Matt Cord Played Basketball With Christopher Mad Dog Russo At The Legendary MSG in the ’90s

Nowadays, if you were to turn on ESPN every morning anytime between 10 a.m. and noon, you would be met with two faces on First Take — of course, Stephen A. Smith, but also Christopher Mad Dog Russo.

Well, Christopher Mad Dog Russo actually made a name for himself on the radio in New York back in the day.

And if you didn’t know, I was also on the airwaves in New York once upon a time!

Well, what if I were to tell you that way back when I actually played a basketball game against Christopher Mad Dog Russo in the most legendary arena in the world — Madison Square Garden!

Like I said, this was definitely a while ago — probably around 1990 if I had to guess.

At the time, I was doing the midday show on 92.7 WDRE on Long Island, and Mad Dog was doing the afternoon drive show on WFAN in New York City with Mike Francesca.

Mike and the Mad Dog was one of the most successful radio shows in the New York market of all time.

It became a staple in the New York sports scene, and at the time I was living on Long Island, so they were my go-to sports station.

Christopher Mad Dog Russo always had me cracking up with his off-the-wall humor and a voice that was not your typical radio voice!

Some would say his voice sounded like a mix between an older Daffy Duck and Jerry Lewis!

Anyway, on this particular day that we played basketball against each other at Madison Square Garden, Chris and I were a part of a radio personality celebrity game.

We played at halftime of a Knicks game, and we got booed the entire five minutes.

Gotta love Knicks fans… not really!

As many of you know after reading my post about the Stanley Cup from yesterday, I spent the last week on vacation down the Jersey shore.

And from many of my other posts before that, you know I enjoy going for some long bike rides — especially down the shore!

So what could be better than squeezing in a nice bike ride on a week's long vacation? Squeezing in a nice bike ride on a week’s long vacation with a great friend of mine, of course!

I got to go on a great ride with my buddy Casey Boy from The Preston and Steve Show on our sister station, WMMR.

We rode through multiple shore towns as we got in a practice ride in preparation for this Sunday’s Ben To The Shore ride! For those that don’t know, the Ben To The Shore Bike Tour is a charity event that raises funds for Families Behind the Badge Children’s Foundation, which is for the families of fallen first responders and police officers.

It is always a lot of fun and something I look forward to each year!

During our practice route, Casey Boy and I rode about 25.81 miles from Wildwood to Town Bank to Cape May Point to Cape May then all the way back to Wildwood where we started.

It was a great time and has me ready to conquer the 65-mile Ben To The Shore ride! This will actually be my tenth year riding in the event and each year it gets better and better.

If you are interested in donating, visit fbbcf.org or visit the Team WMMR Rock and Rollers page.

I can’t wait for Sunday and hopefully, the weather holds up for the ride! I’m sure there will be a lot of people on the ride for this great cause!

Who do you think will cross the finish line first, me or Casey Boy?

Here's a selfie Casey Boy took on our ride. It is of Casey, Pattyann, and myself. What a great crew.

I took this during our ride. I'm not sure how I kept my balance! Just ahead of my leading the way are Casey and Pattyann.

Like I mentioned in the photo above, there they are leading the way. It's a tight bridge like many down the shore. Luckily, we all managed to make it across.

The first sign you see in Town Bank. Apparently, it is the birthplace of the South Jersey. I wonder what it was like in 1635?

Outside the beautiful Willow Creek Winery. What a cool sign. We definitely needed to check this place out on the ride.

The land the winery was on was beautiful. Look at those flowers! The property was huge.

You know we had to make our way into the winery! Riding on the bricks was not as hard as you would think. It was even cooler on the inside.

You know I had to grab a group picture inside the winery! I am actually wearing a jersey from a previous Ben To The Shore ride! I wonder what this year's will look like?

Just a group of people that love a good bike ride. I know we all can't wait for Sunday's ride. Hopefully, the weather is as nice as it was on this day!

The map of our 25-mile ride. We covered so much ground. It is nuts looking at it in map form!