Chris “Mad Dog” Russo is largely a loveable relic from the sports radio past. He’s strident, over the top, and plays into this character that he created 40 years ago. While doing his “What are you Mad about,” segment on ESPN’s First Take, Russo has admitted that it’s stupid and his antics are ridiculous. His loud and fossilized takes are humorous, but on Monday he reached into the sports talk radio time machine and pulled out a technique that should be left in the past — name-calling. Russo spoke in a derogatory way about ESPN colleague Dan Orlovsky, and to quote the sports radio legend, he should be ashamed of himself.
On Monday, the First Take crew was Stephen A. Smith, Molly Qerim, and Russo. They were having some fun with a video of Orlovsky from over the weekend. He attempted the Precision Passing challenge from the Pro Bowl Games and put up a better score than any of the active NFL quarterbacks who participated in it.
After Smith was highly complimentary, Russo took a completely opposite approach. He stared at the camera with an incredulous look before dismissing Orlovsky out-throwing current Pro-Bowl level quarterbacks while wearing a dress shirt. Russo even went so far as to say that the ESPN NFL analyst was a “scrub,” as a player. Orlovsky did not take too kindly to being talked about that way, and posted on Xwitter that what Mad Dog said was “classless.”
No one who makes an NFL roster is a scrub. Nathan Peterman is arguably the worst quarterback in league history, but I would never call him a scrub. He has started in five NFL games. Compared to the number of people who have thrown a pass in an organized football game, Peterman is in the top percentile. He has received paychecks to play in the NFL since 2017.
Orlovsky has a pretty good sense of humor about himself. He knows he started at quarterback for most of the Detroit Lions’ 0-16 season. Whenever an opportunity comes to discuss the classic clip of him running out of the end zone, he always laughs it off. His unseasoned diet is a source of far more ridicule from his coworkers than his pro football career. Orlovsky is well aware that he was not an upper-echelon NFL quarterback.
Still, he played 12 seasons in the NFL and started 15 games. People should not be called scrubs even if they are broke and hanging out the passenger side of their best friend’s ride. All name-calling does is ruin fun. Everyone was enjoying the Orlosky video, and then Mad Dog decided to break out an old-school sports talk radio classic, calling professional athletes scrubs.
That could fly on WFAN back when the AM/FM dial was the best place to become immersed in a world of sports takes. Those are the fires that raised Russo, and for the most part, he has done a good job of maintaining a cool head on First Take. The guy talks about gambling losses and gummies while on set. He is playing a character that is fun to laugh at.
Russo went back to his old days on Monday, and it was not cool. Orlovsky was no scrub in his playing days. He was an NFL quarterback, something only a small percentage of the population can say about themselves.
