Tony Reali once helped Max Kellerman move to Washington, D.C. But as Reali signed off for the final time, closing the book on Around the Horn after a 23-year run, Kellerman wasn’t there to return the favor.
We all waited, hoping, maybe even expecting Kellerman to reemerge like Steve Carell’s Michael Scott showing up in The Office’s finale.
But it never happened.
Maybe it’s because Kellerman didn’t leave quietly. Perhaps it’s because, in the eyes of the network, he had already been deemed expendable. Either way, as the credits rolled Friday, there was no sign of Kellerman.
Maybe there should’ve been. How do you erase the memory of someone who helped start the show? Reali was the franchise MVP, no question. But Kellerman? He wore the uniform first. He was the original. The first to take the field. The guy who got the job before his 30th birthday.
As for how he landed it, then-ESPN exec Mark Shapiro told Front Office Sports that Kellerman was deemed an “up-and-comer.”
“He’s got a lot of personality,” Shapiro told Ryan Glasspiegel. “He’s extremely bright and articulate. We just thought he’d be somebody good for that show, and once we got into auditions, it was abundantly clear that he was the right kind of central command to move forward.”
“He wasn’t afraid to bring it,” Shapiro continued. “He wasn’t afraid to put forward a controversial take. He didn’t shy away from opinion. He knew how to speak in sound bites. We knew he’d be terrific at directing traffic, and he was driving one hell of a niche and personality for himself in boxing, and we thought he could go broader.”
And he was. He drove the thing. And then, in late 2003, he and producer Bill Wolff left Around the Horn to launch I, Max on Fox Sports Net.
The rest of the show’s history belonged to Tony Reali.
What’s next for Reali is still up in the air. He’s shared his aspirations, sure. And while ESPN didn’t exactly shove him out the door with the cold efficiency it’s used on others, it still feels like he deserved better just like Kellerman did when he was shown the door.
After his First Take exit, Dan Le Batard once accused ESPN of trying to “kill” Kellerman’s career. They buried him in an impossible schedule and called it an opportunity. His on-air chemistry with Stephen A. Smith had flatlined, and instead of building something new, they cut bait. They stretched him thin, made him disposable, and then paid him to disappear.
Kellerman has always valued his privacy, but he’s also been a lifer in this business. So it stood out when names like Brian Kenny, Marcellus Wiley, and Jordan Schultz hinted he had something brewing. “Something cool,” they said. A comeback was pegged for late 2024.
It’s now May 2025. Still no Kellerman.
You’d think, if nothing else, he’d resurface to say goodbye to the show he helped launch. Around the Horn was his expansion franchise. Reali turned it into a legacy project, but Kellerman planted the flag. He left over a contract dispute and returned with a different voice years later. He was no longer Max Kellerman the host, but Max Kellerman the take machine.
If the fate of the universe was on the line, he’d still take Andre Iguodala.
But the fate of Around the Horn’s universe was on the line. The cancellation was a death beam aimed squarely at Reali’s show. Kellerman could’ve offered a word. A tribute. A boilerplate statement. Something. Instead? Nothing.
And in this case, Kellerman’s silence said more than any PR-laden statement ever could.
This isn’t a knock on Kellerman’s character or résumé. It’s more a reflection of how far removed he feels from the industry he once helped shape. The Max Kellerman who launched Around the Horn, debated global politics with the same conviction as boxing strategy, and weathered the daily grind of the ESPN car wash, is missing in action.
All the teases of a return, all the whispers about a “really cool” project; none of it’s surfaced. At least not yet.
Whatever comeback was in the works hasn’t happened. And the longer the silence drags on, the more it feels like the sports media world will move on without him in the picture.
That’s why the silence doesn’t add up.
It started with Kellerman. It didn’t end with him. That’s OK. It was Reali’s show. But Kellerman lit the match. But in the end, he didn’t show up to see the fire go out.
