During an appearance on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast, NFL Network host Rich Eisen revealed he’ll be in the booth as a play-by-play announcer this season for the network.
Podcast host Jimmy Traina asked Eisen about his recent extension, before revealing the news.
“I signed for four more years, Jimmy,” Eisen told Traina. “My contract now takes me through year 23 there.”
Traina ask Eisen if he had ever considered leaving NFL Network, and he responded with a resounding no, which contradicts a statement he gave to Ariel Helwani in August.
“Negotiating with the NFL — this just in — is not a lot of fun,” Eisen joked. “But the commissioner himself has been terrific. He’s always been a man of his word, ever since I started saying ‘if you need me, give me a call’ when he was the COO, now he’s the top guy in the NFL and has been for quite some time. This is season 20, year 19, for me so I’ve re-signed there, and I just love being with the same people that I’ve been with for so long. There’s still some originals with me. And I just love being the tip of that spear. GameDay Morning, love doing that. Love doing the draft, love doing the combine, so my schedule is the same. Very excited about that. Looks like I’ll be calling some games this fall on NFL Network as well, excited about that.”
When asked by Traina for details about announcing games, Eisen
“I don’t know if I’m at liberty to say which games I’m doing, but I love calling games. Nothing like being at the stadium, nothing like being involved with a broadcast. I just dig it. I loved calling baseball games at ESPN and love calling games whenever I’m in the booth for the NFL.”
NFL Network holds the rights to late-season Saturday games, which are slated to begin in Week 15 on Saturday, December 17th. Currently, the only confirmed broadcast scheduled for NFL Network is on Christmas Eve between the Las Vegas Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers.
