Chris “Mad Dog” Russo continued with ESPN’s First Take this week also brought the most ridiculously intense heat of 2026. After Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick’s playoff at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, Russo inexplicably objected to American fans chanting “USA.” Russo thought that American supporters supporting an American over an Englishman was a problem.
Um, what?
Chris “Mad Dog” Russo criticized American golf fans for chanting “USA” during the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, South Carolina. (Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images)
Russo began by saying, “This is not the Ryder Cup.”
Did anyone think it was? And since when do fans need an officially sanctioned red-white-and-blue event before they’re allowed to focus on an American player over a foreign player? Scheffler is American. Fitzpatrick is English. The tournament was in South Carolina. I can’t believe I have to explain this to a man who has spent his entire life living in America and more than two-thirds of it is wearing a microphone.
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But he wasn’t done yet. Not even close.
Russo’s hilarious ‘First Take’ argument
“We are not fighting Britain in war.”
Honestly, I can’t believe Russo said this to ESPN. First, no one thinks we are at war with Britain. Second, and this is the same response I had at the Ryder Cup conference, why should the USA be at war with a country to pit our athletes against that country? The more I write about this, the more I think I should have just ignored you because his arguments are almost too deaf to be answered. But we’re in, so let’s move on.
“Fitzpatrick is like an American [Stephen A.] Smith … lives in Miami!
Yeah, I don’t really want to give this an answer, but unfortunately that’s what they pay me to do. Fitzpatrick living in Florida does not make him an American. He is from England. He has a thick English accent. He competes for Europe in the Ryder Cup and Great Britain in the Olympics. He lives in America because he is ready for his career as a PGA Tour player. He is not as “American” as an American citizen. This is a funny comment from Russo.
“This is not the ’80 Olympics.”
Not only is Russo’s argument incoherent, it’s also a Hall of Fame “non-sequitur” (that doesn’t really exist, but I think it should). This has nothing to do with the situation at hand. It’s also the same argument as the “This isn’t the Ryder Cup” comment. It’s as if Russo knows his position is nonsense and has no concrete evidence to back it up so he just starts putting together the same take in different ways. Actually, it’s not “as if” anything; that’s exactly what happened here.
Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo blasted the RBC Heritage fans for chanting ‘USA’ during Scheffler’s match against Fitzpatrick, but Fitzpatrick praised the spirit and said it didn’t cross the line. (Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
So, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo had a big problem with the American fans who wanted Scottie Scheffler over Matt Fitzpatrick at the RBC Heritage and chanted “USA”. But you know who didn’t have a problem with it? Matt Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick’s reaction: “I’m everything”
After beating Scheffler in the playoff, the Englishman said Americans were “incredibly patriotic” and called the atmosphere “amazing” during the winners’ press conference. He said the crowd “didn’t get out of line” and added, “I’m everything.” He even slipped a bit, joking that Americans have “short memories” because Europe won the Ryder Cup last September. In other words, Fitzpatrick understood the moment well. He saw it as competition, country and fun. In fact, Fitzpatrick valued American patriotism more than Russo. That should create a moment of self-reflection for Russo, but I suspect it won’t.
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Russo has joined an ever-growing list of so-called sports media personalities who pretend that any display of American integrity must be explained or apologized for. It doesn’t. Russo should go work for the Huffington Post with that kind of take, given what they wrote during the Olympics.
The big problem is that Russo missed what makes sports so important to communities, societies and nations. People sort athletes by one before they sort them by anything else. The team. School. The city. The country.
This is also why many first-race sports controversies do not exist. The crowd at Hilton Head was not making a complex statement or discussing a social or philosophical thesis. It saw Scheffler as American and Fitzpatrick as English, and reacted accordingly.
American Scottie Scheffler and Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick shake hands on the 15th green during the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage State Park Golf Course. (Ben Jared/PGA Tour)
We recently saw certain sections of the sports media making claims that the NBA “want more Europeans because they want white stars.” This is as absurd as Russo’s claims, perhaps even more so. Sports fans care about who represents them. Ethnicity is more than skin color. Not even close, frankly. The self-conscious section of the media believes the opposite. They are categorically wrong. If it were Tiger Woods in the playoffs with Fitzpatrick, you can bet chants of “USA” would be breaking out. No one would have thought, “we have to finish white over America because it’s black.” That even sounded dumb as I wrote it.
In a culture that tries to divide everyone into smaller and smaller ideological and demographic groups, sports still create the opposite effect. It’s part of the reason why racist media often seem to hate sports. They know it proves the opposite of their Critical Race Theory programs.
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Scottie Scheffler is an American. Matt Fitzpatrick is absent. The crowd responded with support for Scheffler and sat him down with “USA” chants.
American fans focus on American athletes over foreign athletes. Time.
They always have. They will always be.
And that’s exactly the way it should be.
