UMD Panelist’s ‘Around the Horn’ Highlight Reel

Back in 2014, months after then-Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman went viral for trash-talking 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree in a postgame interview with Fox reporter Erin Andrews, the Seattle star appeared as a panelist on ESPN’s “Around the Horn.”

Or so it seemed. As viewers of the network’s long-running debate program took a closer look at their screens, they discovered that the jersey-wearing, eye-blacked figure was regular contributor Kevin Blackistone, dressing up as part of the show’s annual Halloween hijinks.

“I came over to Gossett Hall and asked them if I could borrow some pads,” said Blackistone, professor of the practice at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a sports columnist at The Washington Post. “That was the University of Maryland’s contribution (to the costume).”

It’s one of his top memories from the show, which, after airing more than 4,900 episodes since its debut in November 2002, is hanging up its cleats Friday. Airing weekdays at 5 p.m., the show featured four columnists or media personalities from across the country discussing the day’s hottest sports topics. Host Tony Reali would use his discretion to click up the panelists’ point totals for well-thought-out takes—or mute them if they took the conversation out of bounds—with the top two facing off in a showdown at the end of the episode.

“‘Around the Horn’ has had a remarkable run of more than two decades,” David Roberts, ESPN executive vice president and executive editor of sports news and entertainment, said in a release. “That kind of longevity in media is incredibly rare.”

Blackistone was a columnist at The Dallas Morning News when he joined the show in 2003 and went on to appear in the lineup on more than 1,600 episodes, winning over 300. He took Maryland Today behind the scenes, reflecting on his favorite parts of the series, what he’ll miss most and why it became such a sports staple:

Varied Voices
“Around the Horn” originally aired a year after ESPN debuted “Pardon the Interruption,” a similar debate-style show featuring former Washington Post sportswriters Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. But “Around the Horn’s” rotation of panelists—from Woody Paige in Denver to Tim Cowlishaw in Dallas to Mina Kimes in Los Angeles—offered expanded viewpoints and new, fresh ideas each episode, Blackistone said.

“What people told me is they like the multiple voices and the variety of opinion that you get from the roster of people that are on the show,” he said. “You’re hard-pressed to find a more diverse group of opinionists in sports on any program. We are men, women, Black, white, Latino, Asian, straight, gay, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, nones.”

On-air Antics
Besides the Halloween episodes—where Blackistone also dressed up as Big Baller Brand CEO LaVar Ball and NBA player James Harden, among others—the “Around the Horn” crew annually embraced April foolery. In Blackistone’s favorite April 1 episode, they completed the show in reverse, with the showdown at the beginning and working backward from there.

But every show welcomed some good-hearted jabs thanks to its debate style—and its points system that to this day, only the host really understands, Blackistone said.

“Tony Reali was 100% incorrect any time he muted me,” he said with a laugh. “There’s not a statistician or mathematician at the University of Maryland who could figure out this scoring system.”

Tackling Serious Topics
All jokes aside, Blackistone appreciated how the “Around the Horn” panelists didn’t just “shut up and dribble.” They covered race, gender, religion, domestic violence and other issues relevant in sports and society, from quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem to unequal resources for men’s and women’s athletics.

“We have been done doing the show, and some huge sports news breaks, and they have called us all back in to retape the show,” he said. “When we talk about serious topics, that’s where you get reaction from people saying they’re glad that you tackled that issue, you didn’t shy away from it.”

Well-Rounded Research
Planning for each day’s “Around the Horn” episode started the night before, when producers, directors and Reali kicked around possible topics. They looped in panelists like Blackistone for a 10:30 a.m. conference call the next morning, and by the 2 p.m. taping—just three hours ahead of airtime—the show’s research team had provided packets with background and stats on each issue.

“The conversations that we have on the conference call about these issues are also very valuable, because I hear a point of view that I may not have considered,” Blackistone said. “I’m really going to miss that research and back-and-forth with other panelists.”

Family Atmosphere
One of the things he loved most about his years on the show, Blackistone said, was the camaraderie among the panelists, who frequently ran into each other covering games and became more than just colleagues.

“When my mother died, Tony Reali came down from New York to her funeral,” Blackistone said. “We have mourned deaths in this family, we have celebrated births, we have celebrated and been in weddings. It’s a tight-knit, friendly group, and that’s one of the things I’ll miss about it.”