Mark Madden vs. Colin Dunlap: Battle of the Century

Pittsburgh hasn’t had a reason to get excited about a home-towner in a major fight since Paul Spadafora ruined his boxing career when he shot his fiancee in the chest. That was in 2003.

“The Pittsburgh Kid’s” final career record was 49-1-1, by the way. Now in 2020, we may have an even more controversial bout on our hands from two heavyweights in Pittsburgh Sports Radio. Well, one is certainly still fighting in the heavyweight division, the other one used to fight in the heavyweight division.

I’m talking, of course, about the on-going battle between Mark “Mr. 166” Madden and Colin “Undefeated In The Streets” Dunlap. Twitter exploded Monday afternoon with a slew of tweets between the two radio personalities, one representing 105.9 The X, the other from 93.7 The Fan. For those of you who follow either of these fighters, you know that this conflict has been brewing under the surface for quite a while.

Madden, who often refers to anyone from 93.7 The Fan as “The B Team”, began with subtle jabs at Dunlap and crew after the Steelers were eliminated from playoff contention. “Double M” has a point here. He keeps the listeners up-to-date on The Penguins every day of the year whereas guys from 93.7 virtually ignore hockey until the Steeler storylines dry up in early January.

I’m not entirely sure why Dunlap feels the need to white knight for the likes of Myron Cope or Hines Ward, but you can at least respect his unabiding loyalty to the Pittsburgh greats.

Madden’s trope is that of a pessimistic, pissed-off sports fan that loves to complain about his team. Dunlap on the other hand, is more of a die-hard. It’s a classic battle I’ve seen take place amongst the fellow Pittsburghers for decades, typically outside bars or during tailgates. And I love it.

Monday afternoon the chirping got a bit more intense, and a lot more personal. It started with Madden’s tweet regarding the dichotomy between fans of Phil Kessel and Kris Letang, which personally I thought was hilarious:

Dunlap clapped back with some fighting words:

One fan intervened (tweet unavailable), and a response from Dunlap set off a string of arguments between the two radio hosts:

Not the toughest response I’ve ever seen from Mark. “You could kick my ass, no question.” Could he be sandbagging Dunlap? See the selfie below in question. It turns out the two men could have squashed all beef right then and there as they were only feet away from the ring:

Pittsburgh would have loved it. Cancel all other matches for the year! Unfortunately, the drama only continued online…

Mark was referring to a twitter feud turned charitable cause in 2018 that stemmed from Dunlap calling out Steeler wideout Ryan Switzer:

The moment was indeed wholesome as the two (Switzer and Dunlap) decided to donate to Children’s Hospital for every catch Switzer pulled in for the rest of the 2018 season (15). One year later, Madden had a similar charitable cause in place with Switzer as well:

Given Switzer’s performance on the field over the past two seasons, it seems that Madden’s approach may have been more effective.

Let’s wrap up the beef from Monday:

Madden couldn’t be without the last word of course. He went on to make claims that Dunlap went after his sponsors, something “woke” people like to do in cancel culture. If it’s true, not a cool move by Dunlap.

One thing is for sure, these two will cross paths again in the real world. Will it be another silly selfie? Or will we finally get to see a physical conclusion to this ongoing media war that we’re all asking for? Time will tell.