Weak: Chris Mad Dog Russo Refuses To Retire, Shows What Is Wrong With Sports Media These Days

In a complete shock to no one, Chris "Mad Dog" Russo did not retire from his radio program despite having promised to do so if the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS.

After Tuesday night's Game 7 victory over the Phillies, all ears (or at least those that still have SiriusXM) were on Russo's Mad Dog Radio show yesterday afternoon to see if the sports radio iconic would man up or end up weaseling his way out.

He chose the latter but not without a few minutes of unnecessary drama by not showing up for the start of his show - only to return less than 15 minutes later in the second segment.

Welcome to sports media in 2023 where all you have to do is come up with the nauseating hottest takes, the most outrageous bits, and scream the loudest in order to pass as an on-air personality these days. What's even worse about this is Russo is a broadcast legend, he's one of the most significant sports talk radio hosts of all-time, having been one-half of the iconic Mike and the Mad Dog WFAN program for 20+ years; he didn't have to lower himself to the "I'll retire" phony nonsense.

It was lame to begin with but unfortunately, even Mad Dog has succumbed to the deterioration of an industry that he helped build.

MAD DOG GETTING RIPPED FOR NOT RETIRING

“If you’re looking for Dog, I mean you’re out of luck. This is not schtick. I’ve got nothing for you. He’s not here. And so this threat of retirement has kind of taken on a life of its own,” fill-in host Steve Torre began his monologue with. However, rather than actually lean into it, Russo couldn't help himself and jumped back on radio at the start of the second segment.

"I'm here... I didn’t go anywhere! Retire my ass! I’m here to do a talk show, and by the way, after 12 minutes of you, thank God I’m here to do a talk show," the 64-year-old Russo started screaming.

Great, congratulations.

MAD DOG COULD HAVE SET AN EXAMPLE

If you're Russo you have to go at least a day - maybe the rest of the week without appearing on your radio program. You can't come back the next day. Hell, he's making $10,000 an episode on First Take - and he has an entire SiriusXM sports channel named after him. If he wanted to really go down in history he should have just retired from his daily show. Now that would have been badass. It would have been a perfect opportunity to lead by example and show other broadcasters not to say dumb stuff on the air or promise things they can't follow through on.

Instead, Russo just appears corny as he got ripped from the likes of everyone from Dave Portnoy to The Michael Kay Show's Don LaGreca, who although says he is contemporaries and friends with Dog, argued that the whole retirement shtick was just unnecessary and dumb. He's right.

RUSSO PUNISHMENT

Instead, now we'll get Russo parading around in a bikini after appearing on The Howard Stern Show yesterday morning and getting ripped by Stern for not retiring. The two agreed for Russo to wear a bikini in New York City while holding a sign that says "I am a liar and a dope."

WEAK. What a snooze.

Put your (millions) money where your mouth is, Dog.