Molly Qerim's former ESPN co-host, Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo, revealed a theory on her sudden departure from the network last month.

Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo, who appeared with Qerim on First Take, told SI Media Podcast host Jimmy Traina that he was "shocked" by her abrupt decision and "assumed" she left without finishing out her contract because she was "embarrassed" by the optics of leaving the show.

“I think she precipitated it. … I think, probably, she felt embarrassed,” Russo, who’s a regular analyst on “First Take,” said. “I didn’t talk to her about the specifics of why she decided as soon as it was in the Sports Business Journal, but that’s what I’m thinking — that she probably would have felt embarrassed if the world would have thought that she was a lame duck and she was still doing the show. So, that I think that probably had a little something to do with it.”

Russo said he was "very surprised" when he was notified by co-host Stephen A. Smith about Qerim's decision to leave "on the night before" her official exit.

“I did not speak to Molly prior. I’ve had sone conversation with her since. She was on air a long time. I think they probably wanted to move her around a little bit and try something different,” Russo said. “Not that the ratings were bad, it’s just the nature of the beast. You’re on air forever, they like to make a change for making a change’s sake. I think they wanted to keep Molly with the network, and I don’t know if Molly wanted to do that. Because I think Molly probably looked at as, ‘If I’m not going to do ‘First Take,’ I don’t want to do ‘SportsCenter.’ So she probably felt that that would be a demotion, I would assume.”

Russo credited Qerim for being "very important" to First Take's success and described her relationship with Smith, her longtime colleague, as "a big brother, little sister deal."

Qerim, who had previously worked at NFL Network and CBS Sports Network, joined ESPN in 2006 as part of the network's digital/mobile efforts before moving to the news team in 2008. The Connecticut native took over as the host First Take, in 2015, initially as a fill-in and later becoming the permanent host after Cari Champion moved to SportsCenter.

Armstrong & Getty