Chris Russo: Be Shocked If Belichick Doesn't Coach Again

This is the Rich Eisen Show.

I want to remind y'all. This is the Rich Eisen Show. With guest host, Suzy Schuster. The best teams in the NFL, top to bottom, are the Dolphins and the Vikings.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Chiefs were an F-. The Chiefs got an F-. The Chiefs got an F-.

The Steelers got an F-. Today's guests, Chris Mad Dog Russo, longtime NFL writer Peter King, actor and Roastmaster General Jeffrey Ross. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Suzy Schuster. Well, hi there everybody.

Suzy Schuster back in the seat for Rich Eisen, which is of course in Indianapolis and I'm thrilled to be with you this week. I'm back tomorrow too, so don't go away. But guys, TJ Jefferson, how are you? Hey, I'm great, Suzy. How are you? Good to see you. And Mikey D., how are you this morning? I'm doing well, Suzy.

Good morning. You with us, Mikey? You with us?

Yeah, I'm with only for two hours. What? What does that mean? The relief pitcher comes in. What do you mean?

Jason will be the last hour. Okay. I got some Michigan basketball. Oh. So I got tonight at Michigan Rutgers.

Nobody cares. So you're dumping us. I see.

The school that beat me in the Final Four. Good to know that you're dumping us. I've been here for two hours. It's good to tell me now, but thanks so much for that. When you get up, you're going to be like, sad. No, I know. I am sad. I'm sad.

Jason's going to be happy now. Sad. Hey, Chris. Hey. Hey, how are you? Hey, I look better every day, so I'm great.

Is that right? Good to know. Hi, everybody. Thanks for tuning into the Rich Eyes and Show, also known as the How Do I Look, Chris Brockman show, but just found that out anyway. Chris Russo joining us on the show today.

Hey, doggy. I got to tell you, I'm so excited about this. I try to book the show.

Liz Wald is in charge of all the booking here, and Rich has a crack staff booking duo on top of that, but I try to do a lot of the stuff on my own. This was for my brother, because my brother's obsessed with Mad Dog, and so he's like, can you get him one? Can you get him one? And I said, finally, I'm like, I'm going to pull the trigger for my brother, Scott. So, Mad Dog Russo coming on. I won't call him Mad Dog. I don't think, I mean, do I call him doggy? Do I call him Chris? Christopher, I'm going to ask him how he wants to be called, because here's the deal. I just want to call him Christopher, Mike. I mean, sometimes I call you, Christopher, if I think you're being insouciant, but that's in the end of the day.

Yeah, if you are Christopher, come out of Susie's mouth. You know, I feel like, you know, I'll ask him about Chicago, because I'd like to know what he thinks about the Bears, but at the same time, I think he's so fascinating, and half the time when I sit in the chair here, I'm just asking questions that I think are interesting to me, and I hope that they're interesting to you, too. So, we're going to have him, we have an idea for maybe a start bench cut for him that I think that you will very much enjoy.

Oh, yeah. Peter King will join us as well. Obviously, he announced this week that he is retiring from writing his column. He'll be doing lots of other things, but love to have Peter on.

And, again, we can ask him about what's going to happen in Chicago, but I'm more interested in the stories that got away from him, the stories that make him most proud, maybe even the stories that he feels like he failed. I think he's such a fascinating, as we talk about Mount Rushmore, he's it. He's on it, and so thrilled to have Peter King as well. Jeffrey Ross, the comedian who we've been friends with for 30 years, having him come on to promote his upcoming movie called Ricky Stinecki.

You heard it here first. It's incredible. And also, he's got his take-up, Banana for the Ride solo show. So, he's going to come on and break all of that down and just listen to him talk. I could pretty much listen to him all day. He's hysterical and great and speaks from the heart. And, oh, by the way, the show is called The Rich Eisen Show.

Rich will, in fact, zoom in, of course, from Indianapolis and let us know what he's up to over there. But, guys, we've got to start first. I mean, I thought it was going to be all combine all the time, but about 9 o'clock last night, I'm trying to get my kids to bed so I can actually pay attention to the world. And then I look at my phone and I'm like, oh, what the hell is going on at the Staples Center? And I still call it the Staples Center.

I'm sorry, the crypto arena. Staples. Whatever. I mean. It's Staples.

It's Staples. Thank you, Mikey. And just, I said, guys, let's all go.

They're like, Mom, it's bedtime. I'm like, let's go watch this game. And we just watched an absolute LeBron clinic.

Just a clinic. We watched that incredible run that the Lakers put on. And really, I mean, let's face it, LeBron put on a 39 to 16 run to close out the fourth. I mean, I always say to T.J., let me, T.J., keep me straight on the numbers because God knows I'm not a numbers person.

Math scares me. And I am. And I said, T.J., keep me honest here. But a 21 point fourth quarter comeback by the Lakers to beat the club joint. A 19 to 3 run in four minutes. It seemed like all LeBron was doing was dominating. Now, the other thing I pointed out to T.J. was, and, you know, we talked about Daniel Thaiss coming out to guard him on the perimeter. And all LeBron would do is, like, look at him like, really?

This is what you're giving me? And just that classic step back and boom. It was a thing of beauty. 34 points for LeBron, 19 in the fourth quarter. Five threes, 13 of 21. You guys, it was, and you know what I loved about watching this game last night?

And, you know, I've been, when I've sat in this chair before, sometimes I've said, like, he's not my favorite guy to cover in the world. I appreciate everything about who he is as a player. But, you know, I watched last night and I thought, how does he still have the energy to do this night after night? Now, let's not forget, they are the ninth seed. A lot of excitement, a lot of frenzy after that last night. He can't play like that all the time, and yet they need him to, to be relevant. But, wow, Chris, watching him sit back and launch, penetrate at will, doing whatever he wanted, and then guarding Kawhi Leonard for half the game.

I don't know. It was a thing of beauty. It's fun. My feelings about LeBron are kind of whatever, TJ. I mean, but let's appreciate what we're watching.

Absolutely. It's a guy in his 20th year. He's going to be 40 this coming season, later this year. It's, you know, it's Tom Brady stuff.

It's stuff that you're not supposed to see. Guys this age aren't supposed to do it at this level. The problem for the Lakers is it's going to take this kind of effort from LeBron every single night to keep them in the playoff hunt, to keep them in the playing round, to keep them in the, try to get them into the top six. And that's a problem if we're just talking about from a basketball standpoint, because I don't think that this type of production night in and night out is sustainable for him.

You know that he needs some help, which is why he was kind of hanging around at the at the trade deadline to get some guys in there. But just to sit back on a Wednesday night and kind of watch this performance, I know it sucks. TJ, you're a Cooper fan.

They blew a huge lead. But you got to be like, damn, that was unbelievable to watch. Yeah, I mean, I got this. This is just me personally. You know, so many times we pick and choose the players that we love to watch and then we'll be like, oh, I don't like this guy or I don't like that team. And you let those biases kind of take you away from like just overall good basketball. And I used to be like that with Kobe and the Lakers. I dislike the Lakers so much that I didn't really appreciate Kobe and what was going on right down the street from me every day. And so I told myself at a point that like after I realized that I was never going to be that way with another player.

So I do. I appreciate and I understand historically what we're seeing with LeBron James. This man's about to eclipse the 40,000 point plateau. These are numbers you're never going to see again.

Like it's just never going to happen. Scoring record will never be broken. No one's going to be able to be as good for such a sustained period. And like you said, Chris, he can't do it every night. But those nights when he is able to write in the bag and and make it happen, it's kind of special, you know, even when he's doing it against, you know, your favorite squad. But it it was just like one of those moments where, you know, Suzy, once the momentum turns got to the four minute mark, Anthony Davis is at the line. He makes two foul shots.

He ties the game. Clippers miss. LeBron comes down, hits Rui Hachimura, hits a three, puts him up, and that was pretty much it.

But you could feel the tide just change. Yeah. The Clippers coach, Ty Lue, basically played captain obvious. He was like, you just can't let LeBron get hot.

It's like, really? I mean, you just can't let LeBron get high, obviously, 40 points away from 40000. Has the player even been born? Who can come close to that? Does the NBA need to change the court and the shape of the court and push the line back or forward or whatever to have a player come close to this? We are watching history, by the way, LeBron and 39. I was doing a little research.

Don't don't get scared. Fifth in the league in minutes played. And that goes back to what you were saying, Chris. And that's about keeping your body in the greatest of shape, a la TB12. How does he do it night after night? How does he have the energy?

And what does he do? And can I have some? Because something is working.

Here's LeBron James after the game. Just in the zone. I mean, I know we've kind of heard this, you know, what it feels like to be in the zone, you know, in our in our sport.

And that's just a feeling where you feel like everything that you put up is going in. And, you know, for me, I just kept it kept it consistent. I wasn't taking ill-wise shots. I stayed in the course of the offense when I was able to get the switches. I was able to give myself some space and get a couple more looks.

You know, so my teammates did a great job of continuing to find me, you know, and then I just try to dictate the tempo, dictate the game, you know, as we started making a run for it and getting the game closer and closer and closer. So, you know, it's just a zone that you can't really describe it. You wish you could stay in it forever, but obviously it checks out, you know, as the game ends. But, you know, during it, you don't you don't feel anything.

You just have a superpower, I feel. Then you get to wonder how he feels the next morning when he wakes up after that. Right. He's going to go back and it's the Wizards tonight? Chambers. So he probably didn't feel anything.

Hyperbaric? Yeah. So he's got the Wizards tonight, I believe, at the downtown hoops dojo.

And I have a feeling that our dojo does. Is this a load management game? Do you think it feels like it has all the makings of one darvin new phone who this right? I mean, like might take the night off. I'm just going to stay on your forty nine year old put in work last night. He might deserve a bit of a day off. It's a little crazy. Here's darvin ham after the game talking about LeBron James and just marveling at what he saw.

I mean, everybody's just pushing them on, cheering them on. You know, he had to take the cape tucked under his seat on the bench, I guess it was time for him to whip it out. And he definitely did that, put the cape on and just got aggressive and got in a good rhythm. He's been shooting the ball, you know, extremely well this whole entire season. And that was just another case of it. You know, once he got in rhythm and, you know, with his playmaking skills, he sets the tone with his three with his shooting and going downhill. But then once they start scheming and trying to hit double team late, he was able to pick him pick him apart with the pass.

And that's just who he is. Yeah. James single handedly outscoring the Clippers nineteen sixteen in the final frame, including five for eight from three with four assists to close out the hallway.

The back to back. Yeah. I mean, you OK this morning, T.J., you're all right. And you pointed out Paul George is out, Zubac is out. I had to say something to make myself feel good about exactly trying to prop you up. I mean, the Laker I mean, I mean, you are in the four seed.

Yeah. I'm in a text chain with two Laker fans, double A and Daniel. And like every year when the Clippers were just housing the Lakers every year, I would send something. They'd be like, oh, regular season really means a lot. So now the Lakers have beat us in the regular season. These guys are trying to, like, make it seem like they won the title last night, Chris.

And it's just like, wait a minute. We we beat you guys like 13 games in a row and it like didn't count for anything. And now you win a game, you win a series finally, and it's oh, the Lakers are back.

I don't know about that, but whatever it was, it was it was a spectacular effort by them. The Clippers just had a tremendous letdown. They just I don't it was like they stopped caring, guys. Yeah, they're still like it's still the ninth seed. They're a half a game ahead of Golden State for the 10 seed. So it's not like they're blowing anybody away or lighting the house on fire or, you know, in the top four or anything. They still got a lot of work to do and a long way to go if they're going to even win a playoff series.

Well, that's it. I mean, to even to even get into the playoffs, to even be there, I mean, that's not a guarantee. So yeah, they're playing well. They've won seven of the last 10. So they're trending in the right direction.

Can it keep up for the last six weeks of the year? You know, remains to be seen. It probably should when you look at this team, like you take all the stats when you just, you know, they say on paper, this this is a playoff team on paper.

So they should be. The thing is, they've been a terrible road team. They're awesome at home.

Twenty nine at home. And that's what I get. Like it's seven games under on the road. It's hasn't been translating away from away from Staples. But we haven't heard the the friction in the locker room stories the last couple of weeks.

So no, because it looked like Darwin Ham was going to get got there for a minute early in the season. And, you know, they've kind of righted that ship, so to speak. We'll see how they close. You know, there's what, 60, there's 22 games left. I mean, is it time?

It's so funny because if you listen to sports radio in this town, in Los Angeles, I mean, the complaint department is open 24 seven, not as bad as Boston, not as bad as Philadelphia. But, you know, why does the team defer to LeBron James and they why do they build around him? And, you know, you watch games like last night and you think, well, if you can start putting these back together, then it's the Lakers that they thought they were going to get when they got him. Yeah. But, man, I mean, D'Angelo Russell, I just said he did have that one time where I think it was LeBron dishing out to him in the corner, looked like he was going to take the three and then he just penetrated at will and then silence the crowd. And I was like, oof.

He also had a big story during that run to like I said, they definitely got talent on this team. So it'll be interesting to see how they finish up. Yep. Eight, four, four, two or four. Rich is the number. You know, I love to take calls. So start calling in a little free advice. I'm happy to dish it out for you. Eight, four, four, two or four.

Rich. Good morning to everybody on Sirius and good morning as well. An afternoon to all of you on Roku. We're thrilled to see you. And by the way, don't forget that this show repeats itself on Roku.

So if you miss a little bit of it, don't worry. Come on back. Find us wherever you find us. But Rich will. Rich will join us ahead. But first, it is Chris Mad Dog Russo. I mean, the amount of questions I have, we could go three hours.

I'll try to go 12 minutes. This is the Rich Eisen Show. America starts the day with America in the morning. Hi, I'm John Trout, your host for the latest news, politics, entertainment, business and weather.

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Bigger Pockets real estate podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen. It's the most pissed off you made Nick Saban ever. Oh, when I took the sack second at 26 in a national champion. You mean the one that you immediately made up for with an amazing play that puts you on the map? Yeah. That sack? Yeah.

Okay. That was the second. So walk me through how that what he said to you, if you can, in a in a certain way on a live radio TV broadcast. I mean, I could only see it on camera, you know, how mad he was. That was probably the most pissed off, though.

I think he's ever been. I mean, he just used squeezing his headset so hard and then, you know, like it was hard because the emotion was like so mad to so happy, you know, so fast for him. And, you know, we got into the locker room when everything settled down. I mean, he was still still the same coach, you know, put me to the side. Like, what were you thinking?

You know, so after you won the game and you pick and confetti. confetti out of your hair, he still took a moment in that moment to revisit that being who he is. I mean, you know, he pulled me to the side, he said, you know, well, why did you take the set?

Right. You know, and I thought it was good time to joke with him, you know, so I mean, we won the national championship, so I told him, I told him, well, you know, we needed more room to throw the ball coach, you know, and like, he looked at me and like, I was laughing. He's like, that's not funny. So I mean, I didn't know what else to do in that situation. I was like, okay, I'm sorry, coach. I shook his hand and he just moved on. I was like, oh, man, that's amazing. I love that story, my favorite story the whole week. So you just figured, yeah, hey, I was like, oh, maybe. Yeah.

That was a good time to joke, but it was, no, it's never a good time, I guess, in that respect. Welcome to The Rich Eisen Show. Suzy Schuster in for Rich Eisen, who is in Indianapolis, of course, and he will zoom in with us shortly.

Peter King ahead as well, and Chris Russo. And guys, I think this morning, having him zooming in today, like one of the more fun guests I've had on, I think that we've actually been excited about talking to and, and it's so funny because it's like I said to you guys, it's not even about asking him about who the Bears are going to take in the first round. It's about where did you come from?

Yeah, right, and how'd you come up with a persona? And I think that that's one of the things I love so much about being in an interview format is having people on that are actually interesting to you, you know, as opposed to just like, it's great to talk about LeBron and I'm happy to do it all day because I love the NBA, but sometimes you get a guest on and it's just, you book them only because you are curious about it as opposed to, you know, it being the news of the day, even though he does cover the news of the day. So it's kind of a two for one special. Oh, I mean, Wednesdays are mad dog days, right, Chris? Mad dog days on first take are some of the funniest things I've ever seen in the last couple of years. Just the absurdity and just the fun it looks like they're having, which is super great. I mean, look, this guy helped invent what we're in the business that we're in right now, Mike.

You know, so any time you get a chance to talk to him, it's always special. Who did you listen to as a kid? Oh, well, as a kid, I more or less just listen to games on the radio. So when we moved to Maine, you know, I was a big Red Sox on the radio, Celtics on the radio because we didn't have cable growing up. So I had to listen to games on the radio. And then after college, I was a big Rome guy.

So I listened to Rome kind of every afternoon before I went to work at the my newspaper. Did you rack them? I never called in. I was not a caller.

I was not a clone. I really just wanted to listen and just for all the absurd things and the interviews back then, I mean, in the mid 2000s, there was really nobody better than Jim. So that's kind of where I killed some time and at the gym and getting ready for whatever, you know, girls soccer game or boys tennis match I was covering that afternoon in southern Maine.

So it was a lot of fun. Mikey, who did you listen to? You're looking at this guy.

I mean, come on. It was this guy. It was Stern and Mike and the Mad Dog.

Those two are the that's it. It's like you got you got both of them all day. And that was like a full day.

Yeah. In the old days. And I miss, of course, because he was local also.

Oh, God, I forgot. I miss in the morning. Of course, I miss Mike and the Mad Dog. And they were on we were talking about this. They were on like I think they started a certain amount of hours and then they'd be on like five hours and they would have callers the whole day, the whole day was I can't even imagine people waiting on hold five hours waiting to talk to them just like literally we're going to bitch about the Yankees.

We're going to drop the Mets, the Nets, the Knicks, whatever you're going to Rangers, whoever it was. And those guys just they made it so interesting. And it was just like it's like I get goosebumps because it's like my childhood. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, I always I'm always marveling at the patients that some of you guys have when you call in and just and then I always wonder, like, are you in an office? Is your boss like does your boss know that you're sitting here on hold waiting to talk to his portrait?

The else on hold? It's amazing. It's amazing. And then you call in and just be like, oh, I think that Donovan McNabb sucks in my wall. You're just like, oh, OK, cool.

Thank you for contributing. Yeah. And I was listening. It's like and some of the people that call in, I always feel like our callers really bring some interesting insight.

But sometimes you're like you waited three hours for that, really. You know, the first time you call, though, and I mean, I did it with Larry King in New York. You called in the Larry King.

Yes. The complaint about the you called into Larry King. That's fantastic.

And like 80 might have been like eighty five was where everything won the World Series. And I remember waiting on hold and I got on and I froze. Yeah, I want to complain about something I was like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

He's like Mike Livingston. It's like and I was like sitting there going, I couldn't speak because and you do you get like you get like like a little crazy when you get on the call. You're like sitting there going, oh, my God, you're actually on the air with like Larry King.

It's national. People can hear you all over America. Don't sound like an idiot. Of course, I sounded like an idiot that day.

Yeah. You know, people underestimate what happens when they say, you know, you hear the crackle and then you're on and then you're on and then you're sitting here thinking, oh, God, I have to be really good. Or people, you know, they think it's easy.

It's not. You get very nervous. Did you ever call into shows before you were on the show? Yeah, I mean, Chris knows this traditionally. I've never in my life been a big fan of sports talk radio.

I don't know why. It was just a lot of people yelling and opinions that would host will give an opinion on Monday and then by Wednesday completely forgot what he said and gave you a completely different point of view. So I was never really into sports talk radio. Plus, you know, I'm from a small town in the middle of Pennsylvania.

So we didn't get like these guys in their bigger areas getting guys like Mad Dog and guys like that. You know, we got local local guys. Well, yeah, I used to call and I think it was WFBG and Altoona when I was a kid. They used to always have radio contests. So I would call in and I remember I answered one about the soap opera Guiding Light.

I was able to answer this question that one like a free sub or something I called and got on. Fantastic. So he called in about a soap opera. You've been on the prices. The price is right. You've got an eclectic like knowledge of television, don't you really do a little bit. That's hilarious.

A little bit. I wanted I wanted to call into some of the local stuff in Boston. And then, you know, then I would move to New York and I went and worked at ESPN. I covered the Yankees a lot. So I would sit in the back of the of the John Sterling Michael K booth and just hope that John Sterling would say my name. And every so often he'd say, like, Suzy Schuster's here from ESPN.

What a great kid. And honestly, that was it. I just just just a mention. It's like, just say my name right. Right. But I mean, John Sterling, come on.

Also one of the all time greatest. So you have to you just want all you want is for Johnson said to say your name and then, you know, you're golden for a while. True story, sorry. Just oversharing with you in the first day, I think I said, I mean, W.R.T.A. and I'll tune it out. I think about it.

Just want to get it right. Yeah. There you go. I was a big concert ticket guy trying to call. Yeah. Concert tickets.

I'll call her number 50. Oh, yeah. Springsteen. Once. What was your first concert, Mike?

Kid. I went and saw Springsteen, OK, with my sister in college at Seton Hall when he played because she was good friends. She was the head of the yearbook and good friends with the photographer.

I held his bag while he took photos with Springsteen like a foot in front of me. I might have been in like sixth, seventh grade. Yeah.

Right. When Born to Run came out. And I remember like the only song I knew was Born to Run. Like I knew no other song he was playing.

And that was a fan. As soon as I saw this guy live, I'm like, oh, my God, he's like really good. I stole my brother's Born to Run album, played the whole thing Jungleland. That would became my like one of my favorite albums to play. And back in the old days, you played the whole album because you wanted to hear all the songs. But literally to this day, I think I still have the album I stole from my brother in my collection. And that was the first concert and kiss right after that. I remember taking my brother's kiss, my brother's Springsteen and had to have been Born to Run.

Yeah, it would be playing it over and over again. But was the river on Born to Run? No, that's that's on the river. It's on the river. OK. Born to Run is Jungleland.

Jungleland. Yeah. It's that whole group of amazing.

Yeah. It was like, oh, man, that was such a great album. Chris, what was your first my first concert was the New York State Fair in the fall of 1999. It was 98 degrees with a little known opener that night.

Britney Spears. Oh, no way. Fantastic. Not a concert guy growing up. And one of my college buddies, we took his little cousins who are now like in their 30s. We took that. We took them to the concert at the State Fairgrounds in New York.

Sure. And it was Britney Spears opening for 98 degrees. It was hilarious. That's a good double bill right there.

I would take that right now. Pretty good. In September of 1999. That's sick. Well, thanks for asking. My first one was Sting. Hey, Susie.

Yeah. What was your first? What was your first? Hey, thanks for asking.

That's so nice of you. It was Sting at Great Woods, followed up by Bon Jovi. I'm wearing Sting on my T-shirt right now. Yeah.

Followed up by what? Really? Yeah. Sting is on my T-shirt. Do we have Chris Russo? Is he on? Oh, different Sting, Chris?

Different Sting. Okay. We're still efforting. We're still efforting.

This is what we call ramping and having a casual conversation while we're ramping. We're still efforting. I'm sorry. Wait, wait. Hold up.

Susie, I'm sorry. You were saying Sting and Bon Jovi. I was saying... Thank you.

Thanks, TJ. I was saying it was Sting, followed right away by Bon Jovi. And I think that was the only... They weren't together, right?

No. It was like we got... It was back to back. Someone told me you once had a Bon Jovi poster on your bedroom.

Oh, yeah. I was fairly certain that Richie Sambora saw me in the crowd and pointed at me in my rugby shirt. I don't think I was this type. And was like, what? You pull you on stage like Courtney Cox? I was waiting for my Courtney Cox moment, thinking like, I am so cool in my rugby shirt.

I hung out with Richie Sambora one night. You did? Yeah. I think 2011. I'm pretty sure it was at a Super Bowl party.

And had it go. Dope guy. I can remember thinking Richie Sambora is a cool... Oh, yeah. It's cool. Cool. Cool. Yeah.

He knows how to use a can of hairspray. Let's just say that. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I loved all that kind of like Def Leppard. Oh, yeah. Oh, good. Oh, the 80s.

Of course. Oh, yeah. I mean, the hair bands were fantastic.

I loved all that. Poison. But that... Poison, of course.

Yeah. See, I wasn't very good because growing up, I had friends of all different colors. So whereas I would always bring the rap to our little hangout sessions, my best friend who lived in the alley behind me was very into heavy metal. So I was listening to stuff like Van Halen and ACDC and Def... Stuff that I would have never heard on my own. But because we were friends, we got to exchange music like that. Chris Russo, what a pleasure having you on The Rich Eisen Show.

Thank you so much for your time. What's your best, best Bruce Springsteen song? If we were to play Start Bench Cut, which is what we play here all the time, we're talking about music here.

Let's face it, I'm not going to waste time talking with you about like, what's the Bears going to do? On your... If I had to... Wow.

There's a lot of them. I think probably Rosalita would be the one that I'd have to take, partly because it's a song that goes way back that I remember in album number two. So I would take Rosalita as my number... and Ties That Bind I love as well, there's a lot of them. But I'm going to tell you Rosalita from Wild the Inner Street, E Street Shuffle.

I did a camp thing once when I was a camp counselor in 1980 and we had a talent show and I had all the campers dressed as Springsteen's members and we lip synced Rosalita. So I will go with Rosalita and not see her. Wow. How about that?

She's fantastic. Give me... I feel like having you on, there's so many things I want to ask you, so I'm going to just rapid fire if you don't mind. Go ahead.

Sure. Where did Mad Dog come from? Bob Raisman gave me that nickname back in 1988. I had just gotten to New York a year or so prior and I was doing a show on WMCA, which used to be a legendary New York talk show back in the 60s.

A lot of music too, but a lot of great talk shows, came from MCA, got a job there and I worked weekends, five to eight, Saturday and Sunday. And Bob Raisman, who wrote for the New York Daily News and covered sports media, found me and gave me that Mad Dog nickname. So when I left MCA about a year, December of 88, I had the nickname a year or so before that. I went to FAN, which had just started, and then all the FAN guys led by Don Imus promoted the fact that we have a Mad Dog in the house. So Raisman to Imus to Mike and the Mad Dog, that's where that nickname came from back in 1988.

All right. You need a nickname. You need a nickname in sports talk radio, especially back then. It separates you from the pack, Susie, having a nickname. I got to think of one for myself.

Okay. Dog doggy, Christopher, Chris, what do you like being called? Well, Christopher, Chris, that's my name. So I'll say Christopher, doggy I like, Christopher, dog I don't, Mad Dog is too official, Stephen A calls me that, so that shows a familiarity to it. Christopher shows a little refinement, Chris is a little too, you know, informal, Christopher or doggy are the two ways I would go.

I told you, Chris, I told you. Yeah, but I said doggy. I told you and I said, and I said, I'm not calling him doggy.

It's just like, well, you and I don't have a relationship, I'd like to have one, but we don't have it. I'm not going to call you doggy. I'm going to call you Christopher with, you know, I'm going to have some, I'm going to have some respect. I'm going to say to you, Christopher, because I want to be formal. They call me a lot of things. I had a nickname in high school, I went to a boarding school in upstate New York, I wore black patent letter shoes, so they called me Gucci in high school, so I have always had, whatever the reason, I've always had a nickname, my whole life I've had a nickname for quite a while.

Well, they call me a lot of things behind my back, but I'm not going to say what they are here. Susie Shuster on the Rich Eisen Show, Infra Rich, Chris Russo joins us, Christopher Russo joins us, and we're so thrilled to have you. Steven A is a very old friend of mine back from the Fox Sportsnet days. What's the difference between working with him and working with Mike Mancessa? That's a good question. Wow.

That's a very good question. I think Mike is a little more reserved, and I think you have to prove to Mike that you are on Mike's level from a sports perspective. Steven A takes you for what you are.

He understands that the embellishment of it. Mike can be a little cynical about somebody who yells a lot. Steven A kind of loves that, so I would think that the enthusiasm level with Steven A plays a little better for him than it would for Mike. I would think the intellectual level, not saying that Steven A is as smart as a whip, but the intellectual level probably works a little better with Mike. To be on Mike's plane intellectually, sports-wise, that takes some getting. You got to know how to do that, and you got to match that, and that's not that easy. Steven A, you got to match his enthusiasm and his delivery, which is a different situation. So there are two different little skill sets.

You can have a lot more thoughtful conversations sometimes with Mike and a lot more enthusiastic conversations sometimes with Steven A. What is the one sporting event that has caused you to be the most crazy, the most insane in your career? Wow.

That's a good question. The most specific sporting event? Probably the 90 Buffalo Giants game in Tampa. I thought that the Bills, after beating Oakland 52-3 in the AFC Championship game, I thought they would kill the Giants.

I went on and on and on at the Tampa Hyatt thinking that this game would not be competitive. I had the game early at 21-3, and then by the time Friday at 605 came, I had it 49-13, and that was the final that I picked. Now Peter King, the great, just retired, esteemable Peter King, had it 35-14 Bills. For some reason, my 49-13 in New York resonated a little longer, and then I sat in the back of the end zone, the opposite side of Norwood's miss, saying, as that game went on, I said, boy, did I screw this up. Mike was close to Parcells, and Mike went to Parcells, you're not going to believe this, Bill. My dopey partner thinks that the Bills are going to score 49 on you, and Bill told him, tell that little ham and egger, there is no way I'm allowing the Bills to score 49 points. Bill was right, I was wrong, 2019 Giants, Super Bowl XXV, a hell of a game, Susie, a hell of a game. I love it. We'll be back in the next hour, so we're back to back, you and I are lockstep with our admiration of him. What about the moment where you said, I am the luckiest guy in the world to be working in this job, to be being able to be myself calling sports?

That's a good one, too. Wow. When's the moment that I really felt very fortunate? I would say, I know this is going to sound a little weird because it just kind of occurred, I would say probably those first, that first time a couple years ago when I did first take. I did a first take, I just went in there, it was January last, two years ago. Stevie A. called me, I went in, I did two segments on Clemons and Bonds and why they shouldn't be in a Hall of Fame and something on the Packers who had just lost to San Francisco in a divisional game in the snow and Lambeau. The next day ESPN called me and a day after they signed me into a contract.

That's freaking, at 62 years of age. That is fortunate, so I'd have to say that would be one. I think the other one would be the first day in 03 when I did two books and my first book that came out, greatest sports arguments of all time, when you write a book and a book comes out on a Tuesday and boxes of it are delivered to either your house, radio stations. I think that's important too. I remember one year I went to go do the Today Show, this would have been probably summer of 03 and I was doing the Today Show and I walked by Barnes and Noble and Fifth Avenue and the greatest sports argument book was in the window. I think that, I said, geez, look at that, Barnes Fifth Avenue, I got a stupid little book that I could care less about.

That too, those two, those two I can give you. How about the moment in sports that has affected you most personally? I think it's probably Magic Johnson when he announced he had HIV.

That was in 90. Mike and I had just started, remember, he had a press conference in November that day at 04 o'clock. They called the press conference that afternoon.

This was not something that was, okay, Magic on November 4th is going to announce his retirement. They called that press conference probably in the morning because his health insurance came back and he had the blood disorder. He had the press conference at 04 o'clock and Mike and I were on the air. To be on the air when Magic Johnson is announcing his retirement from professional basketball, that to me was one of the most dramatic moments that I've ever done. To be on the air when that occurred. The other one that I think of, and this is a tragedy, we were on the air when Corey Lytle with his test pilot crashed his plane into an apartment building at 72nd Street and Park. That was a day of a met cardinal in 06 of a met cardinal playoff game, NLCS at Shea. They got rained out and Mike and I were on the air all day from soaked Shea and that accident happened, I'm going to guess, 02, 03 o'clock and we had all sorts of transportation. That was a very dramatic day.

He had just pitched for the Yankees two days before that and we had talked him on the air because we yelled at him and we had him on on Monday and this happened like on Wednesday. Those two, very, very dramatic, Susie, very dramatic. Few more minutes with Christopher Russo unless you can hang out for a commercial break, which I might say to you. I can hang on, Susie.

Can you? You're doing a great job. But this is so fantastic. Thank you so much.

All right. Mount Rushmore of media. You have to put some guys up there or ladies. Who are they? It could be TV. It could be print. Any form of media. Who would they be? You're going to adjust sports media or all media?

Sports media. If you want to add Paul Harvey, you add Paul Harvey, but whoever you want to add. I would add Howard, but let's not do it from that. Let's just do sports because I think that's a little easier. Cossell would have to be considered in there.

I know this is going to sound crazy and people are going to think I'm nuts. Dick Young has to be in here. Dick Young is the first writer who covered a team in ways that you and I, Susie, would recognize the Dodgers in the late 40s, Jackie Robinson.

He was very, very significant, had an incredible amount of impact. That's two. Let's see. Well, that's a very good question.

I hadn't thought of that. That's two. Now, this is personal for me, so I'm going to put Enberg there.

That's beautiful. Because Enberg, he is a tremendous, tremendous play-by-play guy, and I grew up with him, so I'm going to put Enberg there. Now, I'll tell you a quick little thing on Enberg. 08 or 09, I'm doing spring training shows for Sirius. So I go to the Peoria, San Diego's playing somebody, and I'm in the ballpark at 7 a.m. He was doing Padre games. This is at the end of his career. That was their first spring training game on TV, and Dick Enberg was in the clubhouse at 7 o'clock in the morning preparing for a spring training game, Padres and Mariners, whoever they were playing.

Think about that. Dick Enberg, who did 3,000 Super Bowls. I was so impressed, so I will put Enberg. You have to put Costellanier for Monday Night Football. I will put, myself, I'm going to put Dick Young, and although I'm not an Olympic fan, I've got to put Roon Aldridge in there too. Beautiful. Olympics, Monday Night, I've got to put Aldridge in there.

That's a weird clue. I probably would refine it, but top of my head, Suzie, those are the four I give you. Let's go to break. When we come back, we'll have a couple more minutes with Christopher Russo, because honestly, this is the most fun we've had for a while, and we're going to ask you about Brent Musburger, who's on tomorrow as well. Let's go to break. Let's go to break. When we come back, much more with Christopher Mad Dog Russo. This is so fun.

Hi there. Sorry for the interruption, but are you enjoying this show on Google Podcasts? You should know that the Google Podcasts app is going away this spring. That's right, going away, gone as in no longer available. You can still enjoy this show elsewhere though. Try out Spotify or Amazon Music, or maybe TuneIn is more your style.

Whatever app you switch to, be sure to follow so you never miss the next episode, and thanks for listening wherever you listen. Back here on The Rich Eisen Show, Suzie Schuster in for Rich Eisen, and Chris Russo has been generous enough to stay with us during the commercial break, and we love having you on, so thank you very, very much. We talked about Brent Musburger before the break, and Dan Patrick has been very vocal about saying that he can't believe that Brent is not in the Hall of Fame. Brent is our guest tomorrow, old friend of mine. Can you think of a reason why he's not in the NFL Hall of Fame? It's an absolute disgrace.

I've screamed about that as well. Good job by Danny. He's been all over it recently. That was a great CBS documentary that they did on the NFL Today show during a Super Bowl before the NFL free game.

This is a guy that formed the NFL Today, and the fact that he does not have that Roselle Award is an absolutely mind-boggling scenario. Now listen, Brent was not a great sharer. Brent wanted to do everything. He wanted to do the NCAA. He wanted to do the NBA. He wanted to do studios. He wanted to do the Masters, Indianapolis. He probably rubbed a few people the wrong way because a lot of the times it's about Brent, and I think that didn't end well at CBS. They got rid of him in 90 because he was so empowered at the network that they just wanted to spread some of the workload around, and Brent did so much.

That's probably got a little something to do with it, but other than that, I don't know, Susie. That, to me, Berman's won the award, Andrea Klammer's won the award, Irv Cross, now African-American, very important, but he won the award, he was on a show called Cell won the award. Go look at the list of people who have won that award, and somehow Brent Musburger, 1975, and he was on there live. You are looking live at all these games.

That really is hot. Now listen, probably didn't make a ton of friends. I'll be the first to say that, but as far as his ability and how good he was at what he did in the studio, and he was a pioneer, and now that they all do it, they do five hour pregame shows, so Brent, to me, that is an absolute... The Hall of Fame should be embarrassed that Brent Musburger is not in there, and Dan Patrick, who has been screaming about it, you are 1,000% correct, is 100% right. He's got to be in the Hall of Fame.

I'm with you. Yeah, Christopher Russo here on The Rich Eisen Show. We are talking about Brent Musburger, and I'm sitting at The Rich Eisen Show radio network desk. I'm fornished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger's got the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. I wonder if it has to do with gambling, because he spoke about gambling long before the NFL got in bed with it. Maybe, and then he worked for Vison, which was an issue with gambling too, so that might have a little something to do with it. I don't know if Brent probably... Again, he was omnipresent on that show. He ran the roost.

That probably has got something to do with it. It can't be an oversight, because enough people have screamed about this for a long period of time, lately by Dan, and everybody knows that it's a disgrace that he's not in there. He should be in the Hall of Fame.

All right, we'll go into rapid fire mode just because I have so many questions, and I know Christopher over here has one as well. The next five years of Bill Belichick's life are going to look like? Hit coach again. I'd be shocked if he doesn't. Somebody will take a run at him after this year. I was surprised he didn't get a job after this past season with either Dallas, even Atlanta.

I thought Washington would be perfect, but those programs decided to go in a different direction. There will be an owner next year after somebody has a big time disappointing year that's going to want to win a title quickly. He's still a great coach. I think you'll see him again on the sideline. I really do.

I'd be surprised if he's not. Chris, what do you got? You made a lot of headlines with your half a gummy and a 10K on Colorado earlier this year. What's the best bet you've ever made?

I'm going to tell you right now. Well, I did a couple. One, I bet the Giants in 10 at 13 to 1 to win the World Series before the year started, and they did. That was a good one. But how about the plays that I made in Vegas before this year's Super Bowl?

I went to South Point. I made five plays. Susie, Chris, are you ready for these? Here they are.

I'm writing them down. McCaffery, over four and a half receptions. Justin Watson, and I was going to bet MVS, but they didn't have him on the board because he had missed practice, and I would have lost.

Justin Watson, over 16 and a half yards receiving. That's number two. I bet the Chiefs on the money line, on the money line, I was 114. I bet it was something else in which I won. Northern Kentucky and Oakland in a college basketball over two days before that, and yes, I'm a degenerate. And then here's two that unbelievably I got.

A Chief fourth down conversion, which they got an OT, and it had to be done not via penalty. And number five, Mahomes, over one and a half touchdown passes. Let's play the game.

Now, that, Susie, let me hear from you. That is an incredible fundy at the Super Bowl. That's pretty good. I'm trying to put my jaw back in my head here because it dropped really, really hard. Five for five. Five for five, baby. Oh, baby.

We got two minutes to a hard out. I'm in a panic. I want to ask you about who the Bears are going to take with the first pick, but I'm almost more interested to hear on your thoughts on the Kennedy assassination because I know that's one of your favorite topics.

Oh, I love it. Rob Reiner, who I had on when he did this great 10 part series, which is airing on, you get it on your podcast. I had Rob on for an hour, but early December, he was great. And if you think, or if America thinks that Lee Harvey Oswald decided to go up on that book depository thing by himself and shoot the president of the United States, because whatever the case might, I mean, if you think that you are absolutely nuts. I used to think mob, Rob made me think CIA.

So some sort of combination of CIA and mob, and I can even make the argument as Reiner did that he may have not even been on the sixth floor at one something in the afternoon when Kennedy was shot. How about that? That's fantastic. We got 30 seconds to a hard out. Quickly, Bears are taking. I think they're going to take Kelly Williams of USC that the GM can't afford not to. If he keeps Fields trades depict Fields has a middling career and Williams turns out to be my homes. He will never live it down the rest of his life.

He will go the safe route and take Williams out of USC and trade fields for a couple of topics. Really appreciate you coming on today. Loved having him. Knock him dead. Chris, you too.

Susie, knock him dead. Listen, and I want to just, I want to just say to you. It is such an inordinate pleasure to have you.

We're on Roku only now. We just went to break for radio, but you get the drift, but I mean, it's just so much fun having you on because look, we all listen to sports radio all the time, but like this is, I like asking questions that are a little bit more interesting because I always tell everybody like you can listen to your take on the bears pretty much anywhere, right? But I'm still interested in things like, do you think the NIL is, you know, screwing up college sports forever? I'm a former ABC sports reporter.

So, you know, I lived at college football for so long. Do you think the NIL has spoiled players? Yeah, I think it's, I think it's a major mess. I think it's very difficult to build your teams. They bounce around. I understand why if coaches can leave, why can't the players leave too? Coaches have to pay a penalty if they leave, but this is a mess. College athletics, it's a year to year thing right now in basketball and in football. Couple of guys don't play here. Patino said he had two players as freshmen who he didn't play and if he did and if it was now, they would have left NIL and those players, Silver, Peyton Silver and somebody else helped them win a championship two years down the road. You can't do that today in college basketball or football. It's a major problem. I understand why the judge and, you know, if coaches leave, college athletics is a cesspool.

I get all that, but it's hurt the sport. There's no question. I appreciate your time. I hope you will come back again next time I'm in the chair. This has been fantastic. And also semi-love to Stephen A. I sure will.

Thanks a lot. The Rolling Stone Music Now podcast gets inside the biggest stories with Rolling Stone senior writer Brian Hyatt. And here's Lil Yachty with Tierra Whack. I've never been to a fashion show. I never did any Paris fashion week, New York fashion week, can I tell you why? Because I would always go to events and people would say to me, oh, man, Yachty, man, I love your music, bro.

And I should be like, what's wrong? I didn't even, at the time, I didn't love my music. I always feel like I'm in a room with all these artists and they all respect each other. And I feel like no one respects me. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen.