Total Access: The Journey to the Center of the NFL Universe by Rich Eisen, Steve Sabol (Foreword by)

From Barnes & Noble

The title is no empty authorial boast. The host of NFL Total Access puts his claim on the line: "I…personally attend nearly every single event on the NFL calendar. Ton Dungy may go to the Scouting Combine, but he doesn't go to the annual Hall of Fame Ceremony or the Rookie Symposium. I do. Tom Brady may go to the Pro Bowl, but he doesn't go to the NFL Draft or attend the Thanksgiving Day Classic night game. I do. Plus, I get to go to the Scouting Combine and the Pro Bowl, too. And, through this book, so will the reader." Sweet goddess of Nike, this is a barn-burner.

From the Publisher

Sports fans are hungry for access! Fans of football are tired of lame, poorly written memoirs or technical fantasy football books. Rich Eisen is going to give them what they want—a chance to share his world of a never-ending football season.
 
As host of the NFL Network’s marquee show Total Access, Eisen is truly the ultimate fly on the wall and one of only a handful of people who attend almost every event on the NFL calendar from the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl to the NFL Draft to the Hall of Fame Weekend and regular season kickoff. Talking in a style that is truly his own, Eisen
provides the rabid fan with news, interviews, and analysis with his razor sharp wit honed by years of experience.
 
Total Access will cover every aspect of  pro football including:
• Eisen’s unique take on the off season events
• On and off field controversies
• The facts you don’t get from a stat book
 
Eisen shows listeners the football world in a completely new, entertaining and insightful way, just like Jon Stewart revolutionized America’s political news. It is the ultimate audiobook for fans everywhere.

Kirkus Reviews

A self-congratulatory commercial for the NFL and the NFL Network disguised as an insider examination of America's most popular sport. Best known as a former ESPN SportsCenter stalwart, Eisen has been the face of the NFL Network since it launched in 2003. The first channel to focus on a single sport 24/7/365, the Network isn't included in your typical basic cable package, thus it's not included in your typical football fan's life. This wouldn't matter if it were an inherently interesting entity or if Eisen were more of an investigative reporter. But here he comes off as another wide-eyed fan. Only Eisen, for example, would tag as "classic" a meandering blab-fest featuring the CBS studio crew of Jim Nantz, Deion Sanders and Dan Marino. It's one of many direct transcriptions of TV interviews that fail to translate to the page. The book's best section is a collection of reprinted emails that Eisen received from players answering the question, "Do you have a ritual or superstition before every game?" Indianapolis Colts receiver Reggie Wayne waxes poetic about his unshakeable desire for pregame soup, while Cleveland Browns defensive back Gary Baxter craves Lay's potato chips. If Eisen had followed this route throughout and focused more on the players as people-and less on the Network and mind-numbing NFL minutia-he might have had something special. As it's presented, though, the book is a self-indulgent, mildly informative trip through the bowels of the NFL and cable television. Who'd have thought it was possible to make professional football boring?

Product Details

• ISBN: 0312369786
  
• ISBN-13: 9780312369781
• Format: Hardcover, 336pp
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Pub. Date: October 2007
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 176,800