Tony Kornheiser
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| Tony Kornheiser | |
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| Born | July 13, 1948 Lynbrook, New York, USA |
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| Occupation | Sports Columnist Radio host Television host TV commentator |
| Spouse | Karril |
| Children | Elizabeth and Michael |
| Parents | Ira and Estelle |
Anthony Irwin Kornheiser (born July 13, 1948) is an American sportswriter and former columnist for The Washington Post, as well as a radio and television talk show host. Kornheiser has hosted The Tony Kornheiser Show on radio in various forms since 1992; co-hosted Pardon the Interruption on ESPN since 2001 with Michael Wilbon; and served as an analyst for ESPN's Monday Night Football since 2006.
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[edit] Personal
Kornheiser was born and raised in Lynbrook, New York, USA, on Long Island where he attended Hewlett High School.[1] After graduation he enrolled in Harpur College, now Binghamton University, where he began his journalism career and graduated with a degree in English in 1970. During the summers of his youth, he attended Camp Keeyumah, a summer camp in Pennsylvania. His counselor there was now famous basketball coach Larry Brown.
Kornheiser is the only child of Ira and Estelle Kornheiser.[2] Kornheiser grew up in a Jewish household, and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at a Conservative synagogue. Kornheiser currently resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife Karril. They have two children, Michael and Elizabeth.
On August 15, 2006, Kornheiser revealed on The Dan Patrick Show that he had skin cancer and had received treatment.[3]
Politically, Kornheiser describes himself as a "blue state guy". He and Wilbon are good friends with Democratic political advisor James Carville, who has appeared several times on PTI.
[edit] Print career
Kornheiser began his career in New York City, where he wrote for Newsday between 1970 and 1976, The New York Times between 1976 and 1979, and also worked as a teacher. Kornheiser joined The Washington Post in 1979 as a general assignment reporter in Style and Sports.[4] He became a full-time sports columnist in 1984. He also wrote columns for the Post's Style Section between November 12, 1989 and September 30, 2001.
His columns are usually sarcastic with touches of humor. The most distinct style of his columns is that he often uses his alter ego in italics to question his points of views for self-deprecation, like "Excuse me, Tony..."
In 1991, Kornheiser created a string of now-famous Bandwagon[5] columns to describe the Washington Redskins' incredible Super Bowl run that year. He started the idea when the Washington Redskins trounced the Detroit Lions 45-0. He officially unveiled the first Bandwagon column when the Redskins were 4-0. From then on, the Bandwagon column appeared weekly. When the Redskins advanced to Super Bowl XXVI, Kornheiser and his Post colleagues Jeanne McManus and Norman Chad rode a 33-foot recreational vehicle decorated as the Bandwagon for a 1,200-mile journey to Minneapolis, Minnesota.[6]
In the 1990s, Kornheiser usually wrote three columns per week, which were a Tuesday column and a Thursday column in the Sports Section and a Sunday column in the Style Section. Because of his work on both radio and Pardon the Interruption, he stopped writing Style Section columns and only wrote one column a week. His last Style Section column was published on September 30, 2001.[7] His three books, Pumping Irony, Bald as I Wanna Be and I'm Back for More Cash, are the compilations of his Style Section columns.
As part of his ESPN Radio contract, Kornheiser wrote columns called Parting Shots for ESPN The Magazine between 1998 and 2000.
In 2005, Kornheiser started to write short columns called A Few Choice Words with his photo in the Post's Sports Section. These short, sports-related columns appear on the 2nd page of the Post's Sports section and are much shorter than the full-length columns Kornheiser used to write for the paper. This is the first time The Washington Post posts a columnist's photo beside his column. He calls these short columns "columnettes". He usually writes three "columnettes" per week unless he has other duties. He did not write columns between April 26, 2006 and August 7, 2006 to prepare as an analyst of ESPN's Monday Night Football.
Starting August 8, 2006,[8] he writes columns called Monday Night Diary to describe his adventures on Monday Night Football. However, he has not written a column since October 5, 2006[9] because of his various TV and radio duties. His short-column space was later replaced by Dan Steinberg's D.C. Sports Bog.[10]
Kornheiser was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.[11]
On May 14, 2008, it was announced that Kornheiser had accepted a buyout from the Post.[12]
[edit] Radio career
He hosted The Tony Kornheiser Show first locally on WTEM, better known as Sports Talk 980, in Washington, D.C. between May 25, 1992 and November 14, 1997. The show was then syndicated by ESPN radio between January 5, 1998 and March 26, 2004. He was back on WTEM locally between November 10, 2004 and April 28, 2006. His show was once carried by XM Satellite Radio between February 28, 2005 and April 28, 2006.
After completing the 2006 season on ESPN's Monday Night Football, Kornheiser signed with WTWP, Washington Post Radio, to relaunch his radio show on February 20, 2007.[13] The show aired live from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and was then replayed from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. XM Radio carried his show on a thirty-minute delay, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., beginning March 5, 2007 on XM Sports Nation, Channel 144.[14] Kornheiser went on hiatus from the show following the June 28, 2007 broadcast because of his Monday Night Football duties. The show was hosted by David Burd and included the same supporting cast. The show was called The Tony Kornheiser Show Starring David Burd during the hiatus. Kornheiser returned to the show as the full-time host on January 21, 2008. The show airs live from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and is replayed from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m on WWWT, and on XM Sports Nation, XM channel 144 from 8:15 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.[15]
[edit] Television career
He appeared on a local weekly Washington Redskins TV show during the NFL football season on Washington's Channel 50 in the early 1980s with Pete Wysocki, a popular former Redskins LB and local hero, which was televised from a local restaurant/bar in Washington, D.C. called "Champions".
He appeared on ESPN's The Sports Reporters beginning in 1988. He sometimes guest-hosted the program when the then host of the show, the late Dick Schaap, was away.
He is also a panelist on Full Court Press hosted by George Michael on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. during the NFL off-season. He sometimes guest-hosts Redskins Report on WRC when Michael is away.
He has appeared on numerous other ESPN productions, including Sportscenter, "Who's Number One?", and multiple player's/sportsman's profiles entitled "Sportscentury".
[edit] Pardon the Interruption
His lively segments with colleague Michael Wilbon on the radio and on Full Court Press, which mirrored their actual discussions in the press room of The Washington Post, sparked the idea for Pardon the Interruption well before the end of his run at ESPN Radio. As of August 2006, Pardon the Interruption is the highest rated sports talk show on ESPN.
[edit] Monday Night Football
When Monday Night Football moved from ABC to ESPN, Kornheiser received and accepted an offer to be a color analyst on Monday Night Football in early 2006. He was originally passed over in favor of Sunday Night Football commentator Joe Theismann; however, when play-by-play man Al Michaels left ABC/ESPN, Kornheiser was brought in alongside Theismann and new play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico.
Unlike Wilbon, Kornheiser does most episodes of PTI in-studio due to his self-admitted fear of flying. Prior to joining MNF, his last trips outside of the studio were to cover Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans and to attend the NFL owners meetings in Orlando in 2006; Kornheiser both times travelled via train, though returned from the Orlando trip via airplane. On the April 6, 2006 edition of PTI, he expressed his dismay at the amount of travel required for MNF. Though he has mentioned on his radio program that he is taking steps to overcome his aviophobia, he in fact spent a five-week period on the road travelling to mainly western MNF sites, doing PTI via satellite.
Kornheiser has returned for a second season of Monday Night Football. On January 9, 2007, Kornheiser told Newsday, "If they would like to have me back, my inclination is that I would like to do it again."[16]
Kornheiser reportedly earns $1.8 million for being a Monday Night Football announcer and $900,000 for co-hosting PTI.[17].
[edit] Entertainment
The 2004–2005 sitcom Listen Up, which aired on CBS, was loosely based on Kornheiser's life. It featured Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) as Tony Kleinman, and the sitcom's material mostly came from Kornheiser's columns (collected in I'm Back for More Cash) that he contributed to the "Style" section of the Washington Post; the columns took a humorous view of his family life.
[edit] Criticism
While earning a name as a critic of many people and organizations, he is famously averse to criticism himself.[18] Stephen Rodrick wrote for Slate that Tony Kornheiser was allowed by ESPN to argue aimlessly on television and that his Washington Post column was being used to plug side projects rather than gather news from cited sources.[19] Kornheiser called on Slate, then owned by The Washington Post, to fire Rodrick.[20]
After Kornheiser's first game on Monday Night Football, Paul Farhi wrote in The Washington Post that Kornheiser had emphasized the obvious, played third fiddle, and was reminiscent of Dennis Miller "in a bad way."[21] Kornheiser responded saying that Farhi was a "two-bit weasel slug" and his own newspaper had back-stabbed him during an interview on The Dan Patrick Show on August 15, 2006. His response generated more criticism from The Washington Post[22] and other media outlets.
Mike Golic, an ESPN colleague of Kornheiser's, who had expressed skepticism regarding his prospects as an on-air analyst because he was never an athlete,[23] said that his performance on MNF was "fine." Kornheiser's response was, "I just want to wring Golic's neck and hang him up over the back of a shower rod like a duck."[24] It should be mentioned that Kornheiser is known for his use of exaggerated phrases for humorous effect.
Kornheiser also has an ongoing feud with Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times dating back to 2004 when Kornheiser's nationally syndicated radio show was replaced in the Chicago area with Mariotti's new radio show. Kornheiser believes through things he heard from Mariotti's radio producers that Mariotti purposely wanted to host the show that took over Kornheiser's time slot in an effort to anger Kornheiser. Kornheiser has also stated on the ESPN show Sports Reporters that he would be more than pleased if Mariotti happened to be hit by a bus.
Kornheiser's distaste for Mariotti is evident any time Mariotti's name is mentioned on PTI by either his co-host Wilbon or "stat boy" Reali. This often prompts the usually upbeat Kornheiser to suddenly become more serious in tone and appearance as he often responds by saying something along the lines of, "You know that is the name that shall not be spoken," before changing the subject and moving on to another topic.
In fairness to Kornheiser, although he has been criticized by many of his national sports writing and broadcasting colleagues on a number of issues mentioned above, it must be noted that Mariotti is just as often a target of criticism due to his documented history of being confrontational and vindictive to several high profile broadcasters, reporters, columnists, professional athletes and front office personnel on numerous occasions in public and in print.
[edit] Books
- Kornheiser, Tony (1983). The Baby Chase. New York: Atheneum, 212 pages. ISBN 0-689-11354-4.
- Kornheiser, Tony (1995). Pumping Irony: Working Out the Angst of a Lifetime. New York: Times Books. ISBN 0-812-92474-6.
- Kornheiser, Tony (1997). Bald as I Wanna Be. New York: Villard, 304 pages. ISBN 0-375-50037-5.
- Kornheiser, Tony (2002). I’m Back for More Cash: a Tony Kornheiser collection (Because You Can’t Take Two Hundred Newspapers into the Bathroom). New York: Villard, 379 pages. ISBN 0-375-50754-X.
[edit] References and notes
- ^ Noah Borenstein (2002-08-09). Of fatherhood and Tiger Woods, ESPN's Tony Kornheiser says viewers dig his real-guy image. The Forward.
- ^ Neil Best (2006-06-25), Are you ready for some football?, Kornheiser will see whether his style plays well on MNF. Newsday
- ^ John Moredich (2006-08-16). Kornheiser's debut ripped by his own newspaper. Tucson Citizen.
- ^ Tony Kornheiser bio. Washington Post Radio. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
- ^ Tony Kornheiser (1997). Tony Kornheiser's bandwagon. The Washington Post.
- ^ George Solomon (1992-01-19). Are we there yet? Bandwagon rolls out on 1,150-mile journey. The Washington Post.
- ^ Tony Kornheiser (2001-09-30). The long, long, long, long goodbye. The Washington Post.
- ^ Tony Kornheiser (2006-08-08). 'Monday Night Football': my good snooze spoiled. The Washington Post.
- ^ Tony Kornheiser (2006-10-05). He hits the five-hole, and a hole-in-one. The Washington Post.
- ^ Dan Steinberg. D.C. Sports Bog. The Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
- ^ 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. The Pulitzer Board. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
- ^ MacMillan, Robert (2008-05-14), Broder, Kornheiser take Washington Post buyout, Reuters, <http://www.reuters.com/article/artsNews/idUSN1449566220080515?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0>. Retrieved on 15 May 2008
- ^ Kornheiser Comes to Washington Post Radio. WTOP Radio (2007-01-23).
- ^ Tony Kornheiser to Air Nationwide on XM Satellite Radio. XM Radio (2007-02-15).
- ^ Tony Kornheiser Returns to XM Satellite Radio. CNN Money.com (2008-01-10).
- ^ Neil Best (2007-01-10). Kornheiser back on Monday Night Football. Newsday.
- ^ Emmett Meara (2006-02-16). Sports radio wiseguy Kornheiser may bail on XM. Bangor Daily News.
- ^ David Carr (2006-08-21). Pigskin to Thin Skin to Skin Alive. New York Times.
- ^ Stephen Rodrick (2005-01-25). Unpardonable Interruptions: How television killed the newspaper sports column.. Slate.
- ^ Felix Gillette (2006-08-16). Post’s Farhi Scores Clean Tackle - on a Teammate. '"Columbia Journalism Review.
- ^ Paul Farhi (2006-08-15). Kornheiser, not yet in game shape on 'MNF'. The Washington Post.
- ^ Deborah Howell (2006-08-20). Unsportsmanlike conduct. The Washington Post.
- ^ Jay Posner (2006-02-09). Al Michaels opts out of MNF. San Diego Union-Tribune.
- ^ Elizabeth Newman (2006-08-17). Pardon this interruption (cont.). ESPN.
[edit] External links
- Tony’s recent sports columns from The Washington Post (requires registration)
- Tony Kornheiser video recapping the 1985 season of the Washington Redskins at YouTube
- This Website Stinks! An Unofficial Tony Kornheiser Website Dedicated to Tony Kornheiser's Radio Show and his Monday Night Football gig
- The Tony Kornheiser unofficial home page includes an archive of columns from 1996–2001
- News Channel 8 A message board for fans of The Tony Kornheiser Show
