ESPNNFLBy Sean Keeley on

If you thought Chris Russo’s best sports fan bases rankings were wild, wait until you see how Mad Dog ranks the top quarterback-tight end duos in NFL history.

Russo has certainly made his mark on ESPN’s First Take, bringing an “old school” mentality to debates that have often veered so far into honoring players from another era that he’s been called out for it. And every time he makes an outlandish claim that seems to imply athletes were better back in the day, he earns his compensation in terms of the attention he brings to the show.

That was certainly the case with his most recent appearance when he unveiled this week’s Mad Dog’s A-List, in which he ranked his top QB-TE duos of all time.

Russo’s list is topped by Dan Fouts-Kellen Winslow and followed by Johnny Unitas-John Mackey, Ken Stabler-Dave Casper, Bart Starr-Ron Kramer, and finally, Tom Brady–Rob Gronkowski. It’s vintage Russo, saying that the best duos played in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and barely including anything from the modern era despite the fact that Brady-Gronk is, statistically, miles ahead of every duo ahead of them.

So effective were Brady and Gronk together with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they are the No. 2 duo all-time in terms of touchdown passes, ahead of some of the greatest QB-WR tandems in NFL history. Not to mention they won four Super Bowls together.

Naturally, Russo’s reliance on the old-school “things were better back then” mentality set the NFL world ablaze with reactions and hot takes.

Honestly, if we found out that Chris Russo was being paid by ESPN to purposefully generate memes and quote-tweets, we’d believe it.

[FunHouse]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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