Apparently, there was some drama last week at the Fox Sports Radio booth at Super Bowl Media Row.
While some guests are happy to do interviews with every show at the Super Bowl, projected No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Fernando Mendoza was more selective. Mendoza sat for a long segment with Pat McAfee as well as a quick-hitter with Kay Adams, but otherwise flew under the radar.
Turns out, Mendoza was booked to appear on the Covino & Rich show as well. The Fox Sports Radio evening show apparently had a hit scheduled with the national champion QB from on-site in San Francisco.
Until Colin Cowherd got involved, ultimately, Mendoza pivoted from an appearance on Covino & Rich to Colin Cowherd’s hit midday show.
And the newest member of the Fox Sports Radio roster — as well as a returning colleague of Cowherd’s from his ESPN days — is stirring the pot over Cowherd’s supposed “code red.” That would be Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, who joined the network last month to host The Stugotz Show in the late afternoon, has ripped Cowherd on multiple instances over Cowherd’s theft of the Mendoza interview.
The situation came to a head Tuesday into Wednesday as the Covino & Rich show addressed it directly, and Stugotz continued his campaign.
“It’s terrible what he did to Covino & Rich,” Stugotz said Wednesday on his podcast, Stugotz and Company. “For every 10 big guests Colin gets, those guys get one. Right? So let them have their big guest. It’s Radio Row, they’re physically there. They’re grinding it out, they’re doing the shows.
“Because I’m telling you, if you go to Super Bowl week and you’re physically there, it’s different than being set up at your normal studio and just having guys filter guests into you. Those guys were there grinding; that guest was theirs. It was booked on their show, and Colin gets all these big guests. Those guys should get big guests every now and then.”
Earlier in the week, Rich Davis revealed that he spoke with The Herd executive producer Greg Toohey about the incident. Toohey, it turns out, denied blame.
“We were sniped, but it wasn’t from Colin,” added Steve Covino. “It wasn’t from our producers that he’s pals with. It was some other ancillary producer there who made it happen.”
Fernando-gate is in FULL SWING at @foxsportsradio. Who’s to blame for @TheHerd swiping our Fernando Mendoza interview at #SBLX? @stevecovino & @richdavis may never know! And thanks to @stugotz790 for having our back and stirring the pot pic.twitter.com/YzT1EzcWhI
— Covino & Rich (@CovinoandRich) February 11, 2026
Later, Toohey joined the show and explained that it was not the “ancillary producer,” or on-site talent booker, who created the problem either. The Herd producer blamed Mendoza’s reps instead.
Both Covino and Davis also explained that Cowherd has long been a supporter of theirs, and said Stugotz is just “stirring the pot.”
However, back on his own podcast, Stugotz continued his pressure campaign.
“I’m tired of this sports radio game where there’s no accountability. I mean, everyone’s stabbing each other in the back,” Stugotz said. “I sat there middays with (Dan) Le Batard on ESPN Radio, and Mike & Mike were still doing their show. And they got all the guests. All of them.”
The whole saga is likely a big misunderstanding. Even if Cowherd did big-time Covino & Rich to score the Mendoza interview, it is common in sports media for the biggest host at a network to get the biggest interviews.
The bigger takeaway is that Stugotz is clearly bringing his conniving ways to the Fox Sports Radio environment after making a name for himself and The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz in Miami and at ESPN with similar, meddlesome tactics.