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Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo Gave a Classic Performance After Signing New SiriusXM Deal

On the same day he signed a three-year contract extension for his radio show, Russo ripped “clown” Jose Siri for his antics against Yankees.

Jimmy Traina

With weekly appearances on ESPN's “First Take” in addition to his SiriusXM show, the 64-year-old seems to be more popular than ever.
With weekly appearances on ESPN's “First Take” in addition to his SiriusXM show, the 64-year-old seems to be more popular than ever. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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1. I told you in Tuesday’s Traina Thoughts that SiriusXM announced that Hall of Fame radio host Chris “Mad Dog” Russo had signed a three-year contract extension with the company to continue his daily radio show, airing from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

The news dropped as I was finishing the column, so I didn’t have a chance to expand on my thoughts.

Obviously, I’m thrilled. I listen to Russo every single day because I find him to be the most entertaining person in all of sports media. I’ve also listened to him for about 30 years, going back to his WFAN days, and I’m a loyal person who doesn’t like change.

From a professional standpoint, I love that Russo is going to give us three more years because he is a content machine. In a truly stunning second act, Russo is more popular now than ever.

Part of that is because more and more people have SiriusXM these days. As of the end of 2023, Sirius’ self-pay subscriber base stood at more than 31.9 million, with its total users standing at nearly 33.9 million.

Part of that is because in a sports media landscape filled with hot takes and people who say things they don’t believe just to get attention, Russo is 100% authentic. Part of that is because Russo isn’t on social media, doesn’t use social media and doesn’t care about social media. (Yes, he has an account, but it is completely and totally run by his producer.) When you don’t care about Twitter, you can remain authentic. You’re not swayed or influenced by what the masses are saying on that awful platform.

And the biggest part of Russo’s renaissance is his weekly appearance on First Take. The Mad Dog is now exposed to the largest audience of his career. And big credit to ESPN and Russo for keeping his appearances to once a week. Given that he seems to go viral every Wednesday for something, it would make sense there would be a desire to have him on the show more often. That would be a mistake.

Russo’s weekly appearance feels special. It feels like an event. This adds—as Russo would say—juice to his back-and-forth with Stephen A. Smith.

Another reason to celebrate Russo’s contract extension is that as he has shown on SiriusXM and on First Take , the 64-year-old has lost absolutely nothing off his fastball.

Nothing.

That brings me to Russo’s latest must-watch rant in which he unloaded on Rays outfielder Jose Siri.

On Monday, with the Rays trailing the Yankees, 4–0, Siri hit a solo home run. Siri then went into a very, very slow home run trot around the bases filled with celebrating and taunting the Yankees crowd.

Now, I’m pro celebrating but down 4–0 might be a time to tone things down. But Siri went all out and even drew a death stare from Aaron Judge.

Russo gave his loud and passionate take on this incident, and it was vintage Mad Dog.

He dropped an old-school reference by saying Siri isn’t Willie Mays or Henry Aaron.

He playfully yelled at a producer to put up Siri’s quote after the game in which he took a shot at Yankees fans.

And then he gave us one of his rants in he which he goes on and on without taking a breath, rips a bunch of things and drops some non sequiturs.

“Hey, Jose, you draw 5,000 a game at the dump in the Tropicana. Playoff games, you got tarps on the upper deck in that stadium when you’re playing Texas. You of all people should not be mocking the Yankee fan who sells out that ballpark day in and day out at 47,000 fans and it ain’t cheap to go to the ballgame. You know how much it costs to park the car? And he’s ripping the Yankee fan for ripping the Yankees player who hasn’t played that well, who loafs, and you take three hours to run around the bases. Oh, my God, what a clown!”

Thanks goodness we will get three more years of this.

2. This doesn’t happen often, but I honestly don’t even know what to say about this one.

Niners cornerback Deommodore Lenoir was a guest on Up and Adams on Tuesday. During the interview, Kay Adams heard a smoke alarm going off and asked Lenoir about it.

The defensive back said he hasn’t changed the battery, and he just deals with the noise. Adams asked how long the smoke alarm has been beeping.

Lenoir said SINCE LAST YEAR!!!

Let me repeat: The dude’s smoke alarm has been beeping since LAST YEAR!!!

Adams could not believe what she was hearing and who can blame her?

3. Just a simple shout-out here to Dolphins wide receiver Braxton Berrios who became one of my favorite NFL players on Tuesday thanks to his shirt game.

4. A LOT was made Tuesday of Joe Burrow showing up to Bengals camp with a bleached, blond buzz cut.

I, along with many others, chimed in that Burrow now looks just like WWE champion, Cody Rhodes.

Apparently, Rhodes noticed, too.

5. Sports Illustrated has launched a daily Olympics podcast, Daily Rings, hosted by my colleagues, Dan Gartland and Mitch Goldich. The fellas have already put out several episodes, so check it out and subscribe if you’re pumped up for the Paris Games.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast features a conversation with NBC play-by-play voice Noah Eagle.

Eagle talks about calling the U.S. men’s and women’s basketball games at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, his extensive résumé at just 27 years old, getting into the broadcasting business, the sport he hasn’t yet called that he would like to call and what it was like to call an NFL playoff game.

Eagle also explains his desire as a kid to become a TV dentist and shares stories about the legendary Bill Raftery, who he has known his entire life.

Following Eagle, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include the offseason version of Hard Knocks being a must-watch, Major League Baseball embarrassing itself by putting games on Roku and the Home Run Derby. We also pay tribute to Dr. Ruth, Richard Simmons and Shannen Doherty, who all passed away in recent days.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 60th birthday to Beverly Hills 90210 star, Barry Bonds.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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