Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo was the latest guest host on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast with Andrew Marchand and commented on the Pat McAfee and ESPN situation from last week.
In the podcast’s opening feature segment, ‘Who’s Up and Who’s Down,’ Marchand chose McAfee as his “Who’s Up,” for not having any ramifications from calling executive Norby Williamson “a rat.”
Russo quickly points out that McAfee could easily be in the “Who’s Down” portion just as easily.
“Listen, (McAfee) does a great job in a lot of ways, but you can’t be that sensitive. He is so sensitive.
“Let it go, you’re making $85 million dollars or whatever you’re making. You can’t get that wrapped up when somebody writes something that’s not so much in your corner, you can’t come out swinging and bury everybody.”
Speaking on some of the executives from ESPN who have had their names brought up in this story, Russo said, “Norby’s a good man. I dont know Burke Magnus but Norby’s a good man. Why would you go out there and throw gauntlets at him?”
Russo also brought up the short amount of time McAfee has been with ESPN and other outlets previously. “Remember, the one thing you can say about (McAfee) – he’s got to prove that he can last a long time with a network,” he said. “Whether it’s Barstool, whether it’s Sirius XM, FanDuel, he hasnt proved yet he could stay 5 or 10 years. Now, he’ll probably kill me for saying this but its true.”
Russo later added, emphatically, “Let it go, it’s not that important. He’s too much in the news for crying out loud.”
Andrew Marchand continued to look at the bright side for McAfee saying, “I think McAfee is in a good situation, he’s shown that he can say anything. There’s different rules for him and it continues to be that way. I think that’s a win for him.
Marchand continued, “The focus last week was all about McAfee and Rodgers, and they had just come off a semifinal of the national championship in colllege football where they had unbelievable ratings, approaching 30 million people, and everyone’s talking about McAfee, so again a win for McAfee overall.”
As they wrapped up the topic, Russo added, “If you’re getting this much power there’s no need to get that upset and throw somebody like Norby under the bus, it’s just not necessary.”
