Thursday’s “First Call” features a “thanks, but no thanks” to the Steelers from a rumored free agent of interest.

Also, Spygate is back in the news. We’ve got a look at the NFL’s salary cap for 2022. Duquesne’s football schedule has been released. And LeBron James pumps up Dukes basketball coach Keith Dambrot.

No interest

Former Pro Bowl tackle Russell Okung is denying he would have any interest in playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers because they can’t afford him.

A pair of recent posts from ESPN.com’s Bill Barnwell and Ben Linsey of Pro Football Focus suggested that Pittsburgh would be a good landing spot for the free-agent offensive lineman.

ESPN’s trying to predict that I will sign with the Pittsburgh @Steelers this year.

Truth is they cannot afford me.

I only accept Bitcoin.https://t.co/mVJjK2qqoq

— Okung (@RussellOkung) May 25, 2021

I swear.

Media will make up anything. pic.twitter.com/3he9knQQJS

— Okung (@RussellOkung) May 25, 2021

I don’t really know how bitcoin, Dogecoin or any type of cryptocurrency works. Let alone how that pertains to the salary cap. I just know that the Steelers don’t have a ton of space, just $6.4 million in “effective cap space” according to OvertheCap.com. That number represents the maximum cap space a team will have when it signs at least 51 players to its roster for that season.

Barnwell guessed the Steelers would be willing to pay Okung somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.5 million on a one-year deal. So regardless of how Okung wants to be paid, if it translates into much more than that number, he’s right. The Steelers should look elsewhere.

And I’d suggest whoever does end up deciding to pay him is overspending with whatever the currency may be.

Spygate spin-off

ESPN.com posted an extensive story about Spygate on its front page Wednesday.

Or at least a sidebar to it.

Writers Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. have quotes from Arlen Specter’s son (Shanin) and a communications aide/ghostwriter of his book (Charles Robbins) suggesting that former president Donald Trump acted on behalf of Patriots owner Robert Kraft to buy Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter out of his investigation of Spygate with campaign funds.

The incident occurred back in 2008, long before Trump became president. But a lot of the article focuses on whether or not the act — if proven — could reach the level of attempting to bribe a public official.

Specter ended up dropping the investigation in June 2008. ESPN research shows Trump had donated to the Specter campaign, but three months earlier. And there was never any direct connection made between Kraft or any of his businesses and that money.

Much of the research for the piece was originally done at the University of Pittsburgh Archives & Special Collections.

Getting a head start

The NFL’s 2022 salary cap won’t be set until February. But we are getting a good sense of what it will be.

NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero says the NFL and the NFL Players Association agreed on a salary-cap ceiling of $208.2 million for the 2022 season.

However, that figure could still be lower depending on the continued financial repercussions of the covid-19 pandemic.

The two sides have yet to set a cap floor, though. Players and management agreed last August to spread the ensuing revenue shortfall from 2020 over several years.

Hence, the cap dropped to $182.5 million this year.

Schedule set

The Duquesne football team now knows its schedule for the fall of 2021.

2021 Fall Schedule Release

️: https://t.co/AOZtfQPSKq️: https://t.co/nDJhPKE6Y2#GoDukes pic.twitter.com/EXNaRTrYJP

— Duquesne Football (@DuqFB) May 26, 2021

The Dukes open up with two very difficult tests from the FBS ranks as they will visit TCU on Sept. 4 and Ohio University on Sept. 11.

Also, there are only four home games.

Sept. 25 - vs. Virginia University of Lynchburg

Oct. 9 - vs. Bryant

Oct. 30 - vs. Saint Francis University

Nov. 13 - vs. Central Connecticut

The Dukes are coming off a shortened spring season that saw them go 4-0 in the regular season before losing in the NEC championship game to Sacred Heart 34-27 in overtime.

Quite the shout out

After Tuesday night’s playoff win over the Phoenix Suns, Lakers star LeBron James was asked about the people who influenced him early in his career, specifically about Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot.

He coached James his first two years at St. Vincent-St. Mary (Akron).

“When I am thinking about basketball, there’s not a time that goes by that Frank Walker, Coach Dru Joyce and Keith Dambrot don’t come to mind,” James said. “They basically gave me the whole DNA and the blueprint of how to play the game of basketball both as an individual, how to work hard, how to be selfless, how there’s no ‘I in team,’ and without the greater of all of us, then you will not get the reward that you are actually looking for at the end of the road.”

Walker was James’ football coach. Joyce II followed Dambrot at St.Vincent-St. Mary when Dambrot left to take the job at the University of Akron.

“They’re like my big three, when it comes to basketball,” he said. “Frank Walker, Coach Dru Joyce and Keith Dambrot … I wouldn’t be the player that I am, I wouldn’t be succeeding the way I have in the best league in the world, the NBA, without the influence of those few guys.”

I asked @KingJames what @CoachDambrot meant to him. He said Dambrot was one of the most influential people in his life. pic.twitter.com/tZ4PkAuZ4Y

— Melissa Rohlin (@melissarohlin) May 25, 2021

James’ Lakers are tied with the Suns 1-1 in their first-round playoff series. They play again on Thursday.

After a slew of transfers in and out of Duquesne, Dambrot’s Dukes will feature six new players, with 10 Dukes departing from last year’s roster.

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