Tony Reali has contacted Jay Mariotti several times over the 14 years since Mariotti last appeared on Around the Horn.
Mariotti resurfaced in headlines last month, blaming “woke” for ESPN’s decision to end the show after 23 years. He claimed that Around the Horn effectively ended when he left, though his departure in 2010 followed seven misdemeanor charges stemming from an alleged domestic dispute.
He ultimately pleaded no contest to charges involving stalking and assaulting his ex-girlfriend. He never returned to the show.
But that didn’t stop Reali from making the effort.
“It took me a while to get to a space where I could do that, where I felt I needed to,” Reali told Brandon Contes on the Awful Announcing Podcast. “But, I want to be able to show my appreciation for people that built this show.”
That appreciation extends to others, including Max Kellerman.
“I also have to recognize, yeah, I don’t know how Max truly feels about a show that he moved on from,” Reali continued. “And Max’s life, in so many ways, has been public. And I feel for Max for what happened in his life, in the immediate of trying to start new shows. He was filming This Just In next to the studio of the show that he worked on at one time, that’s still on TV. That is a tough thing. We never really had that conversation about that.”
With Mariotti, though, Reali did.
“I tried to have the conversation of I was a 29-year-old host, or whatever I was at that time, and trying to come to grips with somebody like you who where so important for the show and where everything went,” Reali says. “And there’s legal stuff in here that I don’t want to speak about because I don’t really know — but I would appreciate somebody like with a footnote here. I wanted to explain to him, I wanted to check in with him. I worked with the guy for seven years.
“And I know he has very strong feelings about the show ending that I don’t have. But I have to respect what that is. And I would imagine the same might be true for everyone who worked on that show for the first year, who didn’t work on the show for the next 19 years. That’s tough. I think that’s tough.”
Before diving into his recent outreach to Mariotti, Reali took a moment to reflect on what Mariotti brought to the show.
“I mean, that guy was on TV for Around the Horn every day, no matter what,” Reali said. “Nobody worked harder. And that guy was lobbing flaming hot takes right when that became a thing. And I appreciated that for the show. And while we all worked together and his personality was different, I appreciated his personality for what it was, even though it wasn’t mine or how I would want to.”
Reali described the dynamic of being a young host in the middle of a difficult moment: Mariotti’s legal trouble becomes public, his TV career essentially ends, and suddenly, he’s not on the show anymore. Reali wanted Mariotti to know that he was thinking about him and wanted to listen.
“He would write things about our show that were his personal opinion, that had a little more edge than maybe I would’ve said,” Reali explained. “But, I had to respect it because I knew how he may feel hurt. And that hurt me knowing that someone was hurt, for better or worse. So, I’ve reached out multiple times, and we would always get to a point where we would have somewhat of, I wouldn’t call reconciliation, but the air was certainly clear. But then it never really got [or] stayed that way. I can still feel the hurt.
“I like to mention him on TV because he’s a founding father of the show. And I will, I’m sure again, as we sign off. You can’t talk about the first 10 years of the show without his input. But he doesn’t have a pleasant memory, and that is something I have to learn to live with. That’s something, previously, would really hurt me. I don’t want anyone leaving a relationship that I’m involved in not feeling good. That’s a tough feeling for me to come to grips with in life. But as I’ve come to an understanding of everything, you can’t really control how other people.”
Reali believes Mariotti is not seeing the shows as he sees them.
“And I wouldn’t say it’s unfair, but I would say there’s a neutrality that’s lacking in how he’s viewing it,” said Reali. “That makes me sad. It does.”
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