'Mad Dog' Chris Russo amidst a late-career boon with ESPN's 'First Take,' Vice Sports and SiriusXM

There was Chris Russo, sharing a stage with Peyton Manning last Wednesday night as Manning casually called him “Dog,” two media stars kibitzing the night away.

The oddest part was how normal it all seemed. This is Russo’s professional life as a Medicare-eligible senior: a late-career run that has him riding as high as ever.

“Who would have thought this at age 65?” he told Newsday after hosting a Q&A with Manning in Manhattan at a launch event for Vice Sports. “I never would have thought that I would have had this renaissance. Never.”

He credited good fortune, his knack for viral rants, his high-powered agent, Sandy Montag, and in particular ESPN personality/programming mogul Stephen A. Smith.

“I attribute it to Stephen A., because he put me on ‘First Take’ and people have gravitated to it,” Russo said. “I’m still into it. I still love the sports.”

Russo has hosted an afternoon show on SiriusXM since 2008, when he left WFAN after 19 years with Mike Francesa on the “Mike and the Mad Dog” show.

He also, until the end of last season, hosted “High Heat” on the MLB Network.

But it has been his Wednesday appearances on ESPN’s “First Take” over the past three years that have introduced him to a broader, younger national television audience.

Smith, who grew up in Queens and was a fan of “Mike and the Mad Dog,” saw in Russo a character he could relate to and play off and brought him aboard.

“He’s one funny dude, man,” Smith told Newsday in 2022. “I can’t get enough of him. I’ll admit that.”

Russo views his role as helping Smith by picking up some on-air slack on what often are slow, midweek mornings. His star turn comes during his weekly “What Are You Mad About?” segment.

“I try to do three or four things that I know he’s going to react to, so I’ll pick an NBA one and I’ll pick an NFL one,” Russo said. “I look at that as my eight-minute national segment a week where I can try to be funny and a little goofy.

“Sometimes I go over the line, but here’s the key: You try to be edgy, which is important, and not go crazy and go over the line. You want to push the envelope to the middle, but you can’t go over. So it’s a very, very tricky situation.”

Russo said his one appearance a week is perfect, “because I’m revved up to do it.”

Other media outlets have taken note. Vice had him host a show this winter called “The Verdict” that debated whether Bill Belichick or Tom Brady deserved more credit for the Patriots’ dynasty.

The fact Russo emceed the launch event and was chosen to talk to Manning was a sign of more Vice collaborations to come.

(Manning was promoting a six-episode show from his Omaha Productions called “The NFL Playback” that premieres in September and will examine memorable games of the past. Super Bowl XLII, in which his brother Eli led the Giants to an upset of the Patriots, is a likely subject.)

“He’s no-holds-barred,” Vice TV president Peter Gaffney said of Russo. “He’s going to tell it like it is. And he’s authentic.

“Those are the kinds of stories we want to tell, the authentic stories where people are not afraid, they’re not handled. That’s what you get from ‘Mad Dog.’ That’s why we love him.”

Gaffney noted that Russo has “more energy than 25-year-olds.” True or not, he does have a Gen-Z level feel for generating viral video and/or audio clips.

“I know how to rant and all that,” he said. “Then you put me on a TV and I’m animated. I know how to talk quickly. I think on my head. As a result, I can make that transition. That’s where I’ve been lucky.

“A lot of guys do radio, and then when the radio is over, they can’t make that transition. They get a little older, they’re not as interested. I can make the transition.”

Russo said his daily three-hour SiriusXM show remains his top priority. He signed a new three-year contract last summer.

Could he have believed things would turn out this way 17 years ago, when he took the risk of leaving WFAN?

“No, I couldn’t have,” he said. “No way. How could you? Absolutely no way. I always look at it one day at a time anyway, but that first couple of years at Sirius were hard.

“I’m doing a five-hour show, not three as I’m doing now. Five hours without commercials. It’s hard. I would never, ever have expected that kind of run after that.”

How long does he plan to keep at it?

“When they still want you,” he said, “it’s hard to blow them off.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.