Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo rips NFL over season-opener's streaming exclusivity: 'I want to watch the game normal'
The NFL's relationship with streaming platforms is once again in the National Radio Hall of Famer and ESPN contributor Chris "Mad Dog" Russo's crosshairs.
During one of his routine appearances on ESPN's "First Take," Russo unleashed on the league's decision to place its historic game in São Paulo, Brazil, on the Peacock streaming service. The season opening game is scheduled to take place on Sept. 6 and will mark the first-ever NFL game in Brazil.
The league previously announced the Philadelphia Eagles will travel to Brazil for the game to play a team that has yet to be revealed.
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"So, the Eagle fan, who busts his butt to go to The Linc (Lincoln Financial Field) to see game after game and spends a fortune to do it, he’s not gonna fly to Brazil; he may not have Peacock," Russo began. "So, he’s gonna miss the first game of the year so the NFL can make more money? I mean, really. I mean — it’s bad enough they’re on Amazon.
"It’s bad enough they go play in Europe. It’s bad enough they put extra millions of teams in, and they got an Amazon playoff game this year too, which drives me crazy. They got to play the first opening game of the year with the Philadelphia Eagles in São Paulo on Peacock? I mean, come on."
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Russo also expressed his lack of interest in finding and becoming a subscriber of the streaming service.
"It’s hard to get Peacock. I don’t want to get Peacock! I want to watch the game normal. Give me (Joe) Buck and (Troy) Aikman. Give me the CBS crew. (Tom) Brady’s gonna do it. Give me something. Don’t put the Eagles 9,000 miles away and then put them on a cable thing on Peacock, which you’ve gotta subscribe to, so NBC can make more money."
The Eagles are expected to give up a home game in exchange for playing at Corinthians Arena in Brazil to kickoff of the NFL's 2024 season. Philly's scheduled home games with either the Green Bay Packers or Cleveland Browns will likely be forfeited in order to accommodate for the game in São Paulo.
Although Russo is not happy with the idea of the highly-anticipated game landing on a streaming service, NBC Sports leadership expressed excitement about the opportunity to showcase the historic contest.
"It’s exciting for Peacock to exclusively showcase the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Brazil as part of NBC Sports’ unprecedented presentation of three primetime games on the NFL’s opening weekend," NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said in a press release.
Earlier this year, the NFL exclusively streamed the wild-card round playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins on the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service Peacock — much to Russo's displeasure.
"The answers that they give you, ‘Well, our younger audience; we all have sorts of surveys that indicate that they’re going to streaming. And the Dolphins-Chiefs game this year, the younger audience attendance was superb, so essentially, we also have to go to streaming for our business model.’ Now, hold on," Russo said on "First Take."
Chiefs player Charles Omenihu also appeared to take issue with the game only being available on the streaming service. "Us playing on peacock ONLY is insane I won’t lie," the defensive end wrote on X, the company formerly known as Twitter, in January.
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