Speakers Bio

Sal Paolantonio joined ESPN as a SportsCenter correspondent in August 1995, primarily reporting on the National Football League. Beginning with the 2004 season, he also serves as host of NFL Match-Up, a weekly “Xs and Os” football show produced by NFL Films. Prior to joining ESPN, Paolantonio was a political reporter (1985-93) and beat reporter for the Philadelphia Eagles (1993-95) for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1994, he won the Associated Press Sports Editors Award for Reporting.



Paolantonio also served as a reporter for Philadelphia’s WPHL-TV nightly newscast -- Inquirer News Tonight (1994-95), and hosted Saturday Morning Sports Page, a weekly call-in show on Philadelphia’s WIP-AM all-sports radio (1993-95).



Previously, Paolantonio was a reporter for the Albany Times Union, where he received the Associated Press Managing Editor’s Award for Enterprise Reporting (1985).



Paolantonio’s biography of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, “The Last Big Man in Big City America,” was published in 1993.



Paolantonio, a native of Queens, N.Y., was graduated from the State University of New York at Oneonta in 1977 with a bachelor of arts degree in history. He also attended New York University, where he received a master’s degree in journalism in 1978.



After receiving his Master’s degree, Paolantonio served in the U.S. Navy (1979-83), where he was awarded the United Nations Meritorious Service Medal in 1983. Born June 13, 1956, Paolantonio is married with three children.