Rich Eisen
Sports is the ultimate escape, the ultimate in reality programming. It's true drama. You really don't know what's going to happen.Collection: Sports
There are hundreds of millions of people on dating apps every day, but apparently, no such apps cater solely to sports fans.Collection: Dating
I don't want to find out what celebrity X, who is a Browns fan, thinks of the zone blitz scheme. I don't think that's the sort of thing that I would even ask many people when they come on the show; it's very obtuse, even if they are an expert on football.
In broadcasting, you're pretty much married to your job.
When I was at ESPN, I would say in April, 'We should be doing something on the NFL,' and they laughed at me.
I just love hanging out with good company on a great, fun golf course.
Everybody is owned by somebody.
As a former stand-up comic from my University of Michigan days, the opportunity to participate in a Friars Club roast was bucket-list stuff.
Wednesday is always a ramp-up day during Super Bowl week. This is the day that players who didn't make the big game always appear or arrive in the Super Bowl city to hawk their wares or promote a sponsor, so that's why NFL Network always holds the bulk of their coverage from Radio Row at the Super Bowl Media Center.
The Tuesday before the Super Bowl is all about the media. Well, to be honest, every day at the Super Bowl is about the media, but Tuesday of Super Bowl week is specifically called Media Day.
The O. J. Simpson trial was the launching-off point for a lot of our pop culture and news culture habits and touchstones.
We all idolize sports figures, and we see them fall from grace. You just truly never know anybody anymore.
I love 'Game of Thrones' just as much as I love watching the NFL; I think a lot of fans do, too.
I just want to have folks be comfortable and just share and have a good conversation. To me, that's kind of a lost art.
In the sports world it's all about argument. It's all about having a hot take. The other person has to have the polar opposite opinion, and you bash them together. To me it is an outlier to have a conversation be the basis of why you are listening.
Italian wines are my favorites. I like a big, booming red wine that blows your taste buds away.
I try to ask the questions I think fans want to hear and just have a good, relaxed conversation.
Someone who's honest about their golf game, I think, is a person who's right in the world.
I talk about the NFL Draft on a daily basis because this is the sport I cover - this is the show I do - and I talk about everything that's taking place every single day.
There is a lot of information to know, but I prepare for the NFL Draft by coming to work every day.
We just have fun with our NFL Draft coverage because we understand that it's a long process, and there can be technical glitches that we don't profess to ignore. During our late coverage of the Draft, we sometimes get slap-happy and distort the heads of our analysts.
I love having the ability to do podcasts because of the long format, informality, and the opportunity to decide what is said, how the show is laid out, and who the guests are.
I'd call the play-by-play of the action when me and my friends played street ball.
Right before I left ESPN, someone suggested doing a NFL story in the spring. The person was laughed out of the room.
Sports is part of the pop culture landscape in this country, just like music and television and movies.
I don't think people are keen to have Coldplay tell me about Cam Newton's red zone option.
I try to put myself in the position of the fan and the fan in my position. So to be somebody in the stands and be just like everyone else as opposed to having a press pass around my neck is pretty fun.
The days of the heavyweight champion as civil rights leader are long gone. You think you'd see Ali rolling around on the floor of an ESPN Zone? I don't think so.
The days of a tennis champion as a gender rights leader are over.
To be able to come out to Southern California, talk football, and have the ability to also have conversations with celebrities who love football, it's been a dream, and I never once thought, 'Well, this is a lot of pressure.'
I'm living the dream, man.
There's no greater cause in the world than finding cures for our sickest children. And no one does that better than St. Jude because its families never have to worry about paying the hospital for anything.
The raw emotion and physical nature of the NFL definitely push a lot of peoples' buttons. It's played once a week, so every game is important.
The NFL has captured the casual fan.
I realized early on in my life that I couldn't hit the curve or throw the 50-yard post pattern, so talking about it would be my way in.
People are tuning in for one reason and one reason only: to find out what's happened. That's what took me a very long time at 'SportsCenter' to figure out.
It's my job to take the fans sitting at home on their couch and put them in my shoes.
The Draft is about the re-generation of hope and excitement for teams. Every pick your team makes could be the next Tom Brady. He could be the guy who turns around the fortune of the franchise.
I am definitely not the first person with a sports program to have a Hollywood star come on, but I don't know of any that does it as a staple of the program, which is something we are trying to do.
The NFL is part of the pop culture landscape, so sports fans don't bat an eye when you stop in the middle of a piece to talk about a new movie.
I have some guests who get angry when they don't get to talk about sports and have to talk about the project they are promoting.
Good late-night humor can work at any time of the day.
A lot of celebrities promote their films to entertainment reporters and feel like they need to entertain them.
When I'm at the game, I try to put the fans into my shoes. I'm snapping pictures right and left.
By the time I left ESPN in 2003, 'SportsCenter' had become a far different show than the one I initially joined in 1996.
Thanks to the proliferation of information being consumed on mobile devices and the Internet, management changed 'SportsCenter' from being a show where highlights and storytelling ruled the day to a show where analysts ruled the day.
Celebrities love the NFL just as much as the guy who paints his face every week.
I'm a fine wine: I just get better with age. Actually, I'm like the Benjamin Button of the Combine. The older I get, the younger I look and feel.
So many people in my business go through W.W.C.D? What Would Costas Do? There are many things that I do on the air that make me think, 'That's not filled with much gravitas right there.' That's part of my style.
Nothing trumps good conversation.