To keep the football (not draft) talk strong, I wanted to throw out some NFL-related thoughts, and some more thoughts on how I’m going to keep my mind on football a little while longer.
Y’know, when someone mentions the NFL Network they usually talk about how bad Bryant Gumbel is. While I completely agree, because they who trash him are completely right, where’s the positive talk? Everything’s about how terrible of a commentator Gumbel is or how awful it is that NFL Network keeps Thursday and Saturday night games ensconced late in the year.
Where’s the credit given to Rich Eisen? Most people I know who are avid watchers of the NFL Network agree with me when I say this: Eisen’s the man! The former SportsCenter anchor, now-NFL Network Total Access host has some of the funniest and wittiest things to say. Not to mention he keeps it cool, under pressure, y’know, and is collective with his thoughts and doesn’t screw up like Gumbel.
I know Rich wrote a book and put it out on the market last October, but I never had the time to check it out. I plan to pick it up this weekend and finish it in a few days. The book is called Total Access: A Journey to the Center of the NFL Universe. From the reviews I’ve read, Eisen’s wit and humor is back again in the book and is nothing short of his comical excellence that he exemplifies on Total Access. Not to mention some inside scoop on the NFL itself, the scouting combine and, of course, the nonchalantness of the Pro Bowl.
1 Comment
April 19, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I happen to like Rich also but sometimes he can get a bit tiresome, usually directly connected to how long the NFL Network has him on the air, which is always. They have two hour pre-game shows, he’s on every night, etc. He gets a LOT of exposure and quite frankly you’d be tired of anyone after seeing them ad-lib for that long. He’s the face of the Network and obviously they like to use him as much as possible, because their other anchor candidates are very poor. It’s not his fault that he has to carry all the load, but I think some folks don’t give him enough credit because he’s on so much he begins to grate on them. The NFL Network needs to give him some help and let him ratchet back on the workload – keeping him and his presentation skills and wit all fresher. I remember watching him during their coverage of the Super Bowl two years back when the Colts played the Bears (I was out of work so I saw ALL of it). He was awesome, but he was on all the time and anyone in that position would begin to come off as repetitious and redundant after all those hours logged.