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Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo trolls ESPN over Stephen A. Smith contract, power outage

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones05/28/25brianjones_93
Chris Mad Dog Russo
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo took some shots at ESPN and Stephen A Smith for the contract he recently signed with ESPN. On First Take, Russo trolled Smith and ESPN after the studio lost power.

“If they didn’t pay Stephen A $400 million, maybe they could pay their freakin’ bills, ESPN,” Chris “Mad Dog” Russo said. “I mean, goodness gracious. How dare you (a) squeeze me and stick me in a hallway with lights from 2000. …You took me away from my site, all because you got to pay (Smith) $150 million guaranteed?!”

Smith’s contract isn’t as much as Russo proclaimed. In March, it was reported that Smith agreed to a new contract with ESPN worth at least $100 million for years. He’s a featured commentator and executive producer on First Take, the flagship morning show for ESPN.

Stephen A Smith is also an analyst on NBA Countdown, ESPN and ABC’s NBA pregame show. He has been with the network in some capacity since 2003.

More on Stephen A. Smith and Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo

“My deal was incredibly complicated,” Smith told Variety in a recent interview. “I wanted the right to go beyond the world of sports. To have my own podcast rights, my own audio rights. The freedom to extend beyond the parameters of sports” was “obviously, very pivotal to me,” he explains. “I was going to walk away from ESPN, and that’s not something I wanted to do. That was something I was willing to do.” 

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo is best known for his work on the radio show Mike and the Mad Dog with Mike Francesa. He operates his own channel on SiriusXM Radio (Mad Dog Sports Radio) and normally appears on First Take every Wednesday.

In November, Russo spoke to Andrew Marchand and talked about his work on First Take. “This is where I give Stephen A. credit,” Russo said, per Awful Announcing. “In the sports media business right now, it’s much more athlete0oriented. And the place – and I mean this sincerely – for the old white guy, has been taken away to a certain degree.

“When you get to be a certain age, if you’re doing talk radio, it’s harder to stay relevant. It’s harder. And I think ESPN being an all-sports outlet, not having a guy like me on there who can break down Lombardi’s Packers, who can talk about all the sports, golf and tennis the occasional times we do it, looks at sports as a whole, does not put black/white in any way, shape or form, I think that probably was something they may have been missing on a show like that.”