First call: Goodell on Antonio Brown's status, Chara fights Wilson, hoops player knocks out ref
Thursday’s “First Call” looks at the NFL’s continued attempts to wait out Antonio Brown’s social media insanity. A college basketball player accidentally punches out an official. Le’Veon Bell continues to brag about his second career as a bowler. Lamar Jackson may play against the Jets after all. Tom Wilson fights Zdeno Chara.
Go figure
Every time Brown goes on one of his Twitter tirades, it seems to coincide with some bad news about his NFL investigation.
That happened again yesterday.
A.B. popped off on Twitter again, going after Ben Roethlisberger, the players association, the league itself, and even his agent, Drew Rosenhaus.
Coincidentally — or not — news also came from commissioner Roger Goodell that the investigation into the sexual assault allegations isn’t done yet.
Via ProFootballTalk.com, a few hours after Brown’s latest meltdown “Goodell told reporters at the December ownership meeting, ‘They did, our investigators did (meet with Brown), I did not meet with Antonio. But they have more work to do. They’re following up on that. And I’ll get an update when they have more information.’”
Perhaps Brown got word on that stance from the league and that’s what caused his meltdown. Keep in mind, this reaction comes less than a week after Brown — uh, or perhaps someone on behalf of Brown — posted a lengthy apology for his recent behavior on his social media accounts.
The more Brown lashes out, the more likely it is we will see the NFL drag its feet on this investigation.
It seems obvious. Too bad “Mr. Big Chest” can’t figure that out.
My bad, Ref!
Illinois basketball player Kofi Cockburn knocked out an official.
Celebrating. By accident.
The 7-foot, 290-pound center was pumped up after a big “and one” in the Fighting Illini’s 71-62 victory over No. 5 Michigan on Wednesday night. And in pumping his fist, his arm followed through and decked referee Lewis Garrison in the head.
Kofi Cockburn delivers the knockout blow to Michigan and then unfortunately the referee as well. I've never seen anything like it! Video courtesy of BTN pic.twitter.com/iGxu6xlzig
— Matt Randazzo (@MattRandazzo) December 12, 2019
The Associated Press quoted Illinois spokesman Derrick Burson as saying that Garrison was cleared on site by doctors and taken to a hospital as a precaution.
Cockburn said after the game, “That’s just me being passionate, I hit him and I feel bad. I went and told him after the game that I was sorry. He didn’t seem mad at me.”
With Cockburn at 7-feet tall and 290 pounds, if I’m Garrison, I just blame my own head for getting in the way of his arm.
Now he's just rubbing it in
Le’Veon Bell is just basking in the glow of this bowling controversy, isn’t he?
The Jets running back is using criticism of his decision to go bowling after being scratched because of the flu to tell the world how good of a bowler he has become.
On Tuesday, the former Steeler bragged that he bowled a 251 during a late-night bowling session after the team had scratched him for a week-long illness.
Yesterday, he posted an Instagram photo with a poll question comparing the “feat” to that of Michael Jordan’s famous 1997 “flu game” when he scored 38 points in the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz despite being sick.
A 251 is pretty good, Le’V. But I’ll go with Mike on this one.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
So does that make both of these guys our friends now?
Among Penguins fans, two of the most disliked guys in the Eastern Conference have been Zdeno Chara and Tom Wilson. Chara punched Sidney Crosby in his broken jaw during the 2013 playoffs. And Wilson tried to take out as many Penguins as possible during the 2018 postseason.
Well, the two got locked up Wednesday in a fight in D.C.
Zdeno Chara and Tom Wilson trading punches pic.twitter.com/1toGwkmFzu
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 12, 2019
The game was better than the fight. The Metro-leading Caps beat the Atlantic-leading Bruins 3-2.
Lace ’em up, Lamar!
It’s rare that Steelers fans find themselves rooting for the Baltimore Ravens in December. But that’s the case this year.
They play the Jets in the Thursday night game this week. A win for Baltimore clinches the division and gives them another step toward sewing up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The hope for Steelers fans is that the Ravens win this week and next, so that they lock down the AFC’s top seed in Week 16. That would mean they may be willing to sit their starters in Week 17 when the Steelers visit Baltimore in a game the Steelers may need to win to qualify for the playoffs.
That includes quarterback Lamar Jackson, an MVP candidate this year.
This week, though, it sounds like Jackson is going to play despite a banged-up quad. Jackson was able to practice fully Wednesday. According to the NFL Network, Jackson is only carrying the questionable tag because the NFL no longer authorizes a “probable” designation.
So, great. Let’s go Rav- … eh, never mind. Ick.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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