It's Friday. I got a job and I got stuff to do. And that stock sports with you for the next four hours here. On the Infinity Sports Network. If you don't recognize the voice, well, I'm sure you do at this point.
We're good old friends, but I'm not JR. I'm the sports machine, Sean Levine. Got my guy Ryan back in the studio spinning the wheels. Easy for me to say. Uh if you want to talk to us, the phone number is 888-108.
710. For ISN. We got a lot to talk about. We got.
Some fake football tonight. Unless you bet on it. It's real money if you lose. In fact, I don't know if you're a better like me and you bet on preseason football, then you're probably a degenerate. But, um I bet last night.
Hit a little free team parlay. All the underdogs won. And Here's what I want to know. How do you even make a line for a preseason football game? You know what I'm saying?
Like, it seems pretty easy if you're ever going to take the dog, if you're ever going to take the money line at plus 250, which they all were, wouldn't preseason week one be the time to do that? What do we really know? We know nothing about these teams.
So. Take my advice if you want. It was good money last night. Again, the number is 888-710-4ISN. We'll get into the preseason football because we're going to see Shador Sanders starting for the Browns tonight.
That game kicks off an hour from now. Browns, Panthers, and Lions Falcons kick off an hour from now, and then an hour and a half. Commanders and Patriots.
So we got plenty of fake football to talk about here over the next four hours. We got real baseball, we got a real top 25 in college football. But let's actually, uh, if we can, let's start with the. what my sister just texted me about two minutes ago, if we could. She's man, it made me feel old.
She's uh she's taking the niece and nephew to Denver for a little. Weekend trip before school starts. You know how that goes, parents, right? It's been a long summer, but let's get one more of these things in here and then let's put our kids' pictures on Facebook next week and make everybody nauseated, right? Like that's the plan.
And so that's what my sister did. And she took the kids to Denver and they texted me. They said, Unk, we're at the 90s museum. I'm like There's a nineties museum? Are we that old?
Like, I remember when I was young going to the, what is it called? The Museum of History, whatever it is in New York. That was actual history. That was some old-ass stuff. She was texting me have you ever heard of Blockbuster?
Yes. Yes, I I miss Blockbuster very much. and Nintendo 64 and all of that. If I was at that 90s museum, I'd go full 90s. Like I'd be wearing my old Remember that T.O.
Marlins hat when it first came out? And probably my supersonic starter coat, an old pair of, I don't know, it was cool, Birkenstocks, and a. Big dog shirt, remember those? You can't hang with the big dogs to get off the deck. Anyway, the 90s museum?
How is there a 90s museum already? That's crazy. And damn it, they better have some juvenile right when you walk in. Or some master P. You know what I'm saying?
Anyway. Um 888-710-4ISN. I'm 90s museum. Get out of here. Um let's talk some football.
Where I think that In a weird way, Shador Sanders landed on the perfect team. At the beginning of his career, now nobody that wants to be a good quarterback wants to go to the Cleveland Browns because historically they haven't produced a franchise quarterback. In fact, they have never produced a franchise quarterback.
Sorry, Browns fans. I know there's a lot of you that are like, What do you mean? What about our guy Bernie Kosar? What about him? Come on, like, just because he's the best, that's like a Jets fan saying, Well, what about Vinny Testa Verdi, or what about uh Chad Pennington, or a Bears fan saying, What about uh Jim Harbaugh?
What about those guys, right? Sexy Rexy Grossman. There are a few teams that have never had a franchise quarterback, and Cleveland is still searching for that. The good thing for Shador Sanders, let's start here, is that he landed. In one of the, I think, three or four places on a team that hasn't decided who their starting quarterback's going to be.
New Orleans? And that's just a... That's a mess, right? Whichever direction New Orleans goes for their starting quarterback this year, it's nobody's fault. Derek Carr retired a couple of months ago.
The organization didn't see that coming. They probably could have, I don't know, traded for some guy or gone harder after Aaron Rodgers, and they ended up with this weird. quarterback room with Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shook and Jake Hayner, it's not good, but they got to choose eventually who's going to be the starter. Same thing with the Giants. We're going to get to them in a minute.
And then Cleveland.
So, one, two, three. I think there's, and maybe Indy.
Now that If you saw yesterday, their quarterback got hurt again, Anthony Richardson. And who knows, even if he was completely healthy, if he was going to be the starter, because they got a couple of options for the Colts, and neither one of those are good either.
So, the way I count, there's four teams at this point in the preseason that are still trying to figure out who their starting quarterback is.
So, if you're a rookie that was drafted, especially in the first round, and the plan is the team's going to put you on the field as soon as possible, you better hope to play for one of those teams. And Shador Sanders, as it is, even though he got passed up by everybody. In the first and the second, the third and the fourth round, it worked out pretty well that he landed on a team that's gonna put him on the field an hour from now as their starting quarterback.
Now, I'm not taking away a ton from that. We're talking about the preseason here. Most of the time, if you're starting in week one of the preseason, That's not really a good thing. That means that you're either an aging quarterback or some guy from a directional school, or just kind of look around the league. It doesn't always happen that way.
Like, if you watched the Bengals game last night, Joe Burrow and the dudes were out there for a lot longer than I thought.
So sometimes they put the dude out there week one of the preseason, but I'm not. Taking too much away from Shador being named the starting quarterback. I think that comes down to upside. And it comes down to health, frankly. Like Joe Flacco's nicked up.
And we all know Deshaun Watson, the creepy Deshaun, even though when he is healthy, who knows if he's ever going to play another NFL snap? Kenny Pickett's been hurt. Dylan Gabriel's hurt.
So at this point, Shador is the healthiest guy. And here's the truth. He's got a ton of upside. Maybe you didn't think that he was great in college, and I got the numbers here right in front of me. Let's take a look at these.
So his first year at Jackson State 30 touchdowns, 8 interceptions. 65% completion percentage. All right, we'll take that. By the next year, 40 touchdowns and eight picks. I'm not good at math, but his couple of years at Jackson State, it's not like he was good.
He was unbelievable. 70 touchdowns to 14 interceptions and completed 70% of his passes. That's great at any level. His first year at Colorado, 27 touchdowns to three interceptions.
So he's not a guy that turns the ball over. And then last year, 37 touchdowns to 10 picks. Like his numbers in college. Are the reason why, and even the eye test told us that this guy's got a really good chance to be an NFL quarterback? The reason that he wasn't drafted higher was a bunch of Fugazi.
It was a bunch of BS. It was either people thought he was too cocky or too confident or Excuse me. Yeah. They got me all choked up here. Maybe they thought eventually he wanted too much money, or they were afraid of his dad interfering, whatever it was.
But I don't think that teams passed up on Shador Sanders generally. Because of his lack of talent or because they didn't believe in him in the NFL. Again, I would say that he's got the most upside of anybody in that quarterback room. And here's the good thing for the Browns: he wasn't a first-round pick.
So what's the worst case scenario? You might as well put his ass out there. I'm not talking about week one tonight. We're about to find out. I'm talking about week one, a month from now.
With the real deal, with real NFL games and real lines and it really matters on your record, the record's not gonna be good for the Browns either way. There's only one team in the NFL. That has an expected win total lower than the Cleveland Browns, and that's the aforementioned Saints. Their over-under is like four and a half. And then you got the Cleveland Browns who are sitting right about five wins.
So, if they're only going to win five or six games this year, what's the point of putting a veteran quarterback out there? And I respect that Joe Flacco came back. And I know a couple of years ago, he was awesome with Cleveland and took one in the playoffs and won the comeback player of the year. I mean, he was better than Deshaun Watson that year, even when Watson was still healthy. He was the best Browns quarterback they've probably had.
I was going to say since Baker Mayfield, but Baker wasn't even good when he was in a Browns uniform. Joe Flacco, like if we're talking about actual production, the back end of that season a couple of years ago was probably better than any Browns quarterback they've had in 15, 20 years. But that doesn't mean you should put him on the field. At this point. You're not going to win a bunch of games.
Putting Joe Flacco out there doesn't make you a 12 or win football team like you were a couple of years ago with him. At best, I think maybe you win six or seven games. And that's no good. Then you don't get a high draft pick, and then you haven't figured out what Shador Sanders is.
So just put him on the field early on. And if it doesn't work, nobody can say that he's a boss because he's a fifth-round pick. Cleveland, in a very weird way, and Shador have found themselves in pretty much a perfect spot. As far as I'm concerned. And I just put them on the field and see what you got.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. I'm very curious to watch him this year and what he looks like coming up in about an hour. I think he's going to surprise a lot of people. As far as the Giants go. And of course, we know that they did take a quarterback in the first round.
Traded up, backed in the draft to the back end to get Jackson Dart. Put him on the field too. And I know that they basically said that Russell Wilson's going to be the starting quarterback when real football comes around. I would just ask simply. Why?
What's the upside with Russell Wilson? Isn't that kind of the same thing that I was just saying with Joe Flacco? Where if you put him out there and you're gonna win six, maybe seven games at best. What's the point? That's not a long term solution.
Why'd you draft the quarterback not to put him on the bench but to put him on the field? I think the only person That Really thinks Russell Wilson's the best choice. It's not the Giants fans. It's probably not even the front office, it's Brian Dable. And I agree with him.
If he wants to win now, which is the only way he's going to keep his job, then you got to put the veteran on the field, which is Russell Wilson. But don't Forget. Do you remember how Russell Wilson got his job originally? You got to jump on your hot tub time machine here because it's been like 10 or 12 years. His first year in Seattle, right?
He comes out, middle of the pack, draft pick. This guy, Russell Wilson, a little bit undersized. That offseason, the Seahawks had just signed Matt Flynn to a huge contract. And if you're like, Matt, who? Yeah, Matt Flynn got this ginormous contract.
for being good for a couple of games. I think it was with Atlanta if memory serves me correct. But then they put Russell Wilson on the field in the preseason and he tore it up. He was the best player, not just on the team, but he was probably the best quarterback in the league in the preseason for what it's worth. And Seattle said, screw it.
Forget about the money that we gave the veteran. We got to put the young guy on the field right now because he gives us the best chance to win.
So, again, if it was cool 10 years ago and Russell Wilson earned his job in preseason, then I think Russ would understand. It's not like Russell Wilson's ever caused any trouble. In fact, he's the exact opposite of that. He might be the. I was going to say the nicest, but I think cornier is probably the more apropos word.
Player in the history of the league. I don't think he's going to have his feathers ruffled if all of a sudden Jackson Dart lights it up in the preseason and they have to call him into the principal's office and say, hey, Russ, you know what? We're going to make you the backup. I don't think he's going to, you know, go Antonio Brown on us in the middle of the game and tear off his jersey and just say, I'm out of here. I'd be shocked.
Come on now. We're talking about Russell Wilson.
So, in the case of. Pretty much all these rookie quarterbacks, and I think we've seen it over the last couple of years. Get them on the field early and then see what you have.
Now sometimes that works out great. Like in the case last year of Jaden Daniels, there's no way that DC thought that he was going to be that good. There's no way Jaden Daniels thought he was going to be that good. And most people already have him as a top five, top seven quarterback in the NFL before he's even taken a snap of football in year number two. We'll get to him.
Is that a little bit too much, too quick? Do people really believe in DC? Are they just a flavor of the month? We'll talk plenty of Commanders football as the show rolls along. But it's not always Jaden Daniels.
Sometimes it looks like Bryce Young as a rookie, and that wasn't great. And sometimes it looks like Caleb Williams last year. And it wasn't great. You know, I'm very intrigued to see this upcoming season. Speaking of rookies last year, a couple of them, Drake May for sure, because we got a short sample size of him, but Bo Nick's.
Bonix plays in a division where he might be, like statistically, by the end of the season, just the fourth best quarterback. But he still might also be a top ten quarterback in the NFL. If that makes sense. I don't think he's going to put up numbers like Patrick Mahomes. Probably not like Justin Herbert.
Geno Smith. Statistically, through for the fourth most touchdowns and yards last year. I don't think a lot of people recognize that. But Bo Nicks in that division is going to be a problem. for a second-year quarterback.
Back to Caleb Boyens for a second. Bears fans, I know you're listening. Hit me up: 888-710-4ISN is the phone number. By the end of this year. What would satisfy you?
both from a win-loss perspective as a Bears fame. And from a Caleb Williams perspective, because what I was just saying about Bo Nick's. Where, even though he could be really good this year in a top 10 NFL quarterback, I don't think Caleb Williams can be. I'd be absolutely shocked if we look up at the end of this year and the eye test or the numbers tell us that Caleb Williams took such a step forward that he went from being the 26th best quarterback in the NFL to being top 10. I don't really expect that.
Because of the quarterbacks in that division also. We don't know about JJ McCarthy. There's no reason that Caleb Williams isn't better than him this year, right? J.J. McCarthy, yeah, he got a chance to sit behind a really good quarterback last year in Sam Donald for a great team.
What did Minnesota go? 14-3. But what does that really do for you until you hit the field?
So he, for all intents and purposes, is a rookie. No excuses. Caleb Williams should be better than JJ McCarthy. But if I'm a Bears fan, my goal should be: let him be better than one of those other two quarterbacks in the division. Those guys are both absolute studs.
Whether you're talking about Jared Goff, whether you're talking about. Jordan Love, those guys have a chance this year. And particularly Jordan Love, in my opinion, to be in the MVP conversation, to put up big numbers to win a lot of football games. If your guy, Caleb Williams, is part of that conversation. If we can say, yeah, man, Jared Goff was really good again and led his team to another 15-win season, but yo, Caleb Williams.
If we can have that conversation as a Bears fan by the end of the year, that he's even part of that, that he's not by far the worst quarterback in the division, then I think this season was a success. And as far as wins and losses go. I don't know. I it it it could be tough. I think there's a chance they're going to be better than they were last year.
Bears fans have been told to be patient more so than any other fan base this side of the New York Jets fan base in NFL history. Every single offseason, some idiot comes on the radio like me and says one more year. For the Bears, like that, I actually believe that right now. If you can just be patient for one more year, because you got a rookie head coach. And if this was Pete Carroll, right, coming into the Raiders, who's done it for a long time, who wears a Super Bowl ring, I'd say, you know what, hit the ground running.
But the same grace that his fans Bears fans gave Caleb Williams last year in his rookie season. You kind of have to give the rookie coach also. He's going to stub his toe, he's going to make a couple of bad decisions.
So what's fair? Eight? Is that nine? Do we think they can get to nine, Bears fans? I think You shouldn't be ecstatic if at the end of the year probably doesn't get you in the playoffs.
Keeps you in the conversation. It'd be a fun year. Bears win nine games, go over 500. Caleb Williams is the second best quarterback in the division, and then wait to see how you're talked about this time next year, Bears fans. Cause everybody gonna love you.
I'm talking about this time next year. I believe people will be talking about the Chicago Bears the same way they're talking about DC, the same way they're talking about San Francisco. Maybe they're not the best team in the NFC, that's the Philadelphia Eagles. But who's next? Again, you just got to be patient, not right now.
But next year. A year from now, it's going to be a problem, Chicago. 888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Detroit, Atlanta tonight, Cleveland, Carolina, and Washington and New England.
So we'll keep our eye on those fake football games. But we got real college football kicking off two weeks from tomorrow. We got a top 25 poll. Let's take a look at it coming up next, right here, on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.
Here's Sean Levine. I am Levine. In fact, coming up about 20 minutes from now, I got a Levine's list for you right here. On the Infinity Sports Network. Got my guy Ryan back in studio spinning the wheels in for JR.
Like I said, I am the sports machine, Sean Levine. The number is 888-710-4ISN. This portion of the show is brought to you by Wesley Financial. Are you stuck in a timeshare and one out? Contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at Wesley Financial Group.
Dot com. 888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Going to talk some college football here in just a couple of minutes. You know what's underrated when you're looking for a new crib, when you're looking for a new house? A couple of things.
My dad always taught me you gotta check the water pressure. That's huge. Because you don't wanna move into a place and then you're moving in that first day and you're wiping stuff down and cleaning up, and you're finally gonna take that for a shower, and then it's just a drip. That's not good. That's a terrible way to start.
And also, you got to check the neighbors, right? Like, give a good knock on the door, make an excuse, whatever you have to do, just to make sure that they're whatever your definition of normal is. Like, we've all got a different definition, just somewhat normal. And the reason I bring it up is because I moved into a place about a year and a half ago. And I uh This is crazy, but I woke up.
last summer to a guy that was mowing my lawn. And I thought, this is a great neighbor. I don't know who he is. We haven't even really met. I don't even know his name, but he's mowing my lawn.
And so I'm not going to ask any questions. And then it continued. And eventually it was Charlie and we got to know each other a little bit. I did nothing for him and he mowed my lot. He was a good neighbor as far as I'm concerned.
And then old Charlie moved out. few days ago.
So I'm like, uh-oh, here we go. Here comes the ultimate crap shoot. The new neighbors move in. Right, they got the U-Haul out front, and I'm watching. And I'm like, Looks a little dicey.
Dude, like, looks a little. I don't know. We'll see how this goes. And the first couple of nights, I felt like I could hear something outside that I hadn't heard before, almost like a. Animalistic sound.
I'm gonna try it. It sounded like this. Skill! Scoop. And it was the middle of the night.
I'd never heard before.
So I assume that's got to be something to do with the new neighbors, and I don't like it. And so the first thing it was bothering my dogs, they were going crazy in their back room. And so finally, on night number three of Scooey. I'm like, I'm going to find out what's going on. I sleep naked there, I admit it.
So I had to boxers and flip-flops.
So I go outside, boxers, flip-flops, and a flat bill hat. And I'm like, I got to find out what this is. And I'm kind of creeping around. Like, I got a fence. I go outside my fence.
I'm looking at the side. And then I finally, I hear it. I look at the neighbor's house and I hear squeeze coming from the house. And I'm like, oh, here we go.
Now it's on. And so I creep a little bit closer. And then I hear the guy go, You got a problem? And I'm like, are you serious? This guy's going to be this loud, night number one, bothering me, all this stuff.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no problem. You know how that goes. Like at that point, I just really didn't want to create an issue with the neighbor and all that. Anyway, fast forward to earlier today. Right, middle of the day, maybe he's sobered up.
I don't know. I meet the neighbor for the first time. I finally get to see what the guy looks like. He's wearing a cowboy hat. Again, I'm not saying one way or another, a no-shirt.
The shortest pair of umbra shorts that I've ever seen, and a pair of Crocs. And I'm like, this is a very unique character. And I go open, he goes, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to talk to you like that last night. I'm like, oh, thanks for apologizing, man.
He introduced himself as crazy. With an eye. Shit.
So I now live next. I went from living next to a neighbor.
Sorry for that three-minute story to get here. That was cool Charlie that mowed my lawn to a guy named Crazy with an eye. And so now every single night I'm just going to let it go. I'd expect to hear scooey. For at least the next year, the lease, and then I got to go.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. I don't know why I told Jet Story, but I feel a whole lot better getting that off my chest. No, it was a human. It was a was a human? That was him.
That was him yelling. He was yelling. That sounds like a turkey call.
So, I didn't ask only because he was yelling. I went to go see. Maybe I didn't explain this well enough. I'm glad you asked, Ryan.
So, he was skewing. I thought it might have been an animal. I looked at his house, found out that it was a human. I couldn't really see him. It was like too dark.
It was the middle of the night. It was 2:30, bro. I'm in my underwear. And so, I figured I'd deal with it the next day. And he basically apologized and admitted to it the next day.
But what was I supposed to do, Ryan? Ask questions? He said his name was Crazy spelled with an I. Yeah, that's got to be a code name for something. Or it's like.
You don't think he's born crazy with an eye? There's no way you're born crazy with an eye. That makes it even worse. That makes it 10 times worse. Or it could just be a self-given nickname and he's a loser.
Or. Or he's just like from ex-military and that's his code name. All that scares me. Honestly, if he gave it to himself, does that make it? You know how crazy you have to be to nickname yourself crazy with an I?
You got to be absolutely insane. Like clinically insane. To call yourself, if your real name's John, and you go by crazy spelled C, I assume the I is at the end.
Well, that's even crazier. C R A Z I. My my goodness. Anyway, um I don't even know where to go from here. 888-710-4ISN is the phone number.
You know what's crazy? Yeah. Is that the the first college football poll, is that right? The first coaches poll, I'm looking at it right now. There's one, two, three, four, five different teams that are getting first place votes.
What that tells me is one, It's truly wide open. Or, at least, as wide open as it can be in college football, where there's probably honestly 15, 16, maybe 20 teams. Let's see how this season plays out. that could actually win the national championship, especially with the new playoff format. Texas is ranked number one.
We all saw that coming. The last couple of years, they've made it to the college football playoff. They've got the Heisman Trophy favorite in Arch Manning, which, by the way, You want to talk about pressure on a young player every now and again in sports? This type of guy comes along. What I mean by that is.
Bryce Harper. We all knew his name when he was in high school and he committed to a junior college because we saw the 500-foot home run that he hit when he was like 17 years old. He's on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Yo, that's a lot of expectation to live up to. I don't know what you do for a living, I don't know what your job is, but something tells me you didn't have that much pressure coming into your place of work.
And for Bryce Harper, I would say he's pretty much exceeded that hype. LeBron's a little different, right? LeBron had more hype coming out of high school than any player's ever had at any level. He was also on Sports Hills Dred. He was playing on ESPN.
He was also from Akron, and it was Cleveland that got the number one pick.
So that was more pressure than any player has ever entered any sport with. And he exceeded the hype also. Arch Manning's pretty damn close, though. You go to Texas, which inherently it's national championship or bust, especially. based on the fact the last couple of years they've come pretty close.
Your last name is Manning. You last year had another NFL quarterback in Quinn Ewers that as soon as Arch Manning put his name on the dotted line and committed. Everybody just forgot about, basically. I mean, this is. A lot of hype and a lot of expectation for a guy to live up to.
He's the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. His team's the favorite to win the national championship. He's finally the starting quarterback for Texas. His last name is Manning. Dude.
I got anxiety just thinking about all that. This is also Cooper Manning's time to shine, isn't it? Daddy was Archie. All-time great NFL player. Maybe a little bit overrated, but let's just go with it.
Both your brothers won two Super Bowls.
Now your kid? Has a chance to go out there, win the Heisman, win the national championship. This is your time. Come on, Cooper. This is your time for your boy.
Texas is ranked number one. They got 28 of the votes. Ohio State last year's national champion. Got 20, and they're ranked number two. Guess who Texas plays?
The first game of the season. I'll give you a minute to think about it. Ohio State. Thank you, Schedule Makers. You know what I'm saying?
College football, oftentimes it would be Texas playing Texas North Tech. Community College State. You're like, what? Who's that? And then they beat him by 78 points.
What was the point of that? Ohio State plays the University of Ohio Tech Western, North, Southeast. State. Beat him by 112 points. Texas plays Ohio State.
The two teams that are favored to win the national championship. The team is ranked number one versus the team that's ranked number two. I mean Thank you. And that's just a couple of weeks away. Where I know we got fake football thirty minutes from now, and we'll keep you updated on all the preseason.
We got a little something to watch tonight. Shador Sanders gets a start for the Browns.
So there's minimal excitement, especially if you bet on the games like I do. But college football, the real deal, a couple of weeks away, Texas, Ohio State week one, mm, that's juicy. Penn State's ranked number three in the preseason poll. They've also got 14. of the number one votes.
Their quarterback, Drew Allard, probably isn't being talked about enough because everybody's talking about Cade Club, Nick at Clemson. We're going to get to them in a minute because they also got number one votes. Look at that.
So here's all the teams that got number one votes. Texas got 28. They're ranked number one. Ohio State ranked number two. They got 20.
Penn State ranked number three. They got 14. And then Georgia's ranked number four. They actually have three number one votes also heading into the season. Notre Dame's ranked fifth.
Nobody thinks they're going to be the champion, at least the people that have the votes. And then Clemson's ranked sixth, and two of the voters have them ranked number one preseason, largely because of their quarterback, Cade Klubnick. Say that three times fast. That guy's, look at the numbers. That guy's going to be great this year.
And People are talking about him. He's got the second best odds to win the Heisman. Clemson's back to what they were a few years ago. Everybody's talking about Texas. They got Manning.
They're back to what they were a few years ago. Watch out for Penn State. And I know we've been saying that.
Well, since James Franklin took over, basically. This is the year they're finally going to take the next step. This team's got a lot of upper-class talent. And they're ranked a little bit higher heading in the season than typically they are. It feels like Penn State, as long as I can remember, at least since James Franklin's been there, here's how it goes.
They're preseason number ten. They play a couple of crap schools. They go to 2-0. A couple of teams in the top 10 lose. They work their way up to like number 7.
They beat a pretty good Big Ten team in Iowa or Purdue or a Wisconsin type team, right? And then they win a couple of those games and then they're ranked, then they get up to number three. And then they play a real team and usually get curb stomped.
Sorry, Penn State fans. We know how that goes down historically. It feels a little bit different this year, where they've got first place votes, where they've got this quarterback that's an upperclassman that's probably the best NFL prospect, dare I say, of all the quarterbacks coming out. This team has a legitimate chance, not just in conversation, but in reality. to go undefeated and to win the national title.
Best Penn State team since. I mean, I'm going to take you in your way back machine. Remember Carrie Collins? Of course you do. And Keejana Carter?
Who else is on that team? Joe Jeravicious? I think I can keep going. Uh. Lavar Arrington?
Like, you got to go way back. This team's legit. Texas, Ohio State, Penn State, one, two, three. Georgia ranked number four. Notre Dame five.
Clemson's ranked six. I was talking about them. It was just a couple of years ago that even some of their fan base was getting a little bit sick of the whole Dabbo Sweeney thing. Yeah. No.
That was ridiculous at the time. Any talk of him losing his job a couple of years ago should have been conversation about him getting a lifetime contract and building a statue for him. Dabo Sweeney is, if not the best coach in college football still, certainly in the top three or four. And so is Clemson. Actually, they're not.
They're six, but pretty close. Oregon at seven. Alabama at eight. LSU at 9, Miami at 10. I was just getting all excited, all hot and bothered about Texas, Ohio State, and week one.
Check this out: Schedule Makers hooked us up with a couple of others. We got Clemson and LSU in week one.
So that's number one versus number two, Texas, Ohio State. Clemson's number six versus number nine, LSU. And then Alabama was ranked number eight, placed Florida State, who's, well, Who the hell knows what Florida State are? But the schedule makers hooked us up like a tow truck. And as far as Alabama goes, This is a huge year.
And I'm not talking about for Kalen DeBoer because he took over for the best college coach of all time, Nick Saban. I'm talking about if Alabama football is going to continue what they've been over the last 15 years, and certainly Nick Saban has a ton to do with that, maybe the most to do with that success. If they're going to continue being the college football school of America, Then they got to go out there this year and make the college football playoff and probably play the national championship game. Because you could argue, in fact, it's not a great argument. You'd probably win it pretty easy.
If you said that Georgia has been the best college football program in the last five years and then Alabama. But these things are cyclical. Like, if you grew up, if you're like in your 40s around me, you grew up, and when you were young, it was Miami football. Remember how good they were to you? For like 10 years, pumping players in the NFL, national championships.
And then for 10 years, it became Pete Carroll in USC. And then it became. Alabama. I think they were next. And Clemson sprinkled in there in Georgia and everything.
But the landscape that is college football now. It's much more difficult to remain at the top. than it was for all those schools that I just mentioned. Because of NIL deals. Because they went from having all these different conferences to essentially having, what, four or five of the power conferences, because now you have to work your way through an actual college football playoff.
I'm not sure that we're going to have repeat champions like we used to. or even dynasties. Or even blue bloods. I think blue bloods are going to be a thing of the past in sports. Probably five or six years from now, look at college basketball.
It's already going that way. You know the number one college basketball recruit? is going through this upcoming season. Not Kansas, not Kentucky, not North Carolina. BYU.
You know why? I don't know. Maybe he loves cougars. I love cougars. Yeah.
It's because they're giving him the most money. That's how it's going to become in football too, pretty quick. And again, who knows who's going to be at the top. 888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Coming up in just a few minutes, I got Levine's list for you.
Did you see Mike Framble get all bloodied up? I heard that he got bloodied up, and then I saw it, and I was like, yeah. I thought he was gonna be like leaking, like he got into a UFC fight with Anderson Silva, but it made me think, what are the five best sports fights of all time? We'll get there in a little bit when we get to today's Levine's list. But first, let's get an update with my guy, Gordon Damer.
You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. Here's Sean Levine. Well, what up? Thanks for starting your week with me here on the Infinity Sports Network. Think of Riley Auto Parts.
For all your car care needs, get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service. from the professional parts people. at O'Reilly Auto Parts. 888-710-4ISN. That's the phone number around these parts.
Got my guy Ryan back in studio spinning the wheels. You know me. I'm the sports machine, Sean Levine. And I am anti-tie in sports. I don't like any sports that ended a tie at any level.
I don't care if I'm watching my little eight-year-old nephew's pee-wee football team. If they're going back and forth for four quarters down at the end of it.
Somebody's got to win, and somebody's got to lose as far as this unknown is concerned. Right. Again, Fantasy football, anything, any sort of like competition, a tie. I'm watching. The Seahawks.
And I say, watch it. I'm betting on the Seahawks and the Raiders. Preseason last night. Staying up late. And the Raiders are making a comeback.
And they end up tying it up with a couple of minutes left. I want to say it was 23 to 23. And then they come down and they get a field goal block to the end of the game, and then the referees come out and they say the game is over. First of all, there's got to be a better option. And I can think of a lot of them.
Flip a coin, I'm cool with that. Just tell me who won and lost and I'll go home. Rock, paper, scissors. I'm cool with that. Here's the best idea.
Since usually those kind of games involve the kickers anyway, there were like six field goals yesterday. Let's do this. Let's put both kickers. Back to back at midfield. Once it's overtime.
You have a preseason game. Kickers go back to back in midfield, and then somebody blows a whistle. And they have to each sprint as fast as they can toward the goalpost. They have to climb up the goalpost all the way up the net. You know, those flags that are the top of the nets, you always thought that those were probably to tell you which direction the wind was going.
No, no, no. Those are for preseason, as far as I'm concerned. Those are for preseason ties where the kicker runs and has to Pac-Man Jones style, go up the goalpost, and then climb up like Spider-Man, grab the flag, come back down, capture the flag style, playing it midfield. That team won. And you're probably laughing, like, oh, this guy's an idiot.
You wouldn't watch? That's not more fun than a preseason game. Let's be honest. If you knew there was a preseason game on. How much of it would you watch if all you knew was the game was going to go into overtime?
Come on now. What sounds more fun? Watching some dude you've never heard of from some directional school that's probably going to end up the Canadian Football League if he ever plays football again. That's a preseason is the first couple of games. You don't want to see the kickers go American Gladiators?
Straight up the neck, grab the flag. Come on now. Overtime. Overtime. That's silly.
888710-4ISN is the phone number. Although I do love me a good football fight, if you saw yesterday, Mike Frabel. The new head coach of the New England Patriots had to break one up that his team got into and got a little bit bloodied up, which kind of made me think: what are the best fights in sports history? Give me some beats, Ryan. It is now time for tonight's.
Levine's list. And I don't know if I can really call that a fight, but there was blood, so I guess so. As always, honorable mention before I get to the real thing. Um Anytime there's a hockey fight. It's great.
Remember that USA Canada, like a couple of months ago, where they just dropped gloves at the beginning of the game? That was unbelievable. How about The goalie fight of 1998. If you know, you know. Patrick Wall, and what was his name?
Chris Osgood, I want to say. drop the gloves and come all the way down the ice. That's unbelievable. I mean, Jordan Poole didn't like it, but Draymond Green, well, that was a fight. How about when Garrett Blunt?
Remember when he clocked that guy? Who were they playing? It was Organ and Boise. It was Boise State. Week one, LeGarrett Blunt comes off the field.
His team just got upset, and just, I mean, You don't want to talk about a right cross from hell. Here's my top five best sports fights of all time. Number five. I'm going to take you in the UFC octagon, Khabib versus Conor McGregor, but then we can go outside the Octagon. Remember what happened afterwards?
Like, it's crazy when a train killer is on top of a cage and then jumps over, and he's actually got his anger pointed towards somebody. We've seen plenty of guys win the title, jump over the cage. Jose Aldo did it famously to celebrate with family and friends. If you're Khabib and you just won a very intense fight, and then he was basically going to kill anybody that he could get his hands on in Connor's corner, that's crazy that ever happened. Number four, even crazier than that.
Y'all ever heard of the fan man? I watched a documentary on this guy like two months ago. There was a Riddick bow fight. In Las Vegas. I want to say at Caesar's Palace.
And a dude on a What's a fan thing called that elevates like a gyrocopter? Is that a thing, I think? A what? Google that. Yeah, like a.
Yeah, it's a fan. Basically, it's the guy who strapped himself to a fan and was able to elevate himself. By the way, see if I use. No Google Gyrocopter and give me the definition because I could be completely off. Like, it does sound like a dirty thing, but I'm pretty sure I'm using it right.
It sounds like it's a one-person. It's a one or two person mini helicopter. Yes. Thank you.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So he's using the fan as the propeller, essentially. And this, you've never heard of this, have you, Ryan? And this dude's flying around, and during the fight in Las Vegas, he lowers himself into the ring. In the middle of a championship fight, bro. It wasn't even like between rounds.
These guys are throwing blows to win the heavyweight title of the world, and this dude on a gyrocopter in Las Vegas. Flies in, literally flies in the corner of the ring and gets his ass whooped. Like 20 dudes jump on him immediately. Because what are you supposed to do? Nobody thought that was coming.
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Fan Man. Like, what the hell? Um number three, best sports fight of all time.
When Jeff Van Gundy got involved as the head coach of the Knicks, And was hanging on to Alonzo Morning's leg. Like, I don't know if you've ever stood next to an NBA player. But they are abnormally large compared to however big you are. Even if you're a big dude and you're listening to me, you're like, not me, Brahm, 6'4, 275, twisted steel, and sex appeal. No, stand next to an NBA player, you're gonna feel pretty small.
Jeff Van Gundy hanging on Alonzo Morning's leg. Showed us that better than anything else possibly could. Like, what is this old bald ass dude doing? But credit to him, you know, like You could either back down or you could do what Jeff Van Gundy did. Maybe at that point you just back down.
Number two best sports fight, as far as I'm concerned. Nolan Ryan and Robin Ventura.
So Nolan Rhyme was forty six years old. Forty-six years old. Still a top flight Major League Baseball player, Robin Menturo is twenty six, an up-and-coming ball player, gets plunked, charges the mound. Most of the time we know how that goes down. Usually nothing happens.
This time, everything happened. And the 26-year-old Took the beat. I mean, got put in the headlock, got his nose bloodied. Here's the best part: neither one of them got kicked out of the game. Like that's how cool baseball used to be.
You know what? Was just throw down. Norman Ryan finished the game, like with Gauz, and it was incredible. And at number one, and I think you probably saw this one coming if we're talking about the best sports fights of all time. The malice at the palace I almost can't believe every time that I think about it, every time that I talk about it, that that actually happened.
It feels almost like a figment of my imagination. We all have those things in our life where like Was that real? Like, I used to watch a show back in the late 80s when I was young called Zubily Zoo, and then I didn't see it for another 20-something years. And right now, as I say it, I might be making that up. Like, that may have just been like a fever dream.
We all have those things in life. Like, did that really happen? The Miles of the Palace really happened, right? Like... If you go back.
Not only did Ron Art test who he was at the time before he was meta world peace. Is in a pushing brawl, not just with some other dude, but with Ben Wallace. Big Ben Wallace and Ron Artes, two dudes that will not back down getting into it. Ron Artest ends up going, okay, I'm good, I think. I don't think I'm going to throw down with this guy, lays down the scores table.
When he's laying down the scores table, a fan from like the 18th row with a Gatorade Cup decides to throw it at Ron Artest. Do you know the odds of a random 40-something-year-old unathletic fan in the 18th row, even if his aim is right at Ron R. Test, the chances of him hitting Ron Artest got to be less than 1%, got to be less than 0.01%.
So, so far, everything's lining up. Cup hits him. Artesque doesn't even care who it is, runs in the stand, Steven Jackson goes afterwards, and that's when the fun just began. I mean, the best part of it was we got to see the whole thing in real time. It kept going.
How about when that turtle-looking guy, turtle-like from Entourage, got into it with Jermaine O'Neal on the court? Yo. I know I'm not supposed to talk about like fights and sports or fun, but that might be the greatest highlight of all time. Three hours left. I'm the sports machine, Sean Levine.
Yeah.
