Rich Eisen

I grew up in a family that worshiped football. Every Sunday, Monday & Thursday. Every holiday, every family gathering that I can remember has a TV with a game on, even if it was just an old game being replayed. Because, yes, my family had games on tapes. My grandmother kept team schedules, rankings, game times and scores posted to a wall in the hallway [it took up most of the hall] and everyone in the family had their own team.

Now, that being said, I still managed to know absolutely nothing about football. I wouldn't have even be able to tell you who was playing offense and who defense.

Then I started dating a boy, whose life also revolved around football. Draft included. He gave me this book as my initiation into the NFL during our first football season together.

I read it, all the way. Rich Eisen is a fabulous writer, hilarious and sufficiently explanatory. I wasn't ever confused or bored or smothered by technical terms. When I was done with the book, I felt I actually had a legitimately better understanding of the game, the rules and the culture.

Love it.… (más)

NFL Network host takes reader through what a year of covering various NFL events is like, starting with the Super Bowl and culminating in "the eight game package" (eight regular season games shown on NFL network at season's end). I enjoyed this one a lot, thanks to Eisen's oftentimes witty and interesting style. Ironically, I was finishing reading the book right about the time I was also losing my "access" to NFL Network thanks to the situation between them and Comcast Cable. (Finished reading 5/2/09)… (más)

Rich Eisen is the host of NFL Total Access and as such has a privileged insight behind the scenes of the NFL. The book is named after the show and to start off with the main downer - it is quite clearly a long advert for the US audience to purchase the TV channel. This point is reinforced throughout by Eisen's continued references to the involvement of his show and it can be a little grating.

I thought the continued selling would irritate but Eisen is one of the most engaging writers I have ever read in any genre. The quality of the writing itself is exceptional and the anecdotes that cover most of the 300+ pages are fun, entertaining, and are the real insight here. The world that Eisen delves into is the one that the fan will never see - the characters behind the masks. Total Access crew members such as Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders get the most coverage but tales such as the Pro Bowl room key game are something that just can't be seen from the other side of a TV screen.

Probably the most entertaining anecdote comes with the apparently humourless and robotic Peyton Manning ribbing Eisen on his own TV show. I'll still never be a Peyton fan but it was a real joy to have a fun side be shown.

For the casual fan of the NFL, the book does give a step by step outline of the key events in the calendar including training camps, pre-season, the regular season, post season, Hall of Fame, Owners Meeting, Combine, and Draft. None of these are shown in acute detail and Eisen is not aiming to bring new analysis to the fanbase but what he does achieve repeatedly is bringing light and fun to each area.

There is a downpoint in the book and it is Chapter 6. Chapter 6 is just a set of different "interesting" anecdotes but without showing anything of character. The section in the chapter that posts various emails Eisen received was so dull that I just skipped 10 pages.

While I'm on about negatives, the foreward by Steve Sabol is the worst I have ever read and is indulgent luvvie nonsense that has no place in such a quality book.

If you like the NFL at all, get this book. Laugh out loud at Eisen's attempts to run the 40 in front of the watching head coach crowd, or at the pranks they all seem to be pulling on each other constantly. Most of all just enjoy the fun surrounding what is the greatest game sports has to offer.… (más)