Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has been a hit on First Take the past couple years, in particular thanks to his featured “What I’m Mad About” segments that are vintage Russo.
In an interview on the Sports Illustrated Media podcast released Thursday, Russo gave his thoughts on why those segments have clicked for the ESPN audience and the pressure he feels to deliver when the spotlight is on him each Wednesday.
“The MLB Network is a niche audience. SiriusXM, it’s radio, it’s a different medium in 2024 … so I don’t know how many people outside of my loyal fandom are sitting there for three hours,” Russo said. “But they watch First Take.
“Number one, First Take has an unbelievable social media presence. If you get in that washing machine of ESPN, they get it out. It’s on your app. It’s here, it’s there. If you say something they think can get clicks, they’re going to get it out there.”
So each week, Russo now knows he can expect to get a ton of social media feedback and engagement over whatever he barked about with Stephen A. Smith that morning.
Still, Russo knows ESPN producers and First Take fans count on him to deliver the goods. Even the legendary Doggy feels the burden of those segments.
“I got a lot of pressure on me on those Wednesdays … with those ‘What I’m Mad Abouts,'” Russo told SI Media host Jimmy Traina. “Because it’s almost like I have to go out there, it’s like my full appearance on Wednesdays is on that 10 minutes. My job on Wednesdays is to give a good 10 minutes at 11:30.
“Because that’s what people, they seem to look forward to that. ‘What is Russo going to scream about today?’ Look at the camera, ‘strike me down,’ all the things that I do. And it’s almost like I could be great for an hour and 45 minutes, and if I’m lousy in that 10 minutes, I’ve not been successful. So it’s almost like I have more pressure on that 10 minute segment.”
From the streaming app Peacock to Aaron Rodgers drama to Illinois’ defensive gameplan in the Elite Eight, Russo can get riled up about anything. But there is an art to being mad on the air that only someone with the word in his name can master.
“It is easy [to come up with topics] … but for that to be good, I have to actually be mad about it. I can’t be in a situation where I’m creating emotion,” Russo explained. “I have to be as a sports fan … that makes for a better segment.
“Sure, I can act it out. And I have. Sure, I can embellish it. Sure, I can come up with something just to fill three minutes. But for that segment to be really good, I need content, and it’s hard to get all the time.”
Salute to the Mad Dog, never one to fake his emotions. A trail blazer of sports talk radio, he genuinely cares what fans are thinking and feeling.
Russo has now ported that ethos to First Take and entertains ESPN viewers each morning with a raw rant that is becoming as synonymous with the Mad Dog as loving baseball or talking about Otto Graham.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.