Dan Orlovsky might currently be best known for his football analysis and weird food takes. But before he was sniffing shoes on ESPN airwaves, the former UConn star spent 12 seasons as a quarterback in the NFL.
And in case you needed a reminder that Orlovsky can spin it, he put together an impressive performance — while wearing dress clothes, no less — during a precision passing drill at the NFL Pro Bowl over the weekend.
“This was an NFL quarterback whose greatest video was him running out of bounds in the end zone without knowing it,” Stephen A. Smith said while breaking down Orlovsky’s performance on Monday’s episode of First Take. “That’s embarrassing. So now that we have this video to show for Dan Orlovsky, it sort of offsets that faux paus that he committed many, many. many years ago as a member of the Detroit Lions, when they were winless by the way. So now we have this footage and we can lean on this to big up our boy, Orlovsky.”
Smith’s co-host on Monday, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, however, wasn’t feeling as generous.
“Indoor in a pair of pants tossing a football around — who cares?” Russo said. “Nobody cares. That’s like Steve making 15 free throws in an empty gym and then he goes into a ballgame and he’s 4-for-10 with the game on the line… nobody cares!”
After host Molly Qerim noted that she was, in fact, impressed by Orlovsky’s performance, Russo doubled down.
“You were impressed? I could do this!” Russo replied. “This is not that difficult. I can do this. Hand me the ball. I’ll throw the football that far. This is ridiculous. He was a scrub in the NFL. This doesn’t make up for that.”
"He was a scrub in the NFL, this does not make up for that." – Mad Dog with no love for Dan Orlovsky's Pro Bowl performance. pic.twitter.com/FsfjNs3Z8q
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 5, 2024
After Sports Illustrated‘s Jimmy Traina posted a clip of Russo’s reaction to his X (formerly Twitter) feed, Orlovsky responded and was clearly less than happy about it.
“May be a (Hall of Famer),” Orlovsky said of the sports radio legend. “But this is classless.”
May be a HOFer but this is classless
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) February 5, 2024
While Orlovsky has been more than willing to poke fun at his lackluster NFL career — including the infamous play in which he ran out of the back of an end zone — it’s totally understandable why he would take offense to being called a “scrub.” After all, “scrubs” don’t often earn NFL paychecks at the league’s most important position for more than a decade, which is exactly what Orlovsky did, even if he wasn’t a starter, let a lone a star.
The good news? Qerim insisted that she would take Russo up on his offer of having him go through the precision passing drill himself. ESPN on ESPN crime might be frowned upon in Bristol, but if Qerim can make the proper arrangements, then the payoff might be worth it in this instance.
