ESPN's Chris Russo Absolutely Trashes Disney World During Week Disney Forces ESPN To Lay Off Hundreds

I almost don't know where to begin with this story. Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, who has become a prominent regular on ESPN's First Take, talked some big-time trash on Disney World.

He called it "brainless entertainment," said the food is "garbage" and wants people to stop calling it "America's vacation." It's important to note that he said this on his SiriusXM radio show, which is not affiliated with ESPN.

There are so many interesting aspects of this. First, Disney owns ESPN. And, as a former ESPN employee, I can tell you that Mickey Mouse is on the paystub. They do not let you forget where that money comes from.

Second, Disney is laying off 7,000 employees this year. And, they are making sure that ESPN cuts their fair share of those workers. That's starting this week.

So, during the same week ESPN lays off hundreds of employees, one of them is talking big trash about the parent company.

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, who has became a prominent regular on ESPN's First Take, talked some big-time trash on Disney World. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Chris Russo goes hard at Disney World during layoff week at ESPN

There are three possibilities here. The most likely is that Chris Russo did not connect the dots and his rant against Disney World had zero to do with layoffs. Someone probably told him after the rant that his timing wasn't great.

The second is that Chris Russo knows full-well about about the layoffs and is flaunting his safety. This is unlikely, but it is possible. Maybe he wants to prove that he can say whatever he wants and ESPN won't do anything.

The third, and most implausible but by far the best, is that Chris Russo knows the layoffs are happening and this is his way of middle-fingering Disney for cutting his co-workers. That would actually be crazy if he claimed this to be his motivation.

"Oh yeah, Disney, you want to layoff my ESPN co-workers? I'll go on my radio show and tear your company down!" Probably not, but funny to think about.

Still, Disney executives can't be excited to hear Russo's comments. Again, even though he wasn't on an ESPN platform at the time, he's becoming pretty recognizable on the network's most important studio show.

I imagine the conversation between Disney executives and Chris Russo going something like this...

"You're not going to trash Disney World again, are you Chris?" - Disney executives, probably.

"No, Mr. Mouse." - Chris Russo, definitely