None of the well-known ESPN personalities, former or otherwise, might be more recognizable than Chris Berman and Rich Eisen. Berman and Eisen, in their own ways, became venerable sportscasters for the Worldwide Leader. Berman became a prominent voice for the National Football League, and so too did Eisen. Remember: He was NFL Network’s lead man when the network launched in the early 2000s.
Eisen joined the network in 1996, while the elder stateman Berman had been there since the network’s launch in September 1979. So it’s safe to say that if a young Eisen looked for anyone for advice, Berman might be at the top of the list.
“I’ll never forget when I got to ESPN. I came from Reading, California. And you were doing SportsCenter in that rare kind of week for you where you would come back,” Eisen explained. “It was like a Bristol residency for you.”
“I was in what they called ‘observation mode.’ So again, I would observe before they put me on the air. They wanted to make sure I got the scheme of things. And I was in the meeting room. You walked in, and the guy I saw on television was the guy who walked in the room. And you were pure, and I picked up from that. I picked up that the people who are successful and everyone we were working with who were terrific colleagues were the same on the air as they were off the air. But I went through this period of time, in my first three weeks I was on the air, where I was walking the hallways and wondering if I’d belonged.”
Eisen asked Berman if they still had ESPN signs hung up on the wall for people to sign. Berman replied, “Yes, for charity.” Eisen explained the method of how these signs worked, and explained he was nervous about signing them.
“I was nervous about signing them because I didn’t know if somebody would be coming out of their offices seeing the new kid signing like he belonged,” he said.
“So I go into the makeup room because you’re doing a Baseball Tonight just before SportsCenter I was doing after. And you’re in the makeup chair, and I go up to you. I’d never spoken to you before, and I said to you, this is the first time I’d ever spoken to you, Chris. I explained my conundrum. How many do I have to? I said you’re the perfect person to ask. How many SportsCenters do I have to do before I feel comfortable signing? And your answer was like, ‘How many have you done? At least one?’ And I said several, and you said, ‘Yeah, sign ’em all!'”
“The value of those banners went up unbelievably,” Berman joked.
Eisen said he “immediately pivoted” and signed them all. He told Berman he “could have easily big-timed him,” but he admitted it made him feel comfortable on the spot. Berman thanked him for that, as Eisen appeared extremely gracious. This was a great television moment between two of sports broadcasting’s most recognizable figures.
