Longtime radio host Tony Rizzo returned to the airwaves on ESPN Cleveland on Monday following a two-week absence.
The longtime Cleveland sports fixture, who has been with the station since 2012 and hosts The Tony Rizzo Show and co-hosts The Really Big Show alongside Aaron Goldhammer and Chris Oldach, announced in his return that he’d been away after suffering a “major heart attack.”
“I got bagels for my mom. I drove them out to Middleburg Heights, and I came home,” said Rizzo in his return to the airwaves. “I got back to my home at 1130 and my chest siezed up, and I couldn’t breathe. I had a heart attack, a major heart attack. I knew something was really wrong. Because I’d never felt like that before in my life.
“I couldn’t breathe, chest burning. Knew something was really, really wrong. I had never felt like that in my life. And I was really scared, really scared.
“I’m lucky to be alive. You know me. You know I’m not hospital guy. But I knew right away the good Lord let me know. Get your ass to the hospital. Something is very wrong. Had I waited about 45 minutes, I would have died.”
Rizzo is arguably the biggest voice in Cleveland sports radio, and he often leads the charge on talking points about the city’s most prominent athletes, unafraid to call it as he sees it. Love him or hate him, Cleveland’s sports discussion is more interesting with Rizzo back in the chair.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.