Tony Reali, the fan favorite host of Around the Horn on ESPN, emerged in recent years as an advocate for mental health treatment and destigmatization.
Since opening up about the death of his son in 2018 and his diagnosis with generalized anxiety disorder, Reali has found the strength to not only address the toll of these experiences but be a guiding light for colleagues who are struggling.
One such colleague was Mike Ryan, the executive producer of The Dan Le Batard Show during its run at ESPN.
While Ryan never worked directly with Reali and lived several states away, he leaned on Reali during his own struggle with anxiety and depression. Ryan revealed Reali’s impact on him for the first time this week in the latest episode of the Le Batard Show oral history that he is producing for Meadowlark Media.
According to Mike Ryan, he traveled at one point to see Reali just to pry any bit of advice or guidance he could from another man in the industry who balanced mental illness with a high-pressure sports media job.
“God bless Tony Reali,” said Ryan. “I don’t get through any of that without Tony Reali, and I’ve never let that be known publicly. Because I was going through a lot of stuff that I knew he had gone through, and I was just grasping at anybody. And Tony Reali, who I didn’t have this great relationship (with), we just knew each other, admirer of his work, but I had enough mutual friends that told me Tony was this salt-of-the-Earth guy. And I flew up to New York just to see Tony.”
By getting to hear from Reali about the difficulties beneath the surface of the efficient, entertaining product he puts out each afternoon with ATH, Ryan was able to reset expectations for himself and learn coping skills.
While Ryan kept quiet about Reali’s impact for many years because Reali is so humble, Ryan said Reali deserves immense credit for the role he played.
“I know he kind of shies away from this stuff, (but) Tony Reali was a lifesaver for me, in terms normalizing and (seeing), this guy operates at a high level,” Ryan added. “I have immense respect for him, he operates in this highly creative environment, and you would never know what was going on with his life until he took the opportunity to share some of that stuff. And I knew how powerful it was to see someone that had gone through similar things give voice to it. How does this guy have it all together? So I went to him on a quest to find out how he did.”
Throughout the latest episode of the Le Batard Show oral history, Ryan detailed how at the same time that the show’s rollercoaster ride at ESPN was coming to an end in the aftermath of John Skipper’s departure, he was going through a lot personally.
While Mike Ryan didn’t go into extreme detail about what was causing his anxiety to ramp up, he recalled multiple panic attacks, bouts of anger, and more.
And in part because of the helping hand of ESPN’s resident mental health advocate, Ryan was able to get back on track.