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Richard Eisen ( ; born June 24, 1969) is an American television sportscaster and radio host. Since 2003, he has worked for NFL Network as a host of various pregame, halftime, and postgame shows and doing occasional play-by-play. He also hosts a daily sports radio show and podcast, The Rich Eisen Show. From 1996 to 2003, he worked at ESPN, most prominently as an anchor of SportsCenter.
Eisen attended the University of Michigan, where he served as co–sports editor of the school's Michigan Daily and was a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. He graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1994, he earned a Master of Science degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Among Eisen's notable achievements while at ESPN was breaking the news of St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire's retirement from baseball in 2001 on SportsCenter. Days later, he sat down with McGwire for an exclusive interview elaborating on the decision.
Eisen expanded his résumé in 2010 with the debut of "The Rich Eisen Podcast," the first-ever podcast for NFL.com. The weekly podcast, available on Apple Podcasts among many other sources, features guests from the world of sports and entertainment news talking football and all the latest headlines. Since its debut, the podcast has been downloaded more than seven million times and celebrated its 200th episode. Eisen hosts his nationally syndicated sports talk radio show with Chris Brockman, Michael Del Tufo, and TJ Jefferson.
In November 2012, Eisen's first Thanksgiving Special aired on the NFL Network with a variety of celebrity guests talking mostly sports and current events.
In 2005, Terrell Davis challenged Eisen to compete in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Eisen runs it annually, wearing a suit, and his times are:
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Eisen turned his annual sprint into a charitable campaign "#RunRichRun" which raises money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. His campaign has raised over $5.2 million and for his work he was honored with the 2017 Pat Summerall Award. A graphic based on one of his runs is the trademark of his weekday radio and television talk show.
On November 3, 2014, the show was picked up by Fox Sports Radio and broadcast daily from noon to 3 p.m. ET. Eisen took over the slot from Jay Mohr, who moved to the 3–6 p.m. slot.
In early March 2020, the show's broadcast moved from Audience to YouTube due to the impending shutdown of Audience. NBCSN and eventually NBC's streaming service Peacock picked up the show later in 2020. The program moved again, to The Roku Channel in September 2022.
When the show moved to The Roku Channel, it also moved to a new location on Sirius XM satellite radio and Internet streaming, after several years on NBC Sports Audio; it is now available on Sirius 216, XM 202, and SXM mobile app channel 992.
In May 2025, reports surfaced that Eisen was nearing a deal to move the show from Roku to ESPN Radio, later confirmed by ESPN. Officially announced in July 2025, the audio show will move to ESPN Radio's 12:00 pm ET slot starting on September 2, 2025. The video show will be streamed on ESPN+, Disney+, and ESPN's forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service.
In 2022, the show was nominated for the Outstanding Studio Show Sports Emmy Award.
In 2012 and 2014, Eisen appeared as himself on two episodes of The League.
In 2014, Eisen appeared as himself in the film Draft Day.
From 2015 to 2017, Eisen had a recurring role as himself on the CBS sitcom The Odd Couple, playing the archrival of fictional sports radio personality Oscar Madison (played by Matthew Perry).
Since 2016, Eisen has appeared on multiple episodes of Comedy Central's TV series @midnight. In February 2018, Eisen co-hosted, with Rebecca Romijn, The American Rescue Dog Show on The Hallmark Channel.
In 2020, Eisen and The Rich Eisen Show are featured on Madden NFL 21: Face of The Franchise.
In 2022, Eisen was as guest star in five episodes of the Disney TV series .
In 2024, Eisen and his show were featured by Jerry Seinfeld and Colin Jost in a comedy bit on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update. Shortly after, Eisen did an introduction for The Roast of Tom Brady on Netflix.
Eisen wrote the book Total Access, which was published in 2007. In 2012, he started the "Punters Are People Too" movement after Bryan Anger was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft.
He also does a charity run for St. Jude Children's Hospital called Run Rich Run. It has raised approximately $5.2 million for the hospital.
He is a longtime fan of the New York Jets, New York Yankees and also of the Michigan Wolverines.
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