The battle between Chris Russo and the English language has been going on for quite some time, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
In the past year, Russo has struggled to pronounce the last name of Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus, New Orleans Saints wide receiver Chris Olave, and even the last name of SiriusXM co-worker Damon Amendolara, who Russo has known for 25 years.
The battle continued on Monday.
As Russo was predicting the ratings of Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers, he brought up recent NHL game sevens. While discussing 2004’s Game 7 between the Calgary Flames and Tampa Bay Lightning, his pronunciation of then-Lightning head coach John Tortorella’s name was just a bit off.
Ladies and gentlemen, I now give you Christopher Mad Dog Russo trying to pronounce John Tortorella. pic.twitter.com/mrf3BQB5gq
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) June 24, 2024
“In 2004, Calgary played Tampa down when our good buddy Tortorlota won,” Russo said, before admitting defeat and going with Tortorella’s nickname, “Torts.”
While it can certainly be a daunting name to pronounce, Tortorella was the coach of the New York Rangers from 2008 to 2013. Russo, a lifelong New Yorker, was working with WFAN and SiriusXM during that time, both based in New York.
At the very least, Russo seems aware of who Tortorella is. Unfortunately, he lost another pronunciation battle. As noted above, it’s not the first time, and almost certainly will not be the last.
About Robert O'Neill