ESPN ‘got p****d off’ with star over on-air gummy controversy

Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo made some waves at ESPN recently by roping colleague Jessica Mendoza into his gummy controversy last month. 

Russo, who first mentioned taking gummies in September 2023, 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 had a gummy this morning, I’m flying… right before he [Stephen A. Smith] did the Yankee nonsense, I said let me go gobble one. And I went back with Mendoza and I took a gummy,’ Russo said. 

Russo later repeatedly admitted that his ESPN colleague had nothing to do with the situation throughout the remainder of the program.

‘It’s not accurate and I got in trouble for that,’ Russo later said on his podcast. 

Russo name-dropped 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 the right thing to do. So I’ll take the hit for that.’ 

Russo was then asked if Mendoza was ‘p****d off’ at him over the name-drop.

He admitted that while he had not been in touch with her, his bosses at the network were. 

‘She flew to Oregon right after, I have not heard from her. But ESPN did…what are you gonna do? You can’t please everybody.’

Mendoza has not commented on the incident publicly and Russo said he has not chatted with her about it. 

Russo appears weekdays on ‘First Take’ and is a common adversary of Stephen A. Smith, with both garnering a reputation as loud and brash on their opinions, with co-host Molly Qerim usually stuck in the middle. 

Russo’s past gummy usage had not raised red flags but this one may be different with his admittance to doing it on the clock and right before appearing on-air. 

Russo has yet to be officially disciplined from this gummy incident.