Along with being current sports radio icons, Dan Patrick and Rich Eisen were star anchors for the SportsCenter glory years on ESPN.
Last August, Eisen hosted SportsCenter for the first time since 2003, ahead of The Rich Eisen Show joining Disney and ESPN platforms. Eisen’s SportsCenter performance was very well-received. And on Sunday night into Monday morning at midnight ET, Eisen will host SportsCenter from Bristol, CT, for the first time in 23 years. He hasn’t even been back to the ESPN headquarters since then.
On Friday, Eisen appeared on The Dan Patrick Show to talk about the upcoming SportsCenter appearance (and also to send well wishes to longtime producer of The Dan Patrick Show, Seton O’Connor, who is leaving his on-air role).
“Well, this is what they didn’t tell you,” Patrick told Eisen, jokingly. “I’m going to be co-hosting with you Sunday night on SportsCenter.”
While Patrick was kidding, Eisen made it clear that he would “love to do something like that.”
“By the way, that would make my day, night, and year to do another SportsCenter with you, Dan,” Eisen, a SportsCenter anchor from 1996 to 2003, said. “If you’re up for it, I would love to do something like that, one day.”
“It’s too late for me,” Patrick, a SportsCenter anchor from 1989 to 2006, said.
“No, it’s not!” Eisen responded.
“How about an ESPNews shift, like at two in the afternoon?” Patrick countered.
“No, it’s not too late for you,” Eisen added. “Come on now. Don’t say that.”
“I used to drink four 20 oz. bottles of Coca-Cola every night just so I would be alive at 11 o’clock,” Patrick explained. “The problem was when I got to midnight, and I was still alive, and I wouldn’t get to bed until two in the morning… I was so worried I wouldn’t have energy on SportsCenter, that I would be chugging Coca-Cola throughout the night. And I’d get home, and I would be wired!”
Patrick has been vocal about how he “can’t imagine how difficult” being a SportsCenter anchor is these days. Additionally, Patrick and Eisen have each admitted to having recurring dreams about their SportsCenter days.
“I dream that I’m going to the set and I’m not prepared,” Patrick told Eisen in 2023.
So, getting Patrick to go along with it might take some strong convincing from Eisen. But we’d love to see it. Even if it means an afternoon-esque shift like Patrick joked.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.