Chris Mad Dog Russo jumped in (with his usual "I mean...I mean...I mean") to critique the Terrible Trio replacing Mike Francesa. Russo went especially hard at 'writer threatening English as a second language and as a player media boycotting' Bart Scott.
“It’s obvious that WFAN does not feel comfortable,” he said. “It’s hard to believe, to be fair. They knew this was coming down here for a long time. I mean, Mike announced this three years ago. I mean, this is not something that just all of a sudden dawned on him in the last two weeks.
“I mean, they’ve had all this time to figure it out and the guy that they’re going to throw at you is Bart Scott? I’m being fair. I know that sounds a little harsh, but I mean, you have to be honest. They’ve had two years to figure this out and the guy that they’re going to decide that is going to be the host of afternoon drive in New York, the first time they’ve had a big host there in three decades, a different one, and the guy they have decided to hand the baton to — and I’m not knocking [Chris] Carlin — is Bart Scott, who has no radio experience whatsoever and has very little New York experience?
“He’s not from here. (He’s from Detroit.) He doesn’t know anything about New York. You have to be honest. You have to be fair. I should keep my mouth shut because I’ll get in trouble here. But there’s a lot of talk show hosts who have New York roots around the country. You’re telling me you couldn’t get someone in there and give him a shot?”
Russo said he thought [Maggie] Gray will “do a good job” and said “you can’t go wrong” with Carlin, who “knows what he’s doing.” But he did question whether Gray, Carlin or Scott would be able to adequately analyze New York baseball, a longtime staple of the station.
“Carlin likes the Texas Rangers, for crying out loud, so he doesn’t count,” Russo said.
As for Scott, a former Jets linebacker, Russo said, “I have to hear Bart Scott break down Yankees and Red Sox in a big series in June before I can take this seriously. I have to hear that.”
Russo also noted that Scott at times mistreated members of the media during his playing days and now will be a media member himself.
“To me, it wasn’t out-of-the-box thinking,” Russo said of the new team. “It was, let’s be safe, let’s be relatively conservative . . . If I say anything bad it looks bad. I’m just giving you my opinion. I thought it wasn’t as enlightened as it could have been. That’s my thought on it.”
No more FAN. Brandon Tierney should quit.
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