Monday, November 10, 2008

Entertainer of the Month: Rich Eisen

November's Entertainer of the Month is former ESPN anchor and current NFL Network talking head Rich Eisen. Before I explain the selection, allow me to give some relevant background information. First, I am a sports fan, but a selective one. I follow a lot of different sports, but for many of them I only sit down and watch during the playoffs. Professional football falls into this category. I'm really big into college football and after wasting large portions of my Saturdays watching it, there isn't much time left over for the NFL on Sundays. So instead I watch the 90-minute NFL GameDay Final on NFL Network. It's hosted by Rich Eisen, Deion Sanders and Steve Mariucci. Eisen is capable; Sanders, surprisingly, is not as annoying as you might expect; and Mariucci is professional. So if Eisen is only "capable," why is he being honored here today? Simply put: he is not Chris Berman. Before I got access to the NFL Network, I was forced to get my NFL highlights from SportsCenter which unveils its weekly game recaps by way of countless bad puns from legendary buffoon Chris Berman. He's been at ESPN since the beginning and let me tell you, his shtick has worn tired. So congratulations Rich Eisen for being a palatable alternative to Chris Berman. You are John's Entertainment News Web Log's Entertainer of Month.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you didn't mention Rich's many appearances on VH1's "I Love the 90's" and other decades. Seeing him on that made me think he was a sports guy who envisioned himself as an all encompassing pop culture expert.

Anonymous said...

I actually like Chris Berman. After I watch him I feel like a much better person than he is.

Doug W. said...

I am really pulling for Doug E. Doug for some reason. Speaking of schtick that is old, doesn't Stuart Scott also fall into this category?

morty said...

It's interesting that you should mention Stuart Scott. The past two seasons it's been Chris Berman doing NFL highlights on the Sunday evening SportsCenter. Before that it was Stuart Scott. Every week he would trot out the same sorry catch phrases like "cool as the other side of the pillow." I was happy to see they'd dropped him in favor of someone else. My happiness didn't last, however, when that someone else turned out to be Berman.