Fueled by a hefty financial bet and years of Jets disappointment, Chris "Mad Dog" Russo unleashed a fiery tirade against the team. Credit: ESPN’s ‘First Take’

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo placed quite a few dollars on the New York Jets to win over 9.5 games this year, so when the team underperforms, you can bet he will be among the loudest critics.

Not only is Russo a New York sports radio titan with a history of holding Gang Green’s feet to the fire, but he’s also a radio host with $10K riding on the Jets winning 10 games.

This wasn’t even during a “What are you mad about?” segment on Wednesday, as Russo soliloquized about the team’s “ridiculous” performance in a 32-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers Monday night.

“I mean, this is ridiculous. That performance by the defense especially,” Russo said. “I’m not gonna even kill Rodgers. Now, he can’t move; he can’t move. He’s very nervous about this Achilles. He’s gonna be a sitting duck back there all year long. He can’t move. He’s nervous about these Achilles; he can’t do anything. (Nathaniel) Hackett isn’t freaking Bill Walsh. And (Robert) Saleh, one thing about Saleh…

“Let me get this straight: Saleh, who has done nothing for three years, who’s supposedly this defensive guru, he’s got three months to figure out something against (Kyle) Shanahan, and (Brock) Purdy had all day. They ran for 147 yards, and they had three guys out for crying out loud! I mean, the Jets defense, can you try? Where is the sense of urgency? This is the Niners on Monday night, ABC, the first game of the year; you’ve done nothing in a season, and all of a sudden, you lay an egg like that?”

We should mention that around the 23-second marker of the clip below, Russo practically bit Molly Qerim’s head off as she interrupted his tangent. He yelled so that they could hear him all the way back in Bristol that he wasn’t finished getting his point across about the head coach who owns an 18-34 record.

Qerim retorted that she felt like she had just been bitten by “The Dog.”

If anyone got their head bit off, it was Saleh.

“I understand it was the first game, but that was an awful, awful, awful performance,” Russo continued. And then I’m going to listen to Rodgers tell me, ‘Well if you jump off the bandwagon, you’re not coming back on.’ Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, you’ve played one game. Go back to Green Bay.”

We’re not so sure the Cheeseheads would take him back; they seem to like this Jordan Love guy.

“You played one game; don’t start telling the Jet fan who has been sitting there since (Joe) Namath, Richard Todd, and Matt Robinson, all these old quarterbacks who stunk,” he adds. “And they’ve sat there and watched nothing; you’re gonna tell the Jet fan what they should and should not do? Enough already. That was a disgrace!”

And in case you were wondering, Russo who already has someone’s first semester of college payment on the Jets over 9.5 wins, also bet them to cover against San Francisco. (They did not).

[Awful Announcing]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.