Love's Still in the Air for Pair

Suzy Shuster and Rich Eisen celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary Monday with wine sent over from the regions of Italy where they had honeymooned.

The wine was Shuster's idea, and a surprise to her husband. How chic is that?

They could be called the mod couple of sports television. They could also be called the odd couple, because they work for competing networks.

Shuster is a Los Angeles feature reporter for NBA TV, and Eisen is the anchor of "NFL Total Access," a nightly NFL Network show done at a studio in Culver City.

A conversation at home in Beverly Hills might go something like this:

"So, how was your day, dear?" Eisen asks.

"Fine. I interviewed Kobe and Shaq," Shuster says. "And how was your day?"

"It was OK," Eisen says. "I interviewed Brett Favre and Michael Vick."

Working for competing networks is nothing new to Eisen and Shuster. Eisen was one of the main "SportsCenter" anchors at ESPN from 1996 to 2003.

Shuster, who was an associate producer at ESPN for a year, was a reporter for Fox Sports Net from 2000 to 2003.

Shuster and Eisen met on Feb. 3, 1997. Shuster remembers the day well.

"It was my first day at ESPN," she said. "He came by my desk to say hello. Of course, I knew who he was. He was so sweet, so nice."

But it wasn't love at first sight, at least not for Shuster.

"We were best friends for three years," she said. "It took me that long to smarten up and quit dating jerks."

Shuster left ESPN for New York in 1998 to become a segment producer for HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel."

In February 2000, the relationship between Shuster and Eisen changed.

"He asked me to accompany him to the ESPY Awards in Las Vegas, not as a friend but as his date," Shuster said.

Eisen had taken a gamble, and it paid off in Las Vegas. They were now a couple.

Eisen, a 1990 Michigan graduate who has a master's degree from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, was living near ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Conn.

Shuster, a 1994 Columbia graduate, was still working for HBO in New York. But they were only two hours apart.

Then Shuster got a chance to be an on-air reporter for Fox Sports Net in Los Angeles, and soon they were a five-hour plane ride apart.

The romance endured. They were engaged on Valentine's Day in 2002 and married at the Boat House in Central Park on June 7, 2003.