Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Mike Francesa are, for better or worse, two major pillars in the sports radio industry. Francesa and Russo’s popular New York-area radio show, Mike and the Mad Dog, gained them enough fame and notoriety to keep them as huge voices to this day. While Russo has worked with others on TV, he most notably hasn’t done any work with anybody else on the radio. Neither has Francesa.
That’s for good reason according to one-half of that former dynamic duo. Francesa talked to Barstool Radio about the pair’s influence on the industry and a host of other topics. Included in Mike’s spiel was a reveal that he and “Mad Dog” really just can’t do this with anyone else.
Francesa is just an absolute legend. pic.twitter.com/toZNT7lfVv
— Barstool New York (@BarstoolNYC) August 21, 2023
“Now, the ironic thing is the two guys who created the two-man show as being the format that became everywhere… we never worked with anyone else,” Francesa said with laughter. Mike continued, saying, “We’ve only worked solo since we split up because neither of us knew how to take a partner. You know? It was uncomfortable for either of us to take a partner because we were always synonymous with one partner.”
It’s an admirable position for both Francesa and Russo, even implicitly, to take, certainly. In an ever-changing industry where opportunity is as abundant as the turnover, you’ll often see hosts either on TV or radio decide to pal up with anyone and everyone. But Francesa and Russo have adamantly decided against that.
Russo has a more developed profile of shows now, though, between his MLB Network and ESPN responsibilities. But his show on Mad Dog Unleashed remains a solo act. If you listen to Francesa, that won’t be changing anytime soon. And, for better or worse, you could argue that it absolutely shouldn’t happen.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022