First Call: NFL Star to host ‘SNL’; surprising Steeler named ‘most improved’; could Super Bowl go pay-per-view?
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A surprising name is listed as the Pittsburgh Steelers most improved player. Might we see the Super Bowl go to pay-per-view? A Kansas City Chiefs star player is slated to host “Saturday Night Live” — and it’s not MVP Patrick Mahomes.
Plus, we wrap up a three-pack of games from the Metropolitan Division, as the Penguins and Islanders prepared for their showdown Friday night.
All that in Friday’s “First Call.”
More money?
Maybe the zillions of dollars the Super Bowl generates via advertising isn’t enough for the NFL. It may go the pay-per-view route. At least that’s the suggestion from John Skipper, who used to run ESPN.
Speaking on “The Big Suey Podcast,” Skipper wondered, “If half the country is watching your game, and they’re watching it for free, how many of those people would pay a big sum of money to watch the game?”
Fox recently boasted that Kansas City’s 38-35 win over Philadelphia scored a six-year high with 113 million viewers, making Super Bowl LVII the third most-watched television show of all-time.
“I assume it’s half the households who watched; if it was only a quarter of them are willing to pay $20 to have a party at their house, it would still get you into the billions of dollars for a single game,” Skipper said via AwfulAnnouncing.com. “That is the single best way I can think of for the NFL to increase their annual revenue take for their clubs, is to make the Super Bowl a pay-per-view event.”
According to Fox, the game was the most-streamed Super Bowl ever and most-streamed event in Fox Sports history. A reported 182.6 million viewers watched all or part of the Super Bowl on Fox and Fox Deportes.
March Madness
Maybe this will get Travis Kelce to shut up about no one ever giving the Kansas Chiefs any respect.
Apparently, NBC thinks Kelce is a big enough deal that they want him to host “Saturday Night Live.” The All-Pro tight end is slated to be the host of the late-night sketch show’s March 4 broadcast.
“Growing up, I was a huge (Chris) Farley, (Will) Ferrell, (Jimmy) Fallon kind of guy growing up,” Kelce said on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon. “I used to watch ‘Saturday Night Live’ with my mother. It’s an absolute honor and a privilege to be hosting ‘SNL’ March 4th.”
Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Eli Manning and J.J. Watt are all NFL stars who have all hosted the show since 2007.
More sports
• NFL may ban Eagles’ QB sneak, making some current, former Steelers very happy
• Tim Benz: Atop ACC — yet unranked — perception of Pitt raises questions about NCAA hoops evaluations
• Pirates GM: Door ‘will continue to be open’ for Bryan Reynolds on contract extension talks
Say that again?
You know how Steelers fans do that thing where they cite a Pro Football Focus stat as credible when they want to advance a certain narrative. Yet when a Pro Football Focus stat pushes an opinion they don’t like, they completely dismiss the entire website?
My guess is that the following evaluation is going to fall into that second category.
On Thursday, PFF’s Gordon McGuinness posted the site’s most improved player on every team, based on their own grading system. Off the top of my head I would’ve guessed Alex Highsmith for the Steelers. Maybe Terrell Edmunds or Levi Wallace. Possibly Mason Cole or Chuks Okorafor.
Nope. It’s inside linebacker Devin Bush.
Yes, that Devin Bush. The same one who continued to have his playing time marginalized for Robert Spillane and Mark Robsinson as the season went along.
Bush got a PFF grade of 34.4 in 2021. His PFF grade in 2022 was 58.8.
“It might not have been an incredible season, but 2022 was a significant improvement for the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft,” McGuinness wrote. “Still, it wasn’t impressive enough for the Steelers to think that they made the wrong decision in not picking up his fifth-year option. Bush did post a career-best 3.5% missed tackle rate, something he’ll hope can help him in free agency.”
Yeah, I’d say the two most important words in that blurb are “free agency.” As in, Bush is still not good enough for the Steelers to feel like retaining him.
Improvement or not, unless the Steelers let Bush test the waters and bring him back on a cheap one-year deal like they did with Edmunds, he can take his “improvement” elsewhere.
Divisional dance
As the Penguins were idle Thursday, plenty happened in the Metropolitan Division.
• The first-place Carolina Hurricanes beat up the Montreal Canadiens 6-2. Seth Jarvis had a hat trick.
Jarvy gets his hatty in style! pic.twitter.com/qWJy6rpuBe
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) February 17, 2023
• The second-place New Jersey Devils were 4-2 losers in St. Louis. Jordan Binnington stopped 34 of 36 shots.
• The fifth-place Washington Capitals were 6-3 losers at home to the Florida Panthers, as the Caps played without star winger Alex Ovechkin again. He is away from the team after the death of his father, Mikhail.
So that means the Metro Division standing are as follows entering play Friday:
1. Carolina Hurricanes: 80 points
2. New Jersey Devils: 75
3. New York Rangers: 72
4. Pittsburgh Penguins: 63
5. Washington Capitals: 62
With their win over the Caps, the Panthers (62 points) have pulled into a tie with Washington for what would be the final Wild Card slot in the Eastern Conference.
The Penguins are on the road, battling the New York Islanders on Friday night. The Islanders are in sixth place in the Metro with 61 points. After the Pens play the Islanders, they get the Devils at home Saturday, and the Islanders again (this time at home) on Monday.