I wanna land.

Um, I said I'm gonna experiment.

I might be more quirky than, than I find the audience wants, and that's OK.

I can go back to, like I said, you could do a full documentary on some topics, and I'm not trying to make a documentary every week, you know.

Again, I, I need to, I need to be honest to.

Uh, or, or, or true to the mission here.

I wanna relive the feeling of the moment, you know?

I'm a feelings guy, Jimmy.

You knew that from the start.

So I love a podcast.

I'm using an inspiration.

I don't know them at all at the Ringer, um, but I like rewatchables.

They rewatch movies.

It's amazing.

It's great, rewatch a movie.

Um, I, I, I, maybe I would rewatch a game on air, you know, but that's too much of an ass.

But to, to, I wanna relive.

I wanna be the relivables.

I wanna relive that moment, the more, let's relive the time when.

Morgana used to run on the field and here's our first image.

Here's she and George Brett and look at Brett's face here.

Brett would go on to hit a home run and this a bat after and then called it a good luck charm.

What was the, what were we, you know, and, and, and letting it, I notice there's no security.

No one's running on to stop her.

It's amazing.

You're really focused on the security.

You wanted her in bars.

Think about what would happen.

I mean, today it would you be traded would put Mor what was it, Morgana, Morgana under the jail.

OK, yeah, um.

Yeah, so like, again, it, it's a great concept because I, I, you forget things too.

I, I'm so thankful for you to say this.

You know, it's one of these moments now where I was happy to play within a network, of course, you know, I have so many great levers to pull that I just said, you know, but, but, but.

I was trying to imagine, this is my first show.

I take myself, you know, in my mind seriously.

Everybody's the main character of their own movie.

I wanted to do something that, that people liked, but it was true to me, but I wanted to do something that people liked too, so I could, I could just try to do PTI 2.0 or Around the Horn 2.0. I could do that.

But I wanted to explore myself, and I wanted to find something that people would like in the same way.

I've thought about gameplay and I, I wanna do gameplay, and I was, I was, uh, in a, in a moment where I thought that was my first one out of the gate, but, but I found some good partners here to help me and Iheart.

Can, can you go a day without someone mentioning Around the Horn to you?

I mean, uh, it happens.

No, no, no, I don't, I mean, it's great, it's a great feeling.

Um.

And I, you know, I, I always recognized people watched it, and I, I, you know, uh, yes, to answer your question, there must be a day when people don't mention it, but um I'm a very approachable person, I think.

And, um, you know, uh, so, uh, I think, you know, maybe I invited a little bit.

I speak very loudly and, and people recognize my voice.

Uh, I will happily say things out loud in public parks, like, let's go around the horn to the kids in a way that makes my kids roll their eyes and then some dad comes up to me after, some mom comes up to me.

So, so I'm not the guy to, I, I'm happy to be a ham.

Uh, I want to know how you get your text message ding to be so loud.

I'm sorry, I don't know what that is.

No, I'm saying I don't.

That's not the real one, by the way.

I, I, I have to let it be known my real one is the Back to the Future twinkle on my phone, but right now I'm on the computer and it's, that's why I don't want to be generic in any way.

So I have Back to the Future.

I can, I judge people by how they react to my Back to the Future twinkle come in when I'm in a room.

Like, did anybody give me the heads up?

Like, yeah, man, yeah, you got it.

And, and you know , you know what my phone looks like.

We've done this before.

I mean, this is, yeah, they have Ray Liotta for people listening.

Um So the last around the horn was May 24th.

What has this year been like for you?

I thought, Jimmy, we said this, we talked, and you said you're gonna be the guy who needs to do something immediately.

I said, I'm gonna be the guy who needs to do something immediately.

And of course, your viewership that day must have been through the roof because it had my wife listening as well, which she doesn't watch sports.

She doesn't, but You know, um, she is the CEO of Real Ones Media, uh, which I'm happy.

My wife has worked in startups before.

I have a, I have a freaking ringer, uh , in, in, in the house, and she's like, you cannot do the first, you cannot jump at the first thing.

You, your, your instincts are, and I, and she knows me, of course, better than anybody on the planet.

To, to work out till I drop on the floor.

That was what it was in my 20s and 30s, to CrossFit till I collapse, right?

And what happened in the 30s?

I pulled every muscle in my body.

I pulled muscle, you know, so, so that's a good instinct in a lot of ways , but it's not the right instinct, and it's not the right instinct at this moment.

So she asked me to pause, which was, of course, the best advice I could hear.

Um, and, and that was, that was part of it.

And then she asked me, just don't think about Around the Horn 2.0 for a second.

Don't think about even daily reaction.

Don't think about, you know, uh, doing, doing the podcast, the Tony Reality show, you know, you're, you're somebody who can create something, and this became less of a job search for me.

And more of a job invention for me, right?

Now, I can say that, but I will take you a little bit on, you know, behind the door a little bit.

There, I mean, I, I was happy to be a free agent in theory, and I had imaginations that that's got, we gotta do something about that.

It's, it's like it.

I know listeners are probably gonna be like, why didn't he tell him to shut it off?

Is there anything?

How does one shut it off, Jimmy?

You, you wanna Chad Chad Jimmy T PT, um .

OK, I, you know, I'm gonna turn off the volume of you if I turn this off.

Yeah, I know that's not good.

You gotta hear me.

But so, OK, I wasn't, uh, you know, uh, free agents, you know, I've always knew Around the Horn was gonna end, and I was like, I just hosted a successful TV show.

I'm gonna get a great opportunity to work in TV some more, and that's gonna be wonderful.

I, I, you know, I would, I would say that.

At some point, you know.

But at some point, that was partially true, or maybe it wasn't true anymore, and the industry had changed even more than that.

So, I, I could recognize uh the TV jobs were, were drying up in some ways.

I can recognize my own personal, um, Uh, desire to, to want to be in a place where I could be a little bit more, um, inventive and creative, and that doesn't mean go host a pregame show or something like that, cause that's what hosts can do very well, and there's some great pregame shows and, uh, but that's not even how I'm consuming sports now.

I'm consuming YouTube, I'm consuming, um, you know , podcasts and You could have more control over that, and that's what it became about me for, for me it's funny.

I remember when we spoke the last week on the horn, and I think we focused a lot on like you maybe getting a hosting gig somewhere that we met.

I mean that was my instinct.

Yeah, my wife listens to that.

She said stop that, stop that.

That's wild.

Um, and, and that's, you know, that's the advice that I took to heart, um, and, and I appreciate, again.

What the industry is today, I'd be a fool.

I, I took time, I was intentional, but I had to educate myself.

This is an education, right?

I'm, I'm, I'm watching Colin and Samir podcast, explaining what YouTube creators do.

I'm trying to figure out what that is.

I'm, I'm thinking about this show again.

Um, as, as you, you call it a podcast or, or, uh, my distributor, iHeart calls it a podcast, it's a show, you know, but there are, there are notes of YouTube walking, talking it because I wanted to inflect movement because I'm a guy who does that, but I want to inflect movement into the show.

There, there are notes of TV.

There are notes of podcast.

Podcast in it, yeah, yeah, it is funny too.

Like I said, that the Around the Horn wrapped a year ago, but even within the year this business changed has changed.

Absolutely.

I, I mean Jobs went to podcasts, which is, which is, which is incredible, and it tells you all those sorts of things.

And that's when Netflix started promoting podcasts, and I'm watching, you know, people I know on Netflix, which was just like an incredible thing.

And I, I, there are many people in the industry that I saw the way they were going about it that I admired that I couldn't.

You know, uh, you know, this, this, this runs the, the gambit of, of course, Conan O'Brien, who's an enormous talent, and I'm not comparing myself to him, but he was on TV for decades.

I was on TV for decades, and I like what he's doing, you know, to, to Ariel Hiwani and the way he's done his own, his own show and has been somebody who's been independent in that way.

I'm kind of, you know, And I wanna build out a full repertoire of shows, and I don't need to be hosting all of them, uh, you know, I, I wanna have a place, but I want them to have a similar theme of, of maybe not my worldview wholly, but just, but just the humanity to it.

Yeah.

How difficult was it going from being on TV 5 days a week to then Sort of laying low for a year.

I mean, was, did you have days where you were like itching to do something?

Did you get to a point where you're able to enjoy the downtime?

What was, how, you know, that is, you are going from one extreme to another there.

I went, I went to extremes and yeah, I guess I would say in hindsight, it was both necessary and difficult for someone like me.

I would say it was difficult, um.

There were, there were 2 or 3 nights I could remember being like, really?

How am I going to get this, get this ball rolling, you know?

Now, that doesn't mean I could have picked up a camera and a phone and done the show, but, again, that was my instinct many, many times.

Like, I could, I'm very happy and proud of, of maybe a a a YouTube video I made on, on Chris Johnson last week, right?

I believe my voice was slightly different than maybe, you know, the perspective I had on it, whatever it was, right?

I could have done that every day.

I did a sub stack 80 straight days in a row, um, just to, just to put myself out there and write to, to accomplish or to defeat some of that feeling you're talking about, um, but it's what also makes it difficult is something will happen in sports and you'll be like, I wanna.

Get, I'm trying to remove that.

I'm not a take guy though.

I'm really not a take.

I'm a call, but I mean, again, these are just words, right?

But I don't, I don't need, I don't need, the world doesn't need another conversation podcast.

The world doesn't need another person making their, I mean, that's great.

Please share yours, but I don't need to do that.

I have enough of, um, a, a, a bone in my body to recognize, you know, I've seen, I've reacted.

I've done that.

I, I can do it again.

I don't need to do it again, I can let this one pass.

So I still, I, did I watch sports exactly the same way I had for the previous 25 years?

No, I didn't.

Has my relationship with sports changed?

No, I wouldn't say that's the case, it had evolved while I was doing Around the Horn, it evolved while I, uh, um.

Unpacked my, uh, uh, my, my first, uh, bout of general anxiety.

I, I unpacked my first bout of being a parent.

I started seeing the world differently.

Um, I, I started seeing my role as a host on a TV show slightly different.

I mean, when you're 25 and you get a show, I mean, you're trying to get your takes out there or you're trying to get your personality out there in a way that, that puts a spotlight on you, um, and, and I, I didn't feel that was right for the show and I tried to then pull it back a little bit, and then you see everybody else doing that, you're wondering, should I be doing that?

So there were, there were some moments where I had to really think about how do I wanna put myself out there next.

So, again, I would have probably made different decisions if I was left to my own instincts, but I had a, a brilliant partner in life and in business now.

And it probably probably helped a lot that your wife wasn't a sports fan because she didn't.

That's helped all along, Jimmy, it really has, um, uh, you know, honestly, she, she, this is, this is part of my evolution.

I, I mean, I just said this, um, because I'm, I'm trying to unpack fantasy football.

You know, for, for an episode, uh, it's, it's based on the Peyton Hills I was just alluding to, you know.

I, I can't go, you know, back to that.

I, I, I can't, I, I can't do it because I didn't like the way I was a fan doing it, right?

Uh, I, it has to be, there was a moment where my fantasy baseball team, you know, blew something and I, I acted like a ridiculous human at 25 years old when I was dating her, and I'm like, I'm never doing that again, because she didn't even understand what that language was.

She understands me and my family.

Caring about the Yankees in an, in an absurd way, but being upset because, um, Saito blew a save, you know, I mean, she's like, what?

Yeah, sport non-sports fan.

I mean , I, I, there, there will often be a story that breaks and I'll say like if you try to explain this story to a non-sports.

fan, like they would think we're all completely deranged in the way we, right.

And so maybe part of this show is me trying to show the humanity, uh, the opposite side of that, explain it a little bit, you know, this is the type of show someone like my wife, uh, uh, could listen to on, on, on certain episodes or gain something.

Into, uh, I'm not, again, every episode can't be a therapy session.

It will not be a therapy session, but I'm just so early into it right now, some of the moments I picked are just like, I see myself as Scott Player, the punter who wears a single bar, you know, it came up in my feed right when I am.

Thinking about what my next job is and, and maybe a headline in the feed was the last of his species.

This is a punter for um Arizona and Cleveland who wore the single bar, the last player, the last of his species.

And I'm thinking, TV host, am I the last of my species?

All the podcasters are gonna, you know, now I'm, so now, is this an episode?

Maybe it's an episode.

Maybe I would unlock why Scott Player wore the single bar later and, and what is that?

Let's say of the people who, uh, you know, we remember it sounds like a great show too for clips on social media.

The Scott Player image posted by the NFL.

Well, so the NFL posted like 30, their last 30 posts.

Two of them are Scott Player, the NFL legacy media Instagram, uh, Odell Beckham, he has 10x the likes of Odell Beckham's catch in one of their posts in the last 30, you know, so.

This is, I'd be a fool not to be looking at this.

I don't need to uncover a hidden story.

I love my friend Pablo .

It's amazing, and he's, you know, that, that's amazing what he's doing.

I'm going maybe the, the exact opposite way.

This has been in my feed.

Why is this in my feed?

Why is Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce in my feed?

Well, OK, it's the anniversary.

That's why.

Yeah, but I always This one resonated with me because I felt like Jim Joyce, you know, was blamed as he, as he should have been, but then he made an incredible accounting of himself the next day when he was crying at the corner and, and he always kind of looked like James Hetfield of Metallica, and now I got a show, you know.

It's funny you mentioned Pablo because I'm taping this week's show out of order, so I already taped one segment where I said, where I mentioned Pablo and I said, You know, regarding this Bryce Harper FanDuel story, like, uh, Pablo needs to investigate into an episode of why exactly Bryce Harper is on cameo.

Like, fewer things in life have made less sense to me than a guy making $300 million going on cameo to make $900 videos, and I feel like Pablo would be, I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he, he, here, here's what it was.

Cameo will send you Instagram notes like, tone , people wanna get.

I had to see this.

This would be terrible.

I've been doing this stuff for free forever.

I, I, but you're not making what did I do the year?

I hosted fantasy football drafts.

That's fine.

People who asked me, and I just came up here.

Should I have been going through a cameo?

Maybe I should have been.

But yeah, but Bryce Harper is making $300 million.

You don't need to.

thought he needed to connect with his fans.

Yeah, I know.

I mean, maybe that line was go on Instagram Live if you want to connect with your fans.

Don't, don't use that anyway.

I don't, let's not spend time on that, um.

I, you know, We talked about you being off for a year.

The other layer of that is, I kind of feel like Anyone who has ever worked at ESPN and then not worked at ESPN, I feel like it's still always associated with ESPN.

Like we saw when Rich Eisen came back.

Like Rich Eisen has been with the NFL Network for like 100 years, but like when he came back, It was still like it was ESPN's Rich Eisen.

Has it been difficult to sort of break the chain from ESPN more than I, I, yeah, I mean, am I trying to even break the chain?

I'm, I'm, well, you have to, I mean, not being there, yeah, those four letters always be attached to me.

I mean, that was, that's gonna be a, um, I was on TV for 25 years for that network.

I wrote it down.

It was like .

How many episodes, uh, I mean, I don't know, who knows what the number, I mean, 7000, 7000 if you combine PTI and Horn, I mean, what are we doing?

But yeah, nobody cares.

I'm just saying I was on it 2001 and I signed off in 2025.

That's 25 years.

That's, you know, of course, tell that story.

I should always be part of that story, um.

Jimmy, we talked about this.

You, uh, you could try to unpack it again.

I, I gave some, some moments to this in the last year, but not as much as you would probably think.

Things end.

They're messy.

Yes , I mean, what I want.

have had more communication.

Yeah, I'm in the communication business.

I'm the professional talker.

The people make decisions.

Maybe they, I mean, I get it.

It's such a hard conversation to have with somebody, you know.

Um, do I need press releases and all these?

I mean, I don't know.

I mean, uh.

In the end, I'm proud of the work that was.

I consumed ESPN before.

I will consume it again, although, you know, I mean, I mean, they've got the games, of course I'm gonna be watching ESPN.

Is it ever weird though when you're watching it?

Does it ever feel weird?

It's weird.

I mean, it was, it was weird for me when I wasn't on PTI anymore and I.

I mean, I, I'm proud of having worked for ESPN.

I love PTI though that's my family, and, and the week after I wasn't on there, of course, I'm a human.

That's a tough feeling.

Everybody's moving on without you.

I mean, I moved, I was the one who moved on.

But I'm just saying, but, um, yeah, it's, it's.

It's tough for me to turn on at 5:30, knowing the other show at 5 o'clock, um, wasn't the show I was on, and, and now it's, you know, it's just hanging out there at 5 o'clock, SportsCenter, you know, um, I'm, I don't need to armchair quarterback is ESPN making the right decisions or, or, or do I need to be making headlines?

I mean, what, what the hell?

What do I know?

I'm, I'm trying to navigate for myself.

I got enough to worry about that, uh, I'll be happy to have people say, I used to watch Around the Horn for the rest of my life, or I liked Around the Horn until, you know, you know, Woody you, you're muted Woody Paige, yeah, well, I mean, yeah, I mean, I, I, I'm not saying that show was perfect.

It was perfect for me for, for 25 years, you know, 20 years.

Have you, in the, in the past year, have you turned down any offers that would, I said to not a few offers, but I mean, again, I, I mean, I, I mean, I.

I was thankful for them, but they weren't the right fit, but it wasn't, um, It's never as you imagine it, Jimmy.

I can be honest about this, it's me being vulnerable and people, I mean, uh yeah, it wasn't, uh, I mean, there, there's, uh, this is ridiculous.

What am I doing here?

There's this video that comes up all the time on my feed that I love.

You'll love this.

Real quick, Will Ferrell is getting unfairly ripped for not being the most hilarious human being ever at home run derby yesterday.

I'm gonna say this right now, OK, because, um, and, and if you're air the inflated in the week, for when he did home run derby, um.

He, that's, that is the hardest thing in the world to do, the YouTubeification of the world.

Everybody is so thinking, everybody's amazing when they're watching the thirty-seventh take that somebody did, all right?

This is a live moment, he's going for it, he's trying to, he's doing a bit, it's whatever.

The man did live SNL forever.

You, you can't do revisionist history and not tell me he's a great comedian and great history and that he, wow, Seth Rogen really was able to evolve and do the studio.

What is Will Ferrell doing?

Will Ferrell's doing the same stuff he was always doing.

That's unfair.

It's the man invented Funny or Die, by the way.

It's not like he was just doing Anchorman's whole life.

But if he wants to just do Anchorman and that's type, then that's what he is.

He's a, he's an improv comic.

He's a sketch comic.

He's, he does that sort of thing, right?

He can't be Chris Rock at a roast in the middle of home run derby or whoever the best Tony Hinchcliff is, or whatever.

So that's unfair, but he has a video where, um, This is at the Oscars.

This is exactly what my show is, but for, for non-sports right now.

He's at the Oscars with Jack Black, he and John C.

Reilly sing a song to Helen Mirren at the Oscars.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

I don't recall that.

This comes up in the feed once every 5 years, but they sing a song, um, uh, comedian at the Oscars.

You know, um, is the, is the clown who is the most lonesome clown or whatever it is, right?

Oh, I got it.

OK, OK, and, you know, and then there's a point where Jack Black thinks, Well, what did you think when you were running around the track in your underpants, and he says, I thought they love me.

Part of me thought, what did you think when you were hosting Around the Horn for 20 years, the industry would come back, I thought they'd love me and they'd be handing me jobs.

That was not happening.

That was not happening, you know.

There wasn't handing them jobs.

And how was that to handle?

That was, that was, of course, a, a real feeling, a raw feeling.

Um, I mean, if somebody, Somebody handed me a job, I, I, I, my instinct again would have been one thing, but my wife's instinct would have been completely different.

So you turned down offers from that can be, yeah, yes, yes, I turned down offers.

I would never say the offers were, this is the big one, this is the, this is the one job, you know, it would have been like, uh, you know, OK, that'll be part of my portfolio type offers.

You know, and that's how I portfolio.

That's how I was thinking about it, that I wanted to be doing a couple of different things, and some of the offers were probably not the only thing that I could do, but maybe time-wise it would have been the only thing I could do, and I would be in a, in a situation that I didn't want to be in.

I understand.

Makes sense.

Well, now you're back with the real deal with Tony Riley, YouTube, Apple, Spotify.

He'll pick a moment we may have forgotten about.

And give us a whole show on it we just can't get into it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let me end with this.

I, I was looking through your Twitter just to see if there was anything I should ask, and you had a great tweet that I think could almost be a show in and of itself where you, you ask, it was based off of, I think it was McKell Bridges.

Where you, you asked which 80s or 90s athletes would you like to see have an Instagram live.

That was a great question.

You wanna unpack what that is.

So that is part of my education now.

That is a YouTube thumbnail hook, you know, we need to know what these words are, but I mean, that's how I am now believing.

Viewers are seeing the world, seeing what used to be the sports debate in my world, who won the game, who lost the game, that type of thing.

These are, for me, the, the, the start of unlocking the moment I'm gonna do, right?

Um, an example will be in Salt Base episode that drops next week, you know, is this the most hijacked sports moment, you know, of all time, right?

And, and, and you're, and you're now thinking of, like, other moments like that, and you can maybe, maybe it's a list, maybe it's a Mount Rushmore, it really depends on the day.

Like, what athletes would you want to see , Mike Tyson, would you want to see you doing an Instagram Live or something like that, or the most hijacked moment, you know, Salt Bay.

Even the Red Sox won a World Series, and for one second, I saw Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore running on the field celebrating with a camera crew cause they were filming fever pitch, you know.

You know, now you're thinking, so you show that clip, and then you think, and you just live in that for a second, right?

This is , I believe these hooks are important cause it's how viewers are, are engaging in a way.

So again, yes, every, I, I'm making a show now.

I think in segments, I think in formats.

I'm a producer here.

I'm, I'm gonna start with a YouTube-like video, take it into a podcast-like discussion, end it with a My, my walk and talk type, uh, uh, perspective , that's, you know, that's really what, what I'm doing here.

Well, listen, the things that hit have to be different.

That's a different idea, different concept.

So I think people will definitely check it out, and I'm glad you're back and, uh, not that you ever left, but you know what I mean.

I'm glad you have a new show.

Put it to you that way.

Yeah, I was working.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was not working, yeah, but this, I, I, everything about this seems like, you know, perfect for you, and, well, I'm happy to hear you say that because I really want.

Want it to be me, you know, I mean, yeah, I'd be, oh, the pace of a podcast is different than the pace of TV.

Yeah, I think I learned that one pretty quick because that's why I say you're doing a show.

It's a show, not you can't think of it as a podcast big though.

I, I mean , man, I, I, it's like, oh boy.

All right, reality, take it down a notch.

Listen, I work in progress, baby, work in progress.

Listen, and then, and at least now this is a time where You know, you could do like 10 different things.

Like it, it is crazy how much the business has changed, where it's not where you have like one job and that like you just see everyone doing so many different things.

It's, it's kind of wild.

Most of all, I just wanted people to see me in what I was doing, right?

Like that, that, that, the song is, is, is me.

The walk and talk is, is me.

And that's, I really, I, everything came out of that, right?

Oh, check it out.

The Real Deal with Tony Reality, YouTube, and then, of course, where you get your podcasts.

Tony, appreciate it.

Be well.

Thanks.

My man.