First Call: Ex-Steeler, former Pitt Panther in mix for big media gig; lots of local ties to College Football Hall of Fame nominees

Wednesday’s “First Call” features a former Pittsburgh Steeler and an ex-Pitt Panther who may be in line for a big-time media job. Lots of Pittsburgh ties are on the list of College Football Hall of Fame nominees.

Some NHL free agent projections seem funky. And the Milwaukee Brewers slipped through a cracked door left open by the Pirates.

Plenty from Pittsburgh

There are lots of Pittsburgh ties to the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame ballot. The list includes 78 players and nine coaches from the FBS ranks. Seven of them are former Steelers.

Indiana quarterback turned Steelers receiver Antwaan Randle El joins Michigan State tackle Flozell Adams, Colorado cornerback Deon Figures, Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick, Clemson linebacker Levon Kirkland, Eastern Illinois offensive lineman Ted Petersen and Colgate running back Rich Erenberg among the names listed.

From Pitt, Larry Fitzgerald, Matt Cavanaugh and Craig “Ironhead” Heyward are all under consideration. So are Penn Staters Ki-Jana Carter, D.J. Dozier and Paul Posluszny.

There is some West Virginia representation too, from corner Aaron Beasley and one-time Mountaineers coach Jim Carlen — who also manned the sidelines at South Carolina and Texas Tech.

Quarterback Lynn Hieber from IUP, running back Brad Tokar of Westminster, linebacker Kenneth Murawski (Carnegie Mellon), tight end Gary McCauley from Clarion and Slippery Rock coach George Mihalik are named on the Divisional Player Candidate list.

The announcement of the 2024 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be made in early 2024. The 2024 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be officially inducted during the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 10, 2024.

Some shine for ‘Shady’

Shannon Sharpe is leaving FS1’s debate show “Undisputed.” A few names with local ties have come up as potential replacements to join co-host Skip Bayless on the show.

One of them is former Pitt star running back LeSean “Shady” McCoy. According to Front Office Sports, McCoy is “emerging as an early possible contender to succeed Shannon Sharpe.”

McCoy is currently a co-host of FS1’s “SPEAK.” According to Front Office Sports’ sources, the 71-year-old Bayless will have “final say” on Sharpe’s replacement.

Other candidates the website mentioned include McCoy’s “SPEAK” co-hosts Emmanuel Acho and Joy Taylor. “First Things First” host Nick Wright’s name was advanced, as were Max Kellerman and Keyshawn Johnson of ESPN and the NFL Network/ESPN’s Michael Irvin.

Meanwhile, according to SportsBetting.ag, former Steelers safety turned ESPN analyst Ryan Clark is getting 7:1 odds. Even ex-Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown is throwing his hat in the ring via Twitter.

Now that is something I’d pay to see. Is A.B. the only person capable of making it look like Bayless is making sense? Or do I perhaps have that backward?

Juice for Jarry

ESPN.com’s Greg Wyshynski compiled a list of potential NHL free agents and broke them into various categories. One such sublist is “best bets.” Those players are defined as guys who “have shown they’re worth the investment.”

Two Penguins fell under that heading. One name seems to fit. That’s winger Jason Zucker.

“Every free agent period, there’s always a player or two whose stat lines catch your eye in that ‘wait, how many goals did he have last season?’ kind of way,” Wyshynski said. “Zucker is one of those guys in 2023: ‘Wait, he had 27 goals last season?’ We can’t be blamed for forgetting about Zuck after two injury-plagued seasons in Pittsburgh undercut his status as a dependable scoring winger. But riding on Evgeni Malkin’s wing for 78 games helped him to his second-highest career goal total, and at the right time for him, too.”

That’s a pretty accurate assessment of Zucker’s season and his time in Pittsburgh. Zucker carried a $5.5 million cap hit last year. Via the Daily Faceoff and the AFP analytics projection model, his expected deal is $5.4 million per year over five seasons this summer.

The second name may surprise you. It’s goaltender Tristan Jarry.

“Penguins fans are probably recoiling after seeing this player listed under ‘best bets,’ but the fact is that Jarry is a perfectly average goaltender in the NHL,” Wyshynski posted. “He’s 12th in goals saved above replacement (43.8) and wins above replacement (7.7) over the last three seasons. He’s 14th in save percentage (.913) in that span. I don’t trust him in the playoffs, and I don’t like him as the clear No. 1 guy between the pipes. But as part of a tandem, I think Jarry’s more dependable than a lot of other free agent goalies in stats and in participation rate.”

Wyshynski is right about one thing. “Recoiling” is exactly what I did when I saw him mentioned in this category. Because if Jarry can’t be trusted in the playoffs, isn’t a clear No. 1, and can only be good as a tandem, then he isn’t “worth the investment” it would take to win his services in a free agency bidding war.

Also, Wyshynski added, “The Penguins goalie was sixth in games played (144) over the last three seasons.”

Great. Too bad a lot of those games weren’t in April or May in recent years.

Bad night all around

While the Pirates (32-28) were making the putrid Oakland A’s (13-50) look like the 1986 Mets, the Milwaukee Brewers were beating the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 in 10 innings.

That result, coupled with the Buccos’ 11-2 loss to the A’s, means that the Pirates are now a half game behind the Brewers (33-28) for first place in the National League Central.

Milwaukee’s Joey Wiemer got the game-winning hit.

The Brewers have now won four of their last five games. They host Baltimore again on Thursday and Friday before the aforementioned A’s visit them in Wisconsin for a weekend series.