Tony Reali is wasting no time getting back out there after the end of Around the Horn.
As promised during an interview in the waning days of his long-running ESPN show, Reali is in Miami this week for a round of appearances on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. Reali joined Monday from the streets of downtown Miami, where he spoke with sports fans in a corner coffee shop, played piano and basketball, and interviewed the show’s parking garage guard, “Big Mac.”
Later, Reali brought a bounce house into the DLS studios at the Elsor Hotel.
“We’re here all week,” Reali explained. “Let’s get ‘around the popcorn.’ Let’s go. We’ll do movies, we’ll have a game segment. ‘Around the Popcorn,’ alright? And we got parents here? Let’s go ‘Around the Babybjörn.’ Alright? ‘Around the Babybjörn.’ We got Ron Magill in the house? ‘Around the Horns?’”
Like the DLS crew, Reali comes from the Erik Rydholm coaching tree at ESPN. The star producer created Around the Horn, Le Batard’s Highly Questionable, and Pardon the Interruption.
Le Batard joked that Meadowlark will always be a home for ESPN castoffs as he welcomed Reali on.
Jokes aside, it is a valuable opportunity for Reali to show a different side of himself. DLS viewers saw Reali doing live man-on-the-street comedy, performing physically on Elsor’s basketball court and at the piano, as well as riffing with Le Batard and the rest of the crew.
It was a far cry from the cramped confines and efficient hosting Reali did on ATH.
Given that the former “Stat Boy” is advertising himself for new gigs across the industry, this week in Miami is as much a reel for his future employer as it is entertainment for the DLS and ATH audiences.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.