SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio host Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has been under pressure the last 36 hours to make good on his promise to retire if the Arizona Diamondbacks successfully came back to win the NLCS.
Well, the Diamondbacks are on the way to the World Series, and while Mad Dog backtracked on his general retirement statement, Arizona Sports host John Gambadoro on Wednesday said a promise is a promise.
Russo clarified ahead of Game 7 on Tuesday that when he said retirement, he said he would retire from his SiriusXM show and wouldn’t give up his role on First Take and as host of High Heat on MLB Network. Mad Dog joined Howard Stern Wednesday morning, and even Stern said Russo couldn’t back out of a promise.
“You gotta do something that the audience says, ‘I’m being serious now,'” Stern said. Because you made a statement ‘I’m gonna retire.'”
Howard proposed as an alternative that Mad Dog don a bikini and walk the streets of Manhattan as punishment. But Gambadoro felt like it would probably be for the best if Russo sailed off into the sunset.
“Last night I was leaning towards you should retire. You’ve had a great career,” Gambadoro said on Burns & Gambo. “But you know what? Screw it. You should retire.”
“I saw that you invited him on our show,” responded co-host Dave Burns. “Shocking that he chose Howard Stern’s show over ours. I’m blown away by that.”
Gambo stood firm on the assertion that Mad Dog should hang it up, joking that Russo is over the hill.
“You’re old, you’re way past your prime, the 90s was a long time ago,” he said. “I agree with our listeners. You should just retire. Be a man of your word and retire.”
