Mad Dog Russo on Francesa, the NFL, and ... The American Revolution?

It was a morning of resurrections on Imus in the Morning, and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo was no exception, protesting to Imus that he had not died, but had merely gone over to Sirius/XM Satellite Radio more than a year ago.

"You have to buy the subscription!" he told Imus. "You gotta buy it! I'm your buddy!"

During the baseball playoffs back in October, Russo and his former radio partner Mike Francesa did an hour together from Yankees Stadium, even though, as Imus hinted, they hate each other.

Imus, who worked with the duo at WFAN for almost 20 years, waxed nostalgic about his pals Russo and Francesa, and how vehemently they had defended his honor a few years ago.

"I am enormously loyal to both of you for as loyal as you were to me," he said. "Having said that, have you listened to Mike's show? I love Mike, but man, that's a long day."

Russo wondered whether Imus, who lives six blocks from the Fox studio, listened to Mike's WFAN show on his way home from work. But Russo became distracted by Lou's voice, and screamed, "These are the old days, Donnie! These are the old days!" as he banged on the console like a mental patient.

On to sports, Mad Dog was outraged at calls made by both coaches, Texas's Mack Brown and Alabama's Nick Saban, in last night's college football championship game. However, "The doggy was happy!" he said, because Alabama covered the spread.

For this weekend's NFL playoff games, Russo picked the Bengals, the Eagles, the Patriots, and the Packers to win. "This is a strange weekend," he said. "You've got three back-to-back weeks — teams that all played in week 17 are playing again a week later."

Russo can be heard breaking down the games today on Sirius 123/XM 144, channels that are better known as "Mad Dog Radio," where Russo was in charge of hiring talent. Imus wondered why Russo had blown off his pal and former colleague at WFAN, John Minko.

"There's a guy who's really dead!" Russo yelled. "Even Warner is better than Minko!"

It was difficult for Imus to understand most of what Mad Dog was saying today, because Imus can't hear and Russo can't speak. But he was especially articulate about a subject that nobody saw coming.

"I've been into the book about John Adams by David McCulley," Russo said, referring to the book by David McCullough. "I can't believe how good John Adams was!"

Time to go.

-Julie Kanfer