‘This Was SportsCenter’ podcast is a smart nostalgia play by Rich Eisen

“It’s a powerful, powerful emotion, nostalgia, and I’m leaning into it.”

-Rich Eisen

A podcast series about the glory days of SportsCenter seems so obvious that you wonder why it had not been tried before.

Credit Rich Eisen for recognizing the value of nostalgia and for creating one of the summer’s better pods. This Was SportsCenter: Stories from the Set concluded its six-episode first season earlier this month, and it was a delightful listen. Real inside-baseball stuff for old heads and really anyone who follows sports media.

Season One featured Dan Patrick, Chris Berman, Mike Greenberg, Linda Cohn, Chris Fowler, and Craig Kilborn. We heard stories about Patrick getting into an ultra-competitive basketball game with the late Stuart Scott, a SportsCenter anchor having a panic attack just before going on air, and Kilborn’s hilarious Clint Eastwood story. And much more.

There was a time when SportsCenter was more than a highlights show. It was not only a place to get a daily download of the day’s sports news. This version of infotainment was an integral part of pop culture. Every athlete wanted to be on it, and every viewer connected with it on a deeply personal level. The SportsCenter anchors were rockstars, and spotting them in a music video or out in the wild was a big deal.

Those days are gone. While SportsCenter remains a major part of the ESPN brand, it no longer holds the same cultural relevance, through no fault of its own. Times have changed. Nobody sits around anymore waiting for the highlights. You can get them on demand on your phone. The SportsCenter anchors still matter, but not as much as they once did.

“There’s not going to be another collection of SportsCenter anchors like that anymore,” said MLB Network’s Robert Flores, a former SportsCenter anchor. “With all due respect to the current and future SportsCenter anchors, we’re just not going to have the same cultural impact or relevance that Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Craig Kilborn, Linda Cohn had. Because the industry is different. ESPN is a different company. Their priorities are different. The world is different. I thought it was a pretty cool podcast series.”

One reason This Was SportsCenter works is that Eisen is the ideal host. When one media member interviews another, there needs to be an essential level of comfort. Eisen gets his guests talking, so it feels more like a conversation than a straightforward interview. He’s part of an exclusive fraternity, a former SportsCenter anchor who succeeded both while at ESPN and after he left.

During his interviews with Patrick, Berman, Cohn, and others, he weaves in his own experience and perspectives, lending the podcast added weight. It’s the kind of inside-the-industry dialogue that many podcasts can’t fully deliver.

Credit to ESPN as well. Based solely on the frankness of the interviews, it seems The Worldwide Leader in Sports stayed out of Eisen’s way. Eisen, a SportsCenter anchor from 1996-2003, had an acrimonious exit from ESPN. That’s not unusual. But now the two are reunited because of the ESPN-NFL Network merger.

Of course, Eisen now has more leverage. He owns his content through Rich Eisen Productions, which is distributed across ESPN’s various platforms. Still, ESPN must recognize that serving its audience the truth, rather than a sanitized version of the facts, is better for the podcast and the network.

Linda Cohn tried one SportsCenter catchphrase that was immediately banned by ESPN executives. https://t.co/BqaNJmvrtn

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 21, 2026

The best compliment you can give This Was SportsCenter is that it leaves you wanting more. It’s like hanging out with your college friends and suddenly realizing that time’s up and everyone has to go home. There is the hope that there will be a Season Two.

Everyone probably has their own wishlist, but in this writer’s opinion, it would be fascinating to hear from Keith Olbermann, Kenny Mayne, and Suzy Kolber. Charley Steiner would also be great, assuming he’s healthy enough to participate.

After the final episode of Season One of This Was SportsCenter, you realize the podcast isn’t just about nostalgia.

You have a greater appreciation for the people who helped shape the broadcast world we live in today.