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The softer side of Tony Bruno

Inside the world of a sports talk-radio star...and his potty-trained cat.

Tony Bruno plays pool at his home at the Dockside Condos in Philadelphia on November 24, 2013. ( DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer )
Tony Bruno plays pool at his home at the Dockside Condos in Philadelphia on November 24, 2013. ( DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer )Read more

RELAXED IN a leather chair in the middle of his living room as his cat meanders across the hardwood floors, Tony Bruno is in a veritable paradise on this Sunday: football on the big-screen TV, a cheese platter at his side, and a cold bottle of . . . water?

"I don't drink when I watch the game," says the sports-talk radio veteran and host of the Tony Bruno show on 97.5 The Fanatic, from his pad on the 16th floor of the Residences at Dockside, on Columbus Boulevard.

"Well, except for when we have a Super Bowl party," chimes in his girlfriend and show producer, Robin Austin.

"That's different. Everybody's drinking at a Super Bowl party," jokes Bruno, a dead ringer for Walter White from "Breaking Bad," as he sports a blue thermal top and blue jeans. "If Robin makes a drink, [or] we have people over, which we rarely do, I usually just watch the game by myself. Robin's in the other room. I'm sitting in here watching . . . "

Bruno stops, 61, midsentence to chastise his cat, a ragdoll named Lily, for climbing up on the table. "Get outta here," he croons in a Harry Kalas-like tone.

"Robin's a sports fan, although I don't get as crazy as I used to when I watch the games because I chart the games, so I take notes. I chart every play, so it keeps me sane. If I didn't chart the game . . . "

"He's screaming and yelling," Austin interjects.

With the Eagles on a bye this weekend, Bruno is more low-key, although he is primed for the big divisional showdown later in the afternoon between the Eagles' rivals Dallas and New York.

Bruno's pad is tastefully decorated, with modest artwork and some of his mementos along the hallway. One of note is an autograph from John Lennon, hanging outside his office. Lennon signed it following a charity event they did together in 1975, although Bruno is quick to point out he doesn't collect autographs.

With a meaningless game on, the most entertaining thing seems to be Lily, who Bruno brought last year from a breeder in Chicago as a holiday present for Austin. In addition to being friendly like a pooch, she is also toilet-trained.

"She's a great cat," he says. "I didn't wanna have a dog because people have big dogs in this building. These people have gigantic dogs, like great danes and shepherds. And then you gotta take them outside and walk it on Columbus Boulevard where's there no grass. I'm like, I'm not doing that."

- Solomon Leach