The NFL on CBS ended their AFC Championship Game broadcast on a low note, and Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo is making his displeasure known. Although the game itself was thrilling, with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs narrowly defeating Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills 32-29 to reach their fifth Super Bowl in six years, CBS’s poor handling of critical moments marred the viewing experience. Russo addressed the broadcast issues during his What Are You Mad About segment on ESPN’s First Take this Wednesday.
Chris Russo had a few issues with CBS during the AFC Championship Game… pic.twitter.com/TIbQvl1CIn
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 29, 2025
Russo didn’t hold back, stating, “CBS did poorly. What an atrocious job at the end of the Buffalo-Kansas City game on Sunday. First and foremost, they failed to adequately show the replay of Dalton Kincaid’s catch.” He expressed frustration over the side angle of the replay, which obscured the severity of the drop. “It is so horrific about not showing you the proper replay! You can’t tell how bad it is; his body’s in front. That is ridiculous. Terrible! And it’s not Nantz’s fault, but they spent 20 minutes discussing a flag on the field. They had the yellow flag there…Jimmy took 10 minutes to say, ‘Hold on now, let’s see if there’s a flag,’ and we didn’t even know there was no flag!”
Russo’s final point highlighted that CBS only displayed the correct replay of Kincaid’s drop too late—during the Chiefs’ final drive—prompting Tony Romo to note the missed catch a good five minutes after the fact. “CBS! 57 million people watched this game,” Russo fumed. “They had the wrong replay of Kincaid’s drop, then they wasted time discussing a nonexistent flag for three minutes. Finally, after all that, we saw the proper replay, which made Romo comment. This was a horrendous broadcast—listen, I’m not a TV expert, but when something is bad, it’s just bad. That was terrible by CBS at the end of the game.”
Last year, Russo was similarly upset with CBS’s coverage during the Bills-Chiefs Divisional Round, criticizing Tony Romo for mistaking Franco Harris for Ken Stabler. He also slammed the network after the Super Bowl for showing Taylor Swift “12 times” during the broadcast. Fortunately for Russo, he won’t have to endure any further CBS games this season, as Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady are set to call Super Bowl LIX next week for Fox.
