First Call: Le'Veon Bell will give up any football this year for boxing; Owen Pickering's hidden music talent

Wednesday’s “First Call” has a career update for former Pittsburgh Steeler Le’Veon Bell. Najee Harris is turning NFL heads already. Penguins draft choice Owen Pickering discloses his musical talent. And a rare Clay Holmes blowup hurts the Yankees and Gerrit Cole.

Boxing for Bell

Former Steeler Le’Veon Bell is taking boxing very seriously.

At least for now.

Bell is preparing for an exhibition bout against another NFL running back star, Adrian Peterson. That is coming up at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on July 30.

During a news conference held by Social Gloves to promote the upcoming fight, Bell stated that he won’t be playing in the NFL this season as he shifts his focus to boxing.

“Last year, I almost sat out the whole year to try to focus on boxing because I kind of knew that was what I wanted to transition to. This year, I know I’m not going to be playing this year because I want to focus on boxing,” Bell said via ESPN.com.

The 30-year-old, three-time Pro Bowler insists this isn’t a “one-off” fight against Peterson.

“This is my introduction to kind of show what I’ll be doing and how I’ll be going about myself. Just an intro,” he said.

Meanwhile, appearing at the news conference via a video feed, Peterson said he can see boxing in his future but isn’t closing the door on football.

Getting to know Najee

ESPN.com is continuing its lists of the top NFL players at every position group.

Reporter Jeremy Fowler said ESPN “surveyed more than 50 league executives, coaches, scouts and players to help us stack the top 10 players at 11 different positions.”

T.J. Watt was voted the top edge player. Cameron Heyward was fifth among defensive interior players. And Minkah Fitzpatrick was called the No. 2 safety.

To me, that’s right on for Watt, a little low for Heyward and a little high for Fitzpatrick.

Regarding running back, Najee Harris made the cut at No. 8 after just one season. Fowler said some voters seemed to leave Harris off the list because of a perceived lack of top-end speed.

Yet one anonymous league executive said Harris “doesn’t have quite the juice as some of the other backs, but he’s a really good all-around player, really good in space … and has great hands.”

A defensive coach refuted concerns about Harris’ breakaway ability. “He had 1,200 yards when everyone knew he was going to run it. They knew the Steelers weren’t throwing deep and their offensive line was terrible.”

Now the Steelers must figure out how to keep Harris healthy while still establishing him as a No.1 back threat again. He had 381 touches a year ago to lead the NFL as a rookie. It’ll take a good bit of luck to avoid significant injury a second straight year if Harris is at that many attempts again in 2022.

By the way, Tennessee’s Derrick Henry was voted the best running back in the league.

Fine fiddler

Penguins first-round draft choice Owen Pickering has a hidden talent. He plays the violin.

The revelation was made during a Q&A with the Penguins social media team. He then talked about the side hobby this week on 105.9 The X.

“I started when I was 6,” Pickering told Mark Madden Monday afternoon. “There was an orchestra on TV, and I was air-violining. My parents are big on music and the idea of playing an instrument. My brother and sister both play the piano. … I did lessons up until a couple of years ago. I’ve been doing it for a long time, and I do like to think I’m pretty good at it.”

Pickering said he always kept his musical skill quiet from his hockey teammates and liked the fact that he had an outlet which was independent of anything having to do with hockey.

But now that his hidden skill has become public, the defenseman claimed that a group chat of his Swift Current Broncos teammates has blown up and they all want to see him play the next time he is back.

Holmes’ hiccup

Former Pirates Gerrit Cole and Clay Holmes both pitched during a rare New York Yankees meltdown, a 4-3 loss to the lowly Reds on Tuesday night in New York. They now have a 61-26 record. The Reds are 33-54.

Cole had 11 strikeouts in seven innings, adding to his impressive season total. He’s now up to 135 on the season, fourth most in MLB. His ERA is down to 3.05 after leaving the game with a 3-0 lead.

Holmes, though, appears to be coming back to earth. He had been on a season-long hot streak that saw him rack up 16 saves in 17 tries. But he blew a save in Boston over the weekend. Then he came on in the ninth inning Tuesday with a three-run lead, and the Reds stormed back.

After yielding two runs, four hits, a walk and two hit batters, Holmes was relieved by Wandy Peralta with the bases loaded. Peralta got the first two Reds out before Jonathan India delivered a two-run single to take the lead.

INDY LEAD pic.twitter.com/dwIxMl0aIy

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 13, 2022

Holmes’ ERA went from 0.46 at the start of the night to 1.37 by the time the game was over. Via the Associated Press, it was the most runs Holmes allowed in a game since joining the Yankees. He had allowed two earned runs in his first 38 games. The Yankees were 49-0 when leading after eight innings and the Reds were 0-48 when trailing after eight.