After several weeks of bringing up the new movie, “A Complete Unknown,” during his appearances on the ESPN morning show First Take, Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo had a distinctive experience on Tuesday night. Russo, who was absent from his Wednesday appearance on the show, was in London, England to attend the premiere of the movie and met Timothée Chalamet, the renowned actor who plays Bob Dylan in the film. Russo posted several videos on social media Tuesday, including meeting Chalamet, posing for pictures and walking the red carpet. Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti addressed the situation on the Boomer & Gio program on WFAN where they reflected on how this ultimately was put in motion and executed.

Giannotti remarked that it was interesting to watch how everything unfolded surrounding Russo and his penchant for the movie and Chalamet. As Russo was expressing his disappointment in being unable to land Chalamet on his radio show and not being invited to the New York premiere of the movie, featured commentator Stephen A. Smith promised to assist him in this endeavor. Additionally, First Take host Molly Qerim continuously assured Russo to be patient and that things would work out. After a rant last week on the show, Chalamet posted a screenshot of Russo on social media and invited him to an upcoming premiere.

“So the next thing you know, people talk and they figure it out and Dog brings his daughter out there to London and it was [Tuesday] night,” Giannotti said, “and there’s all these pictures that you would think were made by artificial intelligence where it’s Dog and his daughter in front of the paparazzi.”

In a subsequent video where Chalamet thanked Russo for attending, he replied by reciprocating his appreciation for the invitation. Moreover, Russo explained that he did the segment as a gag and never thought that this would happen. When Chalamet said that they had to get Smith to one of the premieres, Russo explained that he knew nothing about Bob Dylan whereas Qerim understood more about the award-winning musician.

“I could imagine that Dog meeting Timothée Chalamet like that probably had the impact that it had on me when I met Dua Lipa,” Giannotti said. “It was just like one of those things [with] someone who you really admire and really want to meet, and then you finally get a chance to.”

The show also reflected on Russo’s son, Colin, voicing on his afternoon drive program on ESPN West Palm that he was called by Russo to watch the house rather than going to London. The clip from the radio show was part of a rebranded edition of the weekly segment where the cast talked about what they were glad about. Esiason remarked that one thing always turns into more things with Russo related to the central premise of what he is trying to get done.

“Yeah, and I think one of the main reasons why he’s been so likable in his post-FAN career in the last few years is because you could see the joy that he has in doing this,” Giannotti said. “Even all the success he’s had in the business, all the people that he has met, and he’s in his 60s now, you just see the joy that he has in this, and it’s like, ‘That’s pretty cool.’”

“Well First Take has given him a whole ‘nother platform, and his goofiness is evident there, and you see it, and Stephen A. buys into it, Molly buys into it, which is great,” Esiason replied. “He’s instant energy when he’s on that show. He’s instant energy on any show for that matter.”

Russo recently signed a multiyear contract extension with SiriusXM that will keep him on his afternoon Mad Dog Sports Radio program. Furthermore, he also signed a multiyear extension with ESPN through which he is continuing his weekly appearances on First Take. Russo is part of a rotation of contributors on the debate show, which includes Shannon Sharpe, Kimberley A. Martin, Jeff Saturday and Cam Newton.

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