Rich Eisen Isn't Good At Play-By-Play
NFL Network will carry the Sunday Night Football matchup, Patriots-Broncos, this weekend on Christmas Eve, as NBC handles responsibilities on Saturday.
That means Rich Eisen will be on the call as play-by-play commentator, with Kurt Warner as game analyst.
Most fans are probably unaware that they will have to spend the holiday night hearing Eisen narrate a football game. But expect them to respond not so kindly when they find out.
Eisen has been under notable scrutiny this season as the NFL buffed up its international series, games of which Eisen had called the bulk.
Fans have made it known on social media that they don't enjoy Eisen as a game-caller. And this is not like the case with Joe Buck where fans irrationally convinced themselves the game-caller hates their team and only their team.
Joe Buck hates my team; not yours.
The difference is Eisen has struggled in the booth. He sounds like a studio host trying to call games, which is exactly what he is.
The awkwardness of Eisen's game-calling was on display last Saturday during the Colts-Steelers matchup.
New York Post media reporter Andrew Marchand was particularly critical of Eisen in the booth, as he's been this season.
"Rich Eisen hasn't had enough play-by-play reps and his awkward calls are magnified because he does standalone games," Marchand posted to X.
"I've said and written previously that he is not good on pbp so I was just going a little more into the issues why it is magnified," he adds.
The issue is not just illogical phrasing, such as Eisen shouting "caught again, but incomplete" during the game. It's also his timing.
A-level broadcasters like Buck and Al Michaels build up to moments. For example:
By comparison, Eisen waits until a play is over to tell viewers what took place:
That may seem like a difference of only a small degree. Yet it can be the difference between adding to a game and not.
Buck and Michaels enhance the presentation of a game. Eisen doesn't. At least he hasn't this season.
His lack of timing is, again, mostly due to his decades in the studio. He's used to reacting to plays after having seen them unfold. However, he's not used to describing them as they unfold.
Likewise, producers in a studio can help him avoid repeating the same line over and over, and over again. In the booth, it's up to him.
Thus, the repeated usage of "from the shield" every time a team crosses midfield, one of the fans' most common gripes about the Eisen-led broadcasts:
Dude, just say "from midfield" or "the 50."
Now, we understand why the NFL Network tasked Eisen with its premiere games this season. He helped launch the network. He is the channel's most notable face, other than Ian Rapoport.
Eisen has previously spoken about wanting to call Thursday Night Football when it debuted, though the network opted otherwise.
Still, there is some hypocrisy in NFL Network having Eisen call games. The league pressured ESPN to fix its booth when it struggled through the years of Sean McDonough, Joe Tessitore, and Steve Levy.
ESPN finally fixed the position by adding Joe Buck last season. The NFL rewarded ESPN by giving it better games, like the Chiefs-Eagles matchup this season.
Yet the NFL seems perfectly content with mediocrity in its own-run network's booth. Kurt Warner hasn't exactly claimed a spot among the top-tier game analysts either.
To be clear, Eisen is not Mark Jones on the call. He doesn't undermine the broadcast with dancing and rapping and stupid catchphrases through which he giggles.
Mark Jones sucks. Rich Eisen is below average.
However, Eisen is competing with the likes of Buck at ESPN, Jim Nantz at CBS, Kevin Burkhardt with Fox, and Michaels at Amazon.
He is not on their level. The NFL Network would need to turn to, say, Kevin Harlan, to match the top game-callers of the other networks.
Man, fans are going to be angry on Christmas night...