Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo made some waves on ESPN recently by involving his colleague Jessica Mendoza in his gummy bear controversy last month.
Russo, who first mentioned taking gummies last September, brought up the topic again on October 30 during an appearance on ‘First Take,’ where he went out of his way to mention Mendoza, who calls baseball and softball for the network.
‘I ate a gummy this morning, I’m flying… just before I did the Yankee nonsense, I said, let me have one. And I went back to Mendoza and had a gummy bear.’
ESPN contacted Mendoza after Russo revealed her name about the incident, and he later admitted that she had nothing to do with the situation.
“It’s not accurate and I got in trouble for it,” Russo later said on his podcast.
Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo recently got in trouble with ESPN over an on-air gummies incident
Russo mentioned Jessica Mendoza during the incident, even though she was not involved.
‘Because I put Jessica Mendoza in the mix, and I shouldn’t have done that… I indicated that she was in the mix. And that wasn’t right. So I’ll take the hit for that.’
‘She flew to Oregon immediately after, I haven’t heard from her. But ESPN did it…what are you going to do? You can’t please everyone.
Mendoza has not publicly commented on the incident and Russo said he has not spoken to her about it.
Russo appears weeknights on ‘First Take’ and is a common adversary of Stephen A. Smith, and both have earned a reputation for being loud and brash in their opinions, with co-host Molly Qerim usually caught in the middle.
Russo’s past use of gummies hadn’t raised any red flags, but this one may be different with his admission of doing it on the clock and just before appearing on air.
Russo has not yet been officially disciplined for this rubbery incident.
