First Call: Ben Roethlisberger admits he 'didn’t want (Kenny Pickett) to succeed' early on; Antonio Brown rips Arena team

We have some interesting self-reflection from former Pittsburgh Steeler Ben Roethlisberger. And it involves current quarterback Kenny Pickett.

Mason Rudolph shares some details about his spin through free agency. Antonio Brown is mad at his National Arena League team. And things are looking worse for the Pirates heading into their next series.

All that in Monday’s “First Call.”

Admitting the truth

Ben Roethlisberger had a moment of introspection on his “Footbahlin’” podcast this week. The former Steelers quarterback welcomed current starter Kenny Pickett to his show. During the conversation, Roethlisberger admitted he wasn’t fully invested in rooting for Pickett when he first slipped on a Steelers jersey.

“I probably shouldn’t say this, but who cares at this point,” Roethlisberger said responding to a question posed by co-host Spencer T’eo. “I wouldn’t say that I wanted Kenny to necessarily fail, but like when someone comes to replace you and you still feel like ‘I had it.’ I hope he doesn’t come ball out because then it’s like ‘Ben who’?”

“Early on, I didn’t want him to succeed because he was following me up. I didn’t want it to happen,” Roethlisberger admitted before turning the conversation back to Pickett directly. “That’s probably the selfishness of me, and I feel bad for it, but as the season went on and it got to his third game playing, I was rooting for him. I was excited for you, and I wanted you to succeed, I wanted you to win games, I wanted you to get to the playoffs. I feel bad that I felt that early on but I’m glad that I transitioned to the love of rooting for you.”

Roethlisberger did add that Pickett is “the future” of the team and that the Steelers and the fans are “lucky to have him.”

Rudolph reveals

Recently re-signed Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph went on the “Steel Here” podcast to discuss his decision to return to the Steelers as the third quarterback. He insists there were other offers to go elsewhere as a free agent, but the Steelers were the best fit.

“I’m not going to name teams,” Rudolph said. “I’m a part of the only team that matters now, but I had opportunities. I tried to be reasonable with the expectation. I’ve got two starts in the last three seasons, not a whole lot of game tape to go off of. But at the same time, there’s so many things that are attractive about this place.”

Rudolph’s contract with the Steelers expired after the 2022 season ended. Initially, his plan was to test the market, which he did. It seemed unlikely that the Steelers would bring him back or that Rudolph would want to return after he was squeezed out by Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky last year.

But when the Steelers couldn’t find a more suitable third QB, and Rudolph was still available, the decision was made to come back to Pittsburgh for at least one more year.

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Fallen Empire

The National Arena Football league team owned by former Steeler Antonio Brown had a rough outing Saturday. The Albany Empire lost to the Jacksonville Sharks, 79-34.

And the owner went online to voice his displeasure.

Brown tweeted “Complacency kills” and “New coach new trainer new players Who wanna Win?????”

Complacency kills

— AB (@AB84) May 21, 2023

New coach new trainer new players Who wanna Win?????

— AB (@AB84) May 21, 2023

He followed with “We got veterans out there throwing punches getting kicked out game we got to do better!”

We got veterans out there throwing punches getting kicked out game we got to do better !

— AB (@AB84) May 21, 2023

Brown has stated that he is planning an on-field comeback with the Empire. It sure sounds like they can use the help.

Read on the Rangers

Not only are the Pirates playing some bad baseball right now (4-13 in May), they are in a tough part of their schedule.

They just got done playing the Arizona Diamondbacks. That team is 27-20. Only the Atlanta Braves (29-17) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (29-19) have a better record than the Diamondbacks in the National League right now.

Now the Pirates have to host the Texas Rangers for three games starting Monday at PNC Park. The Rangers come in at 29-17. That’s tops in the American League West. Texas has won three in a row and seven of its past 10 games.

The Rangers just completed a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies. They totaled 31 runs in those three victories. After a 31-day absence due to a hamstring injury, Corey Seager returned to action Wednesday. He homered during a 13-3 romp over the Rockies on Sunday.

COREY'S COOKIN' FR. #StraightUpTX pic.twitter.com/1Rx21Va2Sa

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) May 21, 2023

Texas has 297 runs scored as a team, the most in MLB. The team batting average of .272 also leads MLB and the team OPS of .798 is second only to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rangers’ 434 hits are third. Their 63 home runs are tied for seventh.

Pitching wise, the team ERA of 3.81 is eighth in baseball. The club’s WHIP of 1.19 is fourth best in the league. And the batting average against of .235 is fifth best.

Aside from that, they haven’t been any good, I guess.

The starting pitchers for Game 1 Monday night are Luis Ortiz (0-2, 5.63) for the Pirates and Dane Dunning (4-0, 1.69) for the Rangers.

Brewers break through

The only positive to extract from the Pirates’ failures in May is that the rest of the National League Central hasn’t done much to make them pay for their struggles. Their main competition for first place in the division — the Milwaukee Brewers — has been bad of late too.

But they managed to halt a losing streak at three games Sunday thanks to a 6-4 win in Tampa Bay. Willy Adames, Rowdy Tellez and William Contreras homered during the victory. Contreras’ homer broke a 3-3 tie.

William puts us back in front! #ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/uxcm1F9TWb

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 21, 2023

That means the Brewers have a one-game lead on the Pirates for first place in the division. The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals are five back of the division lead. The last-place Cincinnati Reds are six back.

Milwaukee hosts the Houston Astros for three games starting Monday.