Why Rich Eisen Was ‘Blown Away’ Working With Bill Belichick On NFL TV Special

If you’re among those who love seeing the softer, more excitable side of Bill Belichick, then you’ve got something to look forward to this fall — big time.

The New England Patriots head coach, along with co-hosts Rich Eisen and Cris Collinsworth, recently finished taping “The NFL’s All-Time Team,” a six-part NFL Network series designed to commemorate the league’s 100th season. The show will consist of 100 players and 10 coaches named the best at their respective positions.

The NFL also announced “The NFL 100 greatest,” a 20-episode series that will dive into the greatest plays, characters, games, game-changers and teams in NFL history.

To clarify: Belichick, who was part of the panel that chose the all-time team, was at an anchor desk, in a suit, analyzing football for six episodes. And, according to Eisen, the results are excellent.

“Working with the production crew at NFL Films, and with Cris Collinsworth and Bill Belichick as analysts on the centerpiece of the NFL100 campaign has been simply one of the most rewarding endeavors I’ve ever had the pleasure of hosting,” Eisen said in a press release. “Plus, did I mention Bill Belichick is one of the analysts?”

“Bill Belichick, as a sports television analyst, is fantastic. He is fantastic,” Eisen later said on his radio show. “And this is not hype for the show — I am not gonna hype it up just to hype it up.”

Eisen wasn’t able to go into much detail about the show, but he did offer some insight into what made Belichick’s analyst debut so memorable.

” … I will say this: When you reveal the top 100 players and 10 coaches of all time … that in of itself is special,” Eisen said. “Each show is going to have members of the team that’s being announced show up in person. That’s special on its own. … But the number of players that showed up and felt the emotion of being named to this team … they are so overwhelmed by emotion. So many of them thinking that the Hall of Fame announcement was the last moment that they could feel something special about their career being bestowed upon them, an honor. This all alone, on its face, is special.

“But the number of players that would look across the table and not believe that Bill Belichick was sitting there as an analyst, as somebody who was praising their careers and was somebody who wasn’t the person you see behind the podium ‘moving on to Cincinnati’ and being all business. … They’re blown away. I was blown away sometimes as a host.”

Watch Eisen talk about working with Belichick in the videos below:

Yeah, this should be good.

Belichick talked about his experience on the show while speaking to reporters Wednesday morning at Gillette Stadium.

NFL Network has not announced premiere dates for either show.