Stan Verrett on the ‘fantastic’ feeling of being back at ESPN

Some might have been surprised to see Stan Verrett back in ESPN's orbit , but not him.

Verrett, who left the Worldwide Leader last year, has returned as host of NFL Total Access on NFL Network. NFL Total Access originally ended in May 2024 , but after ESPN acquired NFL Network, the powers that be decided to revive the show.

The new NFL Total Access debuted on Sept. 8 and will air Tuesday through Friday from noon to 2 p.m. ET. Verrett has stayed busy over the past year. The New Orleans native hosted a digital pregame show for the Saints and appeared on the L.A. Clippers, NBA TV, and FanDuel Sports Network, as well as a Twitch show with his former SportsCenter co-anchor, Neil Everett.

We recently caught up with Verrett to discuss his new job.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Stan Verrett: "It's fantastic. One of my goals when I got to ESPN in 2000 was to do SportsCenter for a while and then eventually cover the NFL because it's always been my passion since I was a little kid. I was never more excited than when the Saints had a home game in New Orleans. I could barely sleep on Saturday nights because I've had season tickets since I was 12. That's what made me choose this profession: a chance to express my love of football and have a job that doesn't really feel like a job. During football season, I spend a lot of time watching and talking about football with other people. This gives me a chance to really focus on it and serve the fans."

"Mike McQuade, an executive at ESPN, was the guy who hired me back in 2000. He mentioned that when I left, ESPN was purchasing the NFL Network and that there might be a chance for me to come back to work in L.A. So you never count those things until the name is on the contract. And so I just set about doing other stuff. And then it became real. Here I am back again, and I feel I have a whole lot of new skills in my toolbox to bring to this job.

"I would have stayed at SportsCenter forever here in L.A. I would have stayed at that job as long as they would have me, but it got disrupted. Now I look back on the past year, and it was really, really good for my skills as a sports broadcaster because I did a lot of different things I hadn't done before."

How does this version of NFL Total Access differ from the previous one?

"I wouldn't really compare it. I think the most important thing for me is to give people who tune in the most information they can get from anywhere about what's going on in the NFL. Compiling that information, learning it, and getting it comes naturally to me because I've been doing it since I can remember football. I could never know enough about the NFL based on my fandom for the Saints. I wanted to know everything about what was going on with the Saints. And then, expanding on that, I wanted to know everything that was going on around the rest of the league. It's just always been a thing."

How would you persuade someone to watch this show?

"If you want to know what's going on in the NFL from a holistic perspective, across every team, it's the place to tune in because the show has unlimited access to the NFL. The cameras are right there at every facility. So, we just fire up the cameras when somebody shows up, and then we add perspective and analysis to what they say. You get an unfiltered look at what coaches and players have to say, and then you get perspective and analysis, hopefully from what we add to their comments."

And you're going to work from Los Angeles?

"Absolutely. It's a fantastic situation. As I said, it's really interesting how things worked out. I'm still going to be at NBA TV. I really enjoy it, and I want to make sure I can continue doing it. The great thing about Total Access , too, is that it's from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific time. So around 11:30, I'm out the door. In the afternoons and evenings, I can do other things. NBA TV has been great, and I want to continue doing it. So I'm going to be doing a bunch of Saturdays with NBA TV because they're adding live programming on Saturdays now."

Will you still be doing the Saints pregame show?

"We're not doing this show live from the Superdome anymore. We found out that competing with the broadcast pregame shows was tough, especially because our most loyal audience, Saints fans, were on their way to the game. So they weren't able to tune in to the show the way we were doing it. We were doing it like it was a television show. So now we're doing a preview podcast. It's called The Snap with Stan Verrett , and it's going to be on NewOrleansSaints.com starting on Friday throughout the weekend so people can tune in whenever they want."

What do you think is the biggest question mark for the Saints this season?

"How quickly they can grow up together. They've gone from a veteran team to a very young team very quickly. So there are a lot of young guys they're going to be counting on to deliver this season. Jonas Sanker on defense. Tyler Shough on offense. Barion Brown , a rookie who looks like he's going to play a pivotal role this season. Two young offensive tackles who were first-round picks. A lot of young guys are going to need to be productive and play. So I think that's the biggest X factor. How well can these young guys come together, individually and collectively, and deliver for the team?"

Are you still doing The Stan and Neil Show on Twitch with Neil Everett?

"We're working that out to figure out where we're going to do the podcast this season. Our plan is to continue, but we're going to make some changes, and we haven't really ironed that out yet."

Has this been a time crunch for you, handling all these different jobs?

"It only became a scheduling issue once last season, when the Clippers had a Saturday game, and I had the Sunday show in New Orleans, live at the Superdome the next morning. I did the Clippers game, took a red-eye, and would have made it. Everything would have gone fine, but there were weather problems in New Orleans. It was really foggy, and for a couple of hours, no planes could land. I got stuck in Houston, waiting for the all-clear to get to New Orleans.

"Scott Shanle, our analyst on the show, is in Dallas, and it's an hour-long flight. He would fly in on Sunday mornings, too. He couldn't get there either. We weren't able to do the show. But barring the weather, I would have made it."

If you need to impress an out-of-towner, which New Orleans restaurant do you take them to?

"If somebody's on an expense account and doesn't have to pay for the meal, and they want a world-class New Orleans meal, it's hard to beat Commander's Palace . It's fantastic. But if you want a down-home feel for the city and the cuisine that makes New Orleans so special, Li'l Dizzy's in Treme. It's the Baquet family, a black family that has owned restaurants in New Orleans for decades. It's got fried chicken and gumbo, along with other New Orleans specialties they do really well. Every day there's a line down the street to get in. It's hard to walk up and get a table there because the food is so good."