DALLAS -- Dave Smith, the sports editor who presided over SportsDay during its heyday, when it was gobbling up national awards like I go after donuts on a Saturday morning, was not famous for throwing money around. Other than an unlimited travel budget that allowed him to send his writers all over the globe, he pulled the reins in tight. Freelance opportunities were frowned upon and frequently denied. And when Yours Truly replaced You Know Who as sports columnist in 1998, he said, "We won't be having any more radio stars around here."
But, at heart, Dave wanted what was best for everyone, which is why it was both out of character and perfectly understandable when he excitedly pulled me aside one afternoon in 2002 and said, "ESPN wants to talk to you. They're going to do another show along the lines of PTI." Reducing his voice to a whisper, he added, "I think there might be some decent money in this."
On Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. I will sit down in the TV studio ESPN built adjacent to The News' sports office (I think this is at least my third studio, memory fades) and stare into a camera where I can see the other panelists on a very small screen and "perform" on Around the Horn. It usually takes about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes, to tape the half-hour show.
It will be my 2,114th appearance over a 22 1/2-year period. It will also be my last.
I turned 70 in March, but I'm not retiring from television so much as being retired by the network. Outsiders have more opinions on why the show is being canceled than I do.
The ratings are falling. Not true. We still get more viewers than the SportsCenter shows that air throughout the day, which, for now, is our replacement.
The show is too woke. That's an opinion held by some, a word that generally means "something that doesn't reflect exactly what I think," but that's not why we're leaving either. If that's your dim view of the world, sorry, plenty of "woke" still left on ESPN.
Those are the explanations I hear the most, but, again, they come from outsiders. No one at or near the top of ESPN ever called and said here's why we're doing this. Erik Rydholm, the slightly brilliant creator of PTI, Horn and several other shows, called last summer to tell me he thought it might happen. But, like everyone else, I had already read about it in the New York Post.
Understand that I am not complaining, merely explaining. I never desired a TV career and ended up averaging two national shows a week for 22 years. The idea that I would have the second-most appearances was the furthest thing from my mind when ESPN flew us to New York, put us up in the Essex House, then had us meet for a very loud four hours at Carnegie Deli. I was seated at a table with Woody Paige, Bob Ryan, Jay Mariotti and Max Kellerman along with the late T.J. Simers and producer Bill Wolff. If you think I did much of the talking, you don't know Woody, Bob, Jay or Max.
Initially, I was terrible on TV, talking in a monotone, afraid to bother the news reporters seated around me. The first set was open and built right in the middle of the newsroom. Reporters on their phones doing real work for The News were less than 10 feet away from me, and all of a sudden at 1 o'clock, I'm supposed to start shouting whether Tracy McGrady is better than Vince Carter as if it's the thing I care about most in the world.
After a few months, maybe a year, I became better at tuning everyone else out. I had a job to do. It helped when they moved the studio a few times, and ever since The News moved next to the Statler, I sit inside a glass-enclosed office and can shout all I want without anyone shaking their heads and moving away.
On Friday, the shouting stops. In fairness, this show had a lot more shouting and people talking over each other in its first few years. For the last 15 years, our show has been more civilized than most on ESPN or CNN or Fox, for that matter. Mostly, while discussing the major topics in sports, we try to be funny. That's it. Honest and occasionally thought-provoking but mostly funny.
I don't see a lot of funny on ESPN these days. I see plenty of frowning and scowling. I see more than a few people who look like they can't stand the person seated across from them. That negative energy may produce the occasional viral moment everyone is forced to pursue these days, but can it sustain an audience?
Not my problem.
I went to a wedding in Austin last month, another of my college roommate's kids getting married. Most on the groom's side were recent KU graduates. College kids and slightly older have been and remain the target audience for Around the Horn, and if those kids have stopped watching the show, they did a masterful job of disguising it by asking for selfies throughout the night.
I've had plenty of time on television, more than anyone needs, far more than I deserve and, yes, Dave was right. There was decent money involved -- not the kind you read about regarding the network's supposed superstars but plenty to sustain through the usual midlife crises. In my case, that means lots of baseball cards and therapy, which are kind of directed toward the same thing, now that I consider it.
I had not thought I would miss the show greatly until this week, when I started watching the sign-offs by some of the younger panelists (and by younger I mean everyone else on the show besides Woody and Bob), hearing how much it meant to them to just be part of something I helped to build.
I never thought in those terms. I rarely watched the show when I was on other than to see if a certain line worked because I hate seeing myself on television. After Friday, I don't have to worry about that anymore, either.
Thanks, ESPN, for everything. Try to have some fun.
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