Wednesday’s “First Call” has Ben Roethlisberger’s reaction to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ selection of Drew Allar. Art Rooney II responds to Jerry Jones’ draft day concerns. The Penguins hope some bad karma impacts the Philadelphia Flyers.
And I need to say goodbye to a friend.
The jury is out
In his latest “Footbahlin’” podcast, former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger came off as less-than-convinced that Penn State quarterback Drew Allar was the right guy for the Steelers to pick in the third round of last weekend’s draft.
“I’m not sure yet if I love it or hate it,” Roethlisberger said at the 15-minute mark. “You can get a lot of really good players in the third round.”
Roethlisberger claims that he felt underwhelmed watching Allar at Penn State.
“I didn’t watch a lot of Penn State games. When I did watch, he never jumped off the page to me,” Roethlisberger continued. “Is he big? Can he move? Can he throw? Yeah, but there was never a time when I was like, ‘Whoa. We’ll see about this one.’”
The two-time Super Bowl Champion still seems to prefer Will Howard.
“I think this will push Will,” Roethlisberger said. “When I watch tape, or if I watch games, Will Howard jumped off the tape to me way more than Drew did.”
Underscoring Roethlisberger’s point about taking Allar at No. 76 in the third round, remember the Steelers had not yet attacked any pick on defense, guard or a second wide receiver prospect when they selected Allar.
Eventually, they hit all those positions, but they prioritized Allar first.
More sports
• Unlike 2012, Penguins need a few more strong starts to finish comeback vs. Flyers
• Steelers draft pick Dunker made name for himself as hay-bale tossing champ in Iowa
• Steelers bring back WR Brandon Johnson, release John Rhys Plumlee
No fire to the smoke
Art Rooney II is tamping down concerns over a reported rift with the Dallas Cowboys.
The Steelers’ front office walked away with egg on its face during the first night of the NFL Draft after the Eagles nabbed USC wide receiver Makai Lemon while the Steelers were on the phone with him, telling him they were about to choose him with pick No. 21.
It was Dallas who surprisingly gave their NFC East rivals pick No. 20 in a trade to get Lemon. A report from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram suggested that the Steelers were upset with Dallas for doing that.
“I don’t want to get on their bad side,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “I’m sorry if they’re mad. But, boy, I’ll tell you what, we’ve had it happen to us a bunch of times. It traded right out from under us.”
The Cowboys were asked about the Steelers potentially being angered with them over how Dallas traded back from 20 to 23, allowing the Eagles to get WR Makai Lemon, who Pittsburgh wanted at Pick 21.
Stephen Jones: “That’s not right.”
Jerry Jones: “Not at all.”
Jerry went on to… pic.twitter.com/t2klayfxV9
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) April 26, 2026
During a Tuesday morning appearance on WDVE, Rooney said there is no ill will.
“No hard feelings with Jerry,” Rooney told “The DVE Morning Show.” “Those things happen in every draft where you know the team in front of you jumps in and picks somebody that you know that you wanted, or somebody trades up in front of you and grabs somebody you wanted. That’s why you kind of have a short list going into every pick.”
For the Steelers, the next person on that short list was Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor.
“You just roll with the next, the next guy. So we’re happy we got Max,” Rooney continued.
There are two theories as to why Dallas may have been willing to stick it to the Steelers even though it meant helping Philadelphia. One is that the Steelers drafted Ryan Shazier in 2014 while Dallas was on the phone with him.
Another is that Jones was trying to take a dig at former Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy.
Guilt by association
Full credit to one of our editors, Mike Palm, for finding this one. He went wading into the waters of Philadelphia Flyers Reddit. That’s a dangerous place for any Pittsburgher to go.
While there, he discovered a thread that featured a screenshot of a Carolina Hurricanes email to their fans. It was a solicitation to buy tickets for the upcoming second round of the playoffs between the Hurricanes and … the Flyers?
Remember, the Flyers haven’t eliminated the Penguins yet, despite their 3-0 series lead to open the best-of-seven. Since then, the Pens have won the last two games, and Flyers fans are starting to sweat.
Now the Hurricanes are tempting fate with this premature email blast, and Flyers fans in the comments section were starting to fret about a third-party jinx.
“It doesn’t count as bad juju if another team does it on your behalf,” one post insisted.
“I looked in the juju rule book and can confirm. This ACTUALLY hurts the Hurricanes by the juju redirection mentioned in section 4 subsection 8.6.7.,” another post replied.
I can’t confirm that, but it sounds official to me.
“They’re trying to jinx us cause they don’t want to face us,” one Flyer fan insisted.
That’s quite the pretzel logic conspiracy theory.
All I know is, there’s probably an entry-level employee in the Hurricanes’ ticket department who may be looking for a new job Sunday morning if the Penguins can pull off this seven-game comeback.
Great Ghosts Alive
I was very sad to hear about the passing of longtime Duquesne men’s basketball radio broadcaster Ray Goss on Tuesday. He was 89 years old, and the 2025-26 season was his 58th at Duquesne. That was college basketball’s longest stretch as a play-by-play announcer.
Eight years ago, I started calling Dukes games on ESPN-plus. Goss was a tremendously valued friend and colleague. We spent many gamedays swapping notes and exchanging broadcast nuggets in the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse lunchroom before games.
I was very lucky to be on the radio calls with him as the Dukes won the Atlantic 10 in 2024 and went on to the NCAA Tournament. Those runs through Brooklyn and Omaha were two of the most fun weeks of my life. I was honored to be at his side for that March Madness run.
As the Duquesne website posted, “In his first season as the play-by-play voice of Duquesne basketball, Goss called a 75-72 victory over No. 8 St. John’s in College Park, Md., in a consolation game in the East Regional of the 1969 NCAA Championship. His career came full circle in 2024, as the Dukes defeated No. 21 BYU, 71-67, in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Championship in Omaha, Neb., at the CHI Health Center as Duquesne was making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 47 years.”
Ray was on the mic for every season in between. I’ll never forget the Dukes fans sitting behind us in Omaha, chanting Ray’s name before and after that win against BYU. They knew what that game meant to him.
More importantly, Ray knew what that game meant to all of them — and every other Duquesne fan listening while we were on the call.