Rich Eisen Interview: His travel bug, dreams of NFL games in Paris and Dublin – and busting the Jets bias

Rich Eisen is one game into the NFL’s European tour and the travel bug has bitten. After Sunday’s game was called between the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jetshe will be back at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium on Sunday ahead of a huge trip to Germany next month.

“I like it. I mean, I’d like to call a game where I’m not suddenly tired. But other than that, I like coming here. I like I love the city, I love the fans. It’s really a blessing to be in Tottenham. I can’t wait for the next one week.”

Talking to The AthleticsEisen has something he wants to get off his chest.

“I’ve been getting a lot of roasting in the upper midwest, in Minnesota, for hitting a homer for the Jets – but I’ll tell you this. Anyone who knows me knows that the opportunities I get to call these games are very important to me. I respect them, and the last thing I’m going to do is spend a second turning myself into a homer, knowing that would alienate half the viewers. That’s not what I want to do, or would think of doing.

“That’s why it’s called broadcasting, right? It’s not casting, it’s not Jets casting. I just wanted a tight game. We got one. And I really liked the ending – it was intense, with Aaron Rodgers having the ball in his hands and then hitting it in the hands of someone who has previously been tortured in it Stephen Gilmore.

“If not Sam Darnold beating the Jets by one last throw, you’d have to pick Stephon Gilmore as the quarterback to have such an ironic finish for the Jets if they weren’t going to win — and it looked like they weren’t going to do it when it was 17-0. So I was excited to see a tight game.”

On the Rich Eisen Show last week, Eisen said that Kevin O’Connell’s Vikings are the real deal. After watching them go 5-0 in Londonhe stands by that.

“The head coach is great. He is a very good person, and he has a strong finger on the pulse of his team, not only his physical heartbeat, but his brain as well. He knows exactly what these people can handle.

“He definitely knows how to — with Brian Flores, the defensive coordinator — make things more desirable for his players, who have very high IQs all over the place.

“The Vikings won that game, and now they have a bye.

“Look at the rest of that section. The Lions clearly to be the class of the rest of it, and the bears trying to sink the coin himself. And they took a big step forward in that regard on Sunday, and we’ll see them next week here in London. And then, the Packers who are also getting the foundation themselves. It is a very difficult division, but they exist. They’re up 5-0, and looking great doing it.”

The NFL Network will broadcast from north London as the host of the Chicago game Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. First win of the season last weekend Indianapolis sees Jacksonville at 1-4 as they head to London with yet another losing record (they are 0-8-3 flying in).

Eisen feels it’s a good time for the team to be in their home away from home.

“It’s hard to be away (for a longer period of time), but the Jaguars could use him. They’re probably 100 percent looking forward to getting away from it all after a 1-4 start.

“And I know they feel better about themselves because they won, but hunting them here, where they’re comfortable playing, they’re used to playing… History is They win and also turn around the season, if so. it is needed. And it seems necessary. They’ll love that.”

This will be the 38th game to be played in London and the first to see two overall No. 1 picks going head-to-head.

While Trevor Lawrence landed in one of the worst spots in NFL history (largely due to the Urban Meyer fiasco), Caleb Williams is in another, happier situation.

“Caleb is lucky that he was drafted first by a team that used the pick there because the worst team in the league traded him. So Caleb didn’t join the worst team NFL. He joined a team that was a little more prepared for him. And we’ll see how they look against Jacksonville. Like we said, this NFC North looks like the deepest end of the NFL pool this year.”

For the second consecutive year, the Jags will stay in England for nine nights. They are due to land on Friday – although Hurricane Milton has delayed their departure. The Jags leave immediately after their match at Wembley with the team New England Patriots on October 20.

“It’s a major competitive advantage for them over New England,” Eisen says. “And for the Patriots, they have to deal with a team that is already used to the time zone – but it’s something that any team can overcome. I don’t think it will be certain. “

Eisen speaking at an event in 2024 (Olivia Wong/Getty Images)

Since Wembley hosted the first competitive regular season game outside of North America in 2007, 46 games have been played in London, Mexico City, Munich, Frankfurt and Sao Paulo. Talk of a franchise in London has died down but Eisen sees a continental future for the NFL.

“I think that’s the way it goes, I don’t know if an NFL franchise could be successful or viable overseas, because of so many different factors.

“The NFL would be ready to have an international package of games that could then be packaged together and sold to another bidder for a ton of money – and we’re already seeing it stack up together.

“People in the States love that fourth football window. In the US, start times are 1pm Eastern, 4pm Eastern, 8:20pm Eastern start times. On Sunday, if you add a 9:30 a.m. Eastern start time — it’s early for the West Coast, 6:30 a.m. — but people dig that fourth football window, and if that’s done to regular, you won’t hear much push back. from NFL fans.”

Next month, Eisen will return to Germany. After last year’s doubleheader in Frankfurt, the Allianz Arena in Munich will host their second game. “That was an amazing sight, just fantastic. So I’m looking forward to going back there, and I hope so Panthers improve a bit by the time I see them. And the A giant it gave mankind a great leap to make that Munich game a little better,” Eisen says.

Next season, the NFL will enter a new arena, with 85,000 seats Santiago Bernabeu renovation hosting the NFL’s first game in Spain. Eisen is pumped for that one.

“Oh, I’d love to do that,” he says. “But then again, I don’t know what the NFL’s plans are — to put that on NFL Network, or they’ll do to Madrid what they did to Brazil, which is, is that the first instant international game. the gate on the Friday after Thursday. I don’t know if that’s going to be a new situation.

“At some point, I think there will be consecutive games, week in and week out, played in the first window of time in the United States, in a foreign place in Europe, maybe. It would be the perfect time of day to send it back to the United States as the first game of the day on Sunday.

“Madrid is going to be part of this world. And then Rome, Paris, and other places in Europe. Dublin would be great. I’d sign up for that in a heartbeat since we’ve already seen it college football games are so good there. I would go into that at length. Scandinavia… let’s go!”