First Call: Video of another epic Antonio Brown interview; ’Melo's son may have an interest in Pitt; Reds closing on Pirates

Thursday’s “First Call” features the latest head-scratching incident involving former Pittsburgh Steeler Antonio Brown.

And, yes, his shirt is still missing.

Carmelo Anthony’s son may have an interest in Pitt. The TV ratings for the Stanley Cup Final were bad. And there is a late-charging addition to the National League Central race.

We’ve seen this fish before

Antonio Brown just had a bizarre, shirtless interaction on a football field.

Again.

This time in Albany. The owner of the National Arena League’s Albany Empire spoke with local reporters to discuss his planned return as a player this Saturday against Jacksonville.

The former Steelers All-Pro receiver said he would return during a game last month. But those efforts were derailed by a failure to get medical clearance on time.

Clearance that he could’ve overruled himself as team owner, as it turned out. But let’s not quibble over minor details.

No, the bigger story was Brown’s press interaction. During the shirtless interview session, Mr. Big Chest took us down the following path.

• The man conducting the interview is Antonio Brown, the player.

“A.B.,” the owner, is a different person — a media alternate persona invention who doesn’t pay his players on time. But Antonio Brown the player needs to know if A.B. the owner is going to pay him before he suits up Saturday.

Did you follow that? Good. Because I’m not so sure I did.

• However, A.B. the owner did save the entire Empire franchise. Nay! Dare we say the whole city?

Because A.B. manned up and paid the “$1.5 million in workers comp” fees necessary to operate the franchise within Albany city limits. (Please, don’t bog yourself down with any details about whether or not this is true. We’ll just give A.B. the benefit of the doubt on this one).

• Owner A.B. is moving the team from the National Arena League to the Arena Football League next season. We assume this is breaking news to the team — and to both leagues.

• Owner A.B. doesn’t care about former players smearing his reputation.

• Player Antonio Brown is a “lobbyist” for the great people of Albany and will be playing Saturday.

• And apparently both owner “A.B.” and player “Antonio Brown” learned the word “minutiae” sometime recently and are both using the word liberally. They also both think the fans should show up and support the team more often.

Here’s the entire thread of the interview. Please watch all four videos, masterfully edited and uploaded by Griffin Haas of News 10 in Albany.

Here's Brown's answer to whether or not he's been cleared by @NALFootball. He references the stories about the former players who complained about lack of payment, adding he still has yet to talk to AB, and that he, Antonio Brown, hopes to be paid. pic.twitter.com/qnZ4OQ9xGf

— Griffin Haas (@Griffin__Haas) June 14, 2023

All I want to know is, if A.B. is so openly referring to the influence of all of his multiple personalities now, is Ronald Ocean going to make a comeback soon as well?

Don’t look now

As the Pirates (34-32) and Milwaukee Brewers (34-34) continue to trip up, another team in the National League Central has found its stride.

The Pirates blew a 5-1 lead in Chicago on Tuesday, losing a second straight game to the Cubs. This one by a score of 10-6. The Pirates have now allowed a total of 21 runs in their last two contests at Wrigley Field.

They still have a one game lead on the second-place Milwaukee Brewers, though. That’s because the Brewers dropped a 4-2 decision to the Minnesota Twins. Milwaukee has now dropped six straight.

However, the third-place Cincinnati Reds have won five in a row and find themselves only 1½ games back of the Pirates after a 7-4 win in Kansas City on Wednesday. Cincy completed a sweep of the Royals thanks to a five-run fifth inning that featured a three-run homer from Matt McLain.

MATT MCLAIN BLASTS A 3-RUN

(via @BallySportsCIN)pic.twitter.com/Ar1AmSh3XL

— Bally Sports (@BallySports) June 15, 2023

McLain is now hitting .328 for the season. Jonathan India and Stuart Fairchild also homered in that inning. The Reds are within a game of .500 now, at 34-35.

More sports

• Kenny Pickett established not only as Steelers’ starter but as one of their biggest leaders
• Matt Canada: 'Organizational plan' for Steelers is to keep running the ball in 2023
• Steelers notes: T.J. Watt, others who missed minicamp opener return for Day 2

Ugly results

For those that predicted the Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers would be a rating nightmare, you were right. According to Sports Media Watch, the numbers were hideous.

• Tuesday’s Panthers-Golden Knights NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 5 averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.72 million viewers across TNT (2.47M) and TruTV (253K), marking the smallest audience for a Game 5 of the Cup Final in 29 years — since the Vancouver Canucks versus the New York Rangers on ESPN in 1994 (2.41M).

For context, ESPN’s coverage was blacked out in New York. That game aired on MSG.

• Vegas’ win fell below the previous low mark for a Cup-clinching game of 2.79 million for Tampa Bay Lightning over the Dallas Stars in an empty 2020 covid “bubble.” That had been the least-watched Cup clincher in three decades.

• Viewership for this year’s final game fell a series-high 47% from the Lightning-Avalanche on ABC last year (5.15M).

• The full, five-game Stanley Cup Final averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.6 million viewers on the Turner networks, down 43% in both measures from last year’s six-game Avalanche-Lightning series on ABC (2.3, 4.6M). Outside of the covid-era seasons, this year’s Cup Final was the least-watched since Ducks-Senators in 2007 (1.8M) and the second-least watched since Rangers-Canucks on ESPN in ’94 (2.4M).

From city to city though, for those that did watch, Pittsburgh did well compared to other markets. Hockey fans in this city watched more than any other American town that wasn’t involved in the Final. Via the @SportsTVRatings Twitter feed, the only television markets that drew more viewers than Pittsburgh were Las Vegas, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm.

Nielsen top 22 local markets for Stanley Cup Finals across all networks and across all 5 games (except Buffalo, where Game 5 results are unavailable until tomorrow).

Rankings are broken out by both HH rating (% of TV homes in market) and absolute # of households. pic.twitter.com/p9vDpRnxf7

— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) June 14, 2023

So maybe a lot of Pittsburgh hockey fans kept Vegas as their “mistress team” even after Marc-Andre Fleury left.

Another Anthony?

It’s no surprise that Carmelo Anthony has a son who is a talented basketball player.

Anthony was a 10-time NBA All-Star, and apparently the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

A 6-foot-4 Class of 2025 guard out of Glen Head (N.Y.) Long Island Lutheran, Kiyan Anthony has only visited one campus so far. That’s Syracuse, where his father won a national title in 2003. Via On3.com, Anthony also wants to take a look at Indiana, in large part because Mike Woodson is the coach there now. Woodson coached Anthony’s father in the NBA with the New York Knicks.

However, Anthony says he has a few other schools on his wish list, and one of them is Pitt.

“I hope UConn reaches out. Along with Michigan and Juwan Howard. I’ve been in contact with him, but he hasn’t offered,” Anthony told On3. “Pittsburgh, I’m super close with an assistant coach. Houston, I’m also close with an assistant coach. But we will see, I’m not really sure what’s going to come on June 15th (beginning of the NCAA’s open contact period).”

The Orange have already offered Anthony. Some have speculated that the unnamed Pitt assistant may be Tim O’Toole. He was born in White Plains, N.Y. and was an assistant at Syracuse prior to the senior Anthony’s arrival on campus.