Tony Reali is an American sports personality and television host of Around the Horn on ESPN. He was also a statistician on Pardon the Interruption from the show's debut in 2001 until late 2014. He is known for his in-depth knowledge of sports statistics and corrections of panelists.
Reali was born in Staten Island, New York on July 4, 1978. An Italian-American descent, Reali spent most of his childhood living in New Jersey, growing up in Marlboro Township.
After graduating from Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, New Jersey (1996), Reali joined Fordham University in New York City where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in both Communications and History. During his time at Fordham, he was also a sportscaster for WFUV from 1997 to 2000 as the voice of football and men's basketball. In addition, he was a beat reporter covering the Yankees, Mets, Giants, and Jets.
Tony Reali is an American sports personality and television host of Around the Horn on ESPN. SOURCE: InstagramIn May 2000, he worked for WPIX TV of New York. He was recruited by ESPN in 2000 as a researcher and writer for 2 Minute Drill. He joined Pardon the Interruption in October 2001, where his role was to correct and fact check hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon at the end of every episode. He then started appearing on Komheiser's radio show, Preview the Interruption. After that, he became the host of Around the Iron replacing Max Kellerman.
His duty involved awarding points at his own discretion based upon the quality of the panelists' comments. He would also deduct points or mute guests for their nonsensical comments.
In 2014, Reali started a job at ABC's Good Morning America as its social media correspondent. Since 2015, he has been serving as the weekend sports correspondent and has been prevalent in the pop culture desk. He has also appeared as a special guest on Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil and provided the voice for "The Dark One." On April 13, 2021, he entered his 20th Year at ESPN with a new deal.
The specifics regarding Reali's salary included in his new contract are yet to be disclosed. But it can be taken the figures are as high as $1 million. After all, one rightly deserves such benefits having spent two decades in a billion-dollar sports network. Whatever the numbers, nobody can deny the fact that television stations pay enough to live comfortably. Landing a job at ESPN almost provides a good career path where you can see making yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Few or two reports suggest Reali grossing at least over $500,000 in yearly salary. The most popular faces on TV every day earn the most money at ESPN and it applies to Reali as well. Just to have the roughest idea on how much is the 42-year-old income, we can consider Mike Golic, who served as the co-host of Mike and Mike for 17 years, and as of current earns $5million per year for his spot on Golic and Wingo - paid by the same network as that of Reali's.
Of course, he may not be as A-lister as Chris Fowler, Mike Greenberg, Stephen A Smith, and such, but that doesn't mean he is not worth seven figures salary package. Still, as far as the approximation goes, Reali has been estimated to have a net worth of around $2million.
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Once a stat boy on ESPN, Tony Reali is married to Samiya Edwards. She is an African policy consultant and a financial analyst for a Partner at Libera Partners.
Her previous jobs include working at Development Bank of Japan, Good Governance Group, Emerging Capital Partners, and a Public and Global Policy at Facebook, Inc. She holds a Masters in International Economics and International Development from the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She also attended the University of Maryland and Stanford University.
Tony Reali is the father of two children with his wife Samiya Edwards SOURCE: Instagram Samiya and Reali married on July 3, 2008. They had their wedding at a Catholic Church in Virginia Gorda, British Virgin Islands. Their first child, Francesca Zahra, a girl was born in 2014. Years later, they were pregnant once again, only this time, Edwards was expecting twins.
Unfortunately, they lost one of their sons, who they had named Amadeo during the delivery. The other one, Enzo survived via emergency childbirth. The interesting fact, however, is Samiya is nowhere to be seen on Reali's otherwise extroverted Instagram account.
In November 2017, the ESPN analyst shared a story about leaving a show on air to check on his family during the New York City terror attack. In a sadistic 2017 event, a man drove a truck into cyclists and pedestrians in lower Manhattan killing eight people and many more injured.
For Reali, the attack hit close to home, as the driver initially started right outside of his New York City apartment where his wife was. Luckily, his family was safe, but the host describes the incident as one of the stressful moments of his life.
