Travis Kelce shared his appreciation for an ESPN star after his emotional return to the network and his tribute to a colleague.
The Kansas City Chiefs star tight end, 35, reacted to an iconic sports broadcaster’s return to ESPN’s flagship show, SportsCenter.
On Monday, the Iconic sportscaster Rich Eisen returned to SportsCenter for the first time in 22 years.
He hosted the 11:00 pm ET edition of SportsCenter after the Monday Night Football game between the Washington Commanders and Cincinnati Bengals.
During Eisen’s seven years at ESPN, from 1996 to 2003, Eisen regularly hosted the highlight show alongside Stuart Scott, who died in 2015 at the age of 49 after a battle with appendix cancer.
The network made a tribute showing the best moments between the two, with cameras showing an emotional Eisen at the anchor desk as he was holding back tears before delivering a closing monologue honoring Scott.
The moment caught the attention of the whole sports world, including the three-time Super Bowl champion Kelce.
The 35-year-old commented on the sequence from a clip on Instagram.
“Loved every minute of it last night! @richeisen,” Kelce wrote.
Eisen left ESPN in 2003 as an original on-air talent for NFL Network, where he continues to work.
He made sure to send a passionate message about Scott.
“It’s been a blast being here tonight. But listen, we all know there should be someone else right here, in this chair next to me, right there, as he was for my seven years in the role he referred to as my TV wife,” the teary-eyed Eisen said.
“And that’s my dear late friend, Stuart Scott, who is indeed looking over my shoulder tonight.’
‘I frequently think of Stuart a lot and what he might think of the sports headlines of the day, like, say, Bill Belichick being the head football coach at his beloved school.
“We used to host SportsCenters after LeBron’s high school games. So what would Stuart think of James still playing at age 40, with 40,000 points?’
‘And with all these new crossing of sports TV streams like say ESPN buying NFL Network and partnering up with my daily show, what would it look like if Stuart sat in with say Ernie (Johnson), (Shaquille O’Neal), Kenny (Smith) and Charles (Barkley) when Inside the NBA comes here to ESPN this fall?”
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‘I could go on and on because I miss Stuart so very much.
“He should be in that chair with me, with us tonight.”
Eisen will soon be joining Disney’s ESPN platforms.
The 56-year-old’s The Rich Eisen Show will be aired on Tuesday, September 2.
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Fans can watch the hit program on ESPN+, the network’s streaming platform, and Disney+.
