In for JR. I'm the sports machine, Sean Levine, right here. On the Infinity Sports Network. Ryan spin the wheels for us back in studio. The number is 888-710-4ISN.
We are about 15 minutes away, let's call it from kickoff, Monday Night Football. The season opener for the Bears and the Vikings from Soldier Field. The Bears are a one and a half point favorite, so we'll break that down. Here in just a couple of minutes. In about 15 minutes, we're going to bring on Will Ortner to talk some college football with us.
Michigan's gotten off to a good start, although Michigan's coach Sharon Moore is suspended because, well, him and Jim Harbaugh, they're a bunch of stinking cheaters. And so they had to name their interim coach earlier today. Ryan, did you see who the new interim coach for the Michigan Wolverines is by chance? I saw the name, but I couldn't pronounce it. That would be Biff Pogie that you're looking for.
Biff Pogie. Like the magic dragon? Yeah, that's the one. No, no, no, that's puff. Yeah, you're looking this would be biff.
Pogie. And first I had to go to the internet to find out what his real name was because I've talked about Dabbo Sweeney before and I said nobody's ever looked more like a Dabbo and I did it for like 15 minutes. Then somebody called in. They're like, you know his name's William Christopher and I refused to believe it until Wikipedia confirmed it. Double check for me.
I think that Biff Bogey. Is Mr. Pogy's born name? I think at some point, the proud Pogy parents, how old is this guy? 66 years ago.
They had a little baby born, little baby pogey, and they were And they're like, What do you think? Biff? Oh yeah, he looks like a biff. I don't want to break your heart. Oh no.
Just tell me he's Biff. What's his name? Francis. Xavier. Actually, I'm not mad because that's shocking.
Have you seen Biff Pogy? I saw, I just looked up a picture, and he's wearing like. A cutoff. Yeah. It's not pleasing to look at either.
If I'm trying to describe the look of Biff Pogie and tell me if I'm stereotyping here, I'll say the closest human that he reminds me of is. Larry the cable guy. Is that fair? A little bit. He kinda looks like Rex Ryan mixed with Larry the Cable guy.
Actually, yes. If those two somehow had a love child, that would be Biff Pogie. You guys need to see this guy. He's the former coach of the Charlotte football team. And he wasn't that good, but then again, it's Charlotte.
And now he's the coach of Michigan, and his name is Biff Pogie. And he was. And you would Francis to you. You would think. That Michigan might have a little bit more of like a button-up policy than other places that Mr.
Pogie's coached at? Because I'm looking, and every single picture that I find. He's wearing cutoff sleeves. And I haven't looked at what the weather's going to be, and I don't even know if Michigan's playing. But something tells me you can't be the coach of Michigan and not have on like at minimum a collared shirt.
If you're gonna go straight biff pogey on the sidelines for a school elect, you can get away with it at Charlotte. But if you're going to do it at Michigan. I mean, honestly, what's next? Like like wh where where do we draw the line? We got coaches out there wearing like Jalen Rose type shorts or Guys going out there.
Like, what if James Franklin came out next week for Penn State and flip-flops? You know what I'm saying? Like, what if Clemson? What if Davo Sweeney came running down that hill in like a Grateful Dead shirt? Actually, I wouldn't be mad at him.
That'd be pretty cool. There's no way Biff Pogie is going to coach that game with no sleeves on, right? I can't imagine. Anyway.
So I'll show you. He's got a T-shirt on. It's not the They cut they added like, I don't know, three inches of sleeve to try to stop him. That's all they did. And look, three inches is important, just trust me, but not when it comes to Biff Pogie's t-shirt.
It's not really doing a whole lot, it's not really covering up whatever areas they were trying to. And our guy, Biff, is a. A bigger fella. Like, if a guy's going to be wearing a cutoff t-shirt and you're on Muscle Beach or something, sometimes you stop and you stare. Like, if Ashton Genty.
And this has nothing to do with sexuality or being attracted to them. But if you see Ashton Genti with his shirt off, you stop and you go, damn. That guy's chiseled. Wow, I can't believe they make humans like that. If you see Biff Pogie walking down the street, and he's wearing the cutoff shirt, you probably look the other way.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Biff Pogie. That's such a great name. Um, the name for the quarterback of the Vikings tonight is no longer Sam Donald. The name is now J.J.
McCarthy. And J.J. McCarthy. Is I would say the biggest unknown, which makes the Vikings the biggest unknown heading into this NFL season.
Now, the truth is, if you watched a couple of games yesterday, you're probably thinking, uh, Tampa, I thought they were the best team in the division. Yeah, they won, but. And it sh it probably should have lost to an Atlanta team that I don't have huge expectations for. If you watch the Pittsburgh, New York game, you're probably thinking, no, the Jets actually look okay. Put up a bunch of points, even though they lost, they were at home.
Justin Fields looked pretty good. If you're a Pittsburgh fan, you're thinking the same thing. What I'm getting at, there are a few teams heading into this season that have a wide range of what they could end up being. See, for me, from the bears side of things, if things go bad, Let's say that things go kind of like they did last year, where the Bears got off to a good start, and then eventually they lost 10 of their last 11 games. They fired their coach, fired their coordinator.
Let's see how the chemistry is early on. With Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. I think this time next year, and Bears fans don't want to hear anything about patients, but this time next year, we're going to be having a totally different conversation about Chicago. Everybody's going to be comfortable. They're going to have some chemistry.
They're probably going to bring in some free agents that want to be a part of this whole thing. I think the Bears are going to be a problem going forward. But right now, even tonight, I have no idea what to expect from the Bears. I do think, though, if things go terrible this entire year, then they're still going to win.
Well, they win last year five games, then they still win probably six or seven. And if things go great for the Bears, and if Caleb Williams develops, and if Ben Johnson's an awesome coach right away and they catch some breaks, they play in a tough division. I'll say the Bears can win. I'll go as high as ten Bears fans, but I don't really believe that. I would say more like nine, which might get you in the playoffs.
You sneak in the back door at nine and eight, which is pretty good for year two of the Caleb Williams regime, considering what Bears football has been for a while. But there's not that wide of a range what they're going to be with the Vikings. Dead honest, they could be a last-placed team this year that picks in the top 10. They could win six games. They could go six and 11 and not be a part of the playoff conversation the entire year.
based on one decision they made this offseason. Which was, let's go with J.J. McCarthy and let's let Sam Donald walk. And I don't think that was as easy as it sounds like for a couple of reasons. One, Yes, and Thornton was going to be expensive, but you didn't have to lock him up for four years like Seattle did.
In theory, you could have had a conversation with them and said, hey, ma'am. You're really good this year. Out of nowhere. In fact, we thought you were going to be the backup. J.J.
McCarthy got hurt early on. We put your ass out there, and you overachieved Sam Darnold last year. It doesn't matter what you think of him in the playoff game or the last regular season game versus Detroit. He's the main reason, I would say, why the Vikings went 14 and 3. They weren't just good, they were great.
They're the first team to go 14 and 3, not win the division, and not host a playoff game.
So The Vikings, it doesn't matter how you slice or dice it up, were awesome last year, and so was their quarterback, Sam Darnold. 35 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, finished pretty high up in the MVP voting, and they let that guy walk. To me, that's crazy. Here's what I would have done, and I'm not a general manager. But I would have said, hey, Sam.
We want to keep you around. But we've also got this guy waiting in the wings and J.J. McCarthy. So, can we sign you up for the next two years? How much do you want long term?
And he would say, I want, I'm just throwing numbers out there, $40 million a year. And go, okay, cool. We're going to give you $50 million a year, but only for the next two years.
So you want $100 million per hour for the next two years? Put your name on the dotted line. Because then the Vikings would be in a situation where tonight, you put Sam Donald out there coming off a season where you won 14 games. It looks like that division's kind of wide open where Green Bay is all of a sudden the best. And who knows about Detroit?
Who really knows about the Bears we're talking about right now? Minnesota, if they brought back Sam Donald, if they ran it back with the same band. Would probably Probably right now today. Be pretty close to the favorite to win the division. Why not?
You know what I mean? Based on what they did last year.
Now we have no idea what they're going to be. Like if you're a better On their win total this season, talk about the Vikings. You're a better man or woman than me. I'm running from that type of thing. I have no idea.
Even if you're betting on this game tonight. and you're on the Viking side of things. What's your rationale? Is it it's week one, so we don't really know anything anyway? Is it, I don't believe in Caleb Williams?
Is it Ben Johnson? It's going to take him a little while to. Understand the speed of the NFL as a head coach and all those different things. There's a lot going on. Can you imagine?
You're in Chicago on Monday night football. There's already a lot of attention paid to you just because of that. You got the stage to yourself. Everybody wants to know what Caleb Williams is going to be, and it's your first game as a head coach. Things got to be going a billion miles an hour for that guy, too.
So wha tonight, honestly. I have no idea which way this thing's gonna go. I don't even know which quarterback's going to outplay the other guy from a Bears fans' perspective. just to get off to a good start and have a good feeling, you better hope it's your guy. Because Justin Fields could have been the quarterback for this team in theory, and he actually looks pretty good.
And you screwed it up by not taking Jaden Daniels. And I'm not mad at you. But he looks like he's going to be pretty good. And if J.J. McCarthy goes out there and tears it up tonight, three touchdowns, 300 yards, and Caleb Williams struggles and they put the beats down on you.
Luraro That's just not going to be a good look.
So if you force my hand, I think I'd bet the Bears tonight. Cause JJ McCarthy. I feel like I'm missing something. I remember him in Michigan, but I don't remember him in Michigan looking like Johnny Manzel. Maybe that's a bad example because Manzel was probably a stretch to be a first-round pick in the NFL.
I'm talking, I don't ever see the Trevor Lawrence. Oh, this guy can't miss because he's putting up 40 touchdown seasons and 400-yard games. I don't remember seeing a guy like that in college, so I had to go back and look at the numbers. In college, his sophomore year. 22 touchdown passes.
That's very pedestrian.
Now, I understand he played on a good Michigan team that had a lot of NFL talent around him, so only had to do so much. They won the national championship the next year, get somebody touched on passy through four. To me, that's a game manager. On a college football team that had Seven First, second and third round draft picks. There was a ton of talents around him.
So we're only about to find out, as far as I'm concerned, if this guy is even worth. being a first round draft pick, let alone a top ten pick, let alone a top ten pick coming off an injury that you just let your quarterback coming off a 14 win season walk for. I mean, Minnesota's literally put all of their eggs into this basket of JJ McCarthy, who to me is wildly unknown. And even if you think you know, How good a player is going to be coming out of college? You don't.
I just mentioned Trevor Lawrence. What's that guy been in the NFL? How about Bryce Young? Yo, Bryce Young sucks like a Hoover vacuum, doesn't he? I feel bad for Carolina because I was just talking about Chicago and the choices they, in theory, could have had at quarterback.
Same thing with Carolina. How many different quarterbacks did they pass up on or trade up to get Bryce Young or not even going to spend their number one pick, which turned out to be Caleb Williams because of it? They screwed it up too. But damn, going forward, there's not even a light at the end of the tunnel that I can see for Bryce Young. I can already say that's a bust, and we're only three years into it.
Two years in one game, really. I don't know what you do about it. Because you have to at least give him. I would say, what do you think the next couple of weeks until you just cut that cord? And say it ain't working.
He was kind of okay at the end of last year. Talk about Bryce Young and his defenders made a big deal out of it. We're talking about a number one pick in the NFL draft here, okay? The expectations are a little bit different when you're a number one pick. But my point of going down this road is just because you are a number one pick, Trevor Lawrence isn't great.
Caliph Williams didn't look great. Price Young looks okay. And J.J. McCarthy was not that. And they let Sam Donald walk?
That's a lot of pressure. You literally have the weight of the entire organization as a rookie quarterback. It's really what he is taking his first NFL snaps tonight on the road in Chicago, coming off an injury. You know what? I talked myself into betting the Bears.
It took me a while, y'all, but saying it out loud, you got to be a Bears better, right? How can you bet the other side with the unknown that is the quarterback? Maybe we get some JJ to JJ tonight, and Justin Jefferson has 140 yards, but to me, that kind of feels like the Vikings' only shot. If you're going to play the number, it's 43 and a half. Big surprise, it's windy in Chicago.
And I mean like especially windy.
So that's probably not going to help either passer. Let's take a quick back look back what we got a couple of minutes at the scores that we saw in week one because week one had a lot of games that had hype. And a lot of them actually lived up to the hype. We pretended like that was going to be the case with college football. And then we saw Clemson and LSU, and then we saw Texas and Ohio State.
It's like, yeah. As far as the NFL goes, they gave us Philadelphia and Dallas to kick things off. That was fun, right? No Micah Parsons, Phillies showing everybody their shiny rings and their banner, and it was a close game. Eagles ended up winning that one 24-20.
The Chargers in Brazil on Friday, that little Friday night football took out my Chiefs 27-21. Mahomes looked eight. Honestly, Justin Herber looked great. That's as good as I've ever seen him. First time I can tell you as a Chiefs fan since Mahomes has been the starter, I don't think they're going to win the division.
And then yesterday, early games. Bucks over the Falcons 23-20. Falcons probably should have won that game. Bengals, I'm off that bandwagon. If you could only beat the Browns with a lot on the line, including your coach's job.
And try to not lose early season games like you have been to make the playoffs, you gotta blow the doors off a team like the Browns. 17, 16, I'm not impressed. If anything, I'm more impressed with Cleveland. Colts and Dolphins, Indy beat the brakes off the Dolphins, man. I'm not saying the Dolphins are the worst team in the NFL.
To me, that belongs to the Saints, but they might be next. They stink. Raiders beat the Patriots. A lot of people like the Patriots this year. It's just one week, 20 to 13.
Everybody in the ASC West won. The Chiefs are in last place right now. Cardinals beat those Saints I was just talking about 20 to 13. Steelers over the Jets. I was going to say that was the most fun game on the schedule that actually played out.
That game was awesome. 34 to 32, 17 to 6. The Steelers outscored the Jets to come back at the end of the fourth quarter to eventually win that game. But I'd sound like an idiot if I said that was the best game as far as entertainment value goes because How about that game last night? We'll get there in a second, but goodness, I mean, what else do you want?
Commanders upbeat the Giants twenty one to six. It's Jackson Dart time. Even though they're going with Russell Wilson, I'm sorry, Giants fans. That sucks. I have no idea why they would do that.
Is that an organizational decision? That can't be Brian Dayball. Even if his number one intention at this point is keeping his job. Is the best way to keep your job? Is the best way to win football games to put Russell Wilson on the field?
I don't think so. I don't know who's making that call. I'm telling you this much. It's a bad one. And if Brian Dable's the one making that decision, maybe he shouldn't be making the decisions going forward.
The Giants look terrible. They put up two field goals. If that's all you get, Jackson Dark can't be worse. Like literally, it can't be worse. Jags beat the Panthers 26-10.
Broncos beat the Titans 20-12. San Francisco over Seattle in Seattle 17-13. We saw Michael Parsons for the first time in a Green Bay uniform. That fit pretty well. Green Bay beat the Lions 27-13.
What's the level of concern in Detroit right now? It's just one week. Rams beat the Texans 14-9. That game was a snooze fest, but it wasn't on Sunday night football. The Bills?
And the Ravens? I mean, goodness, 41 to 40, Bills walk it off. Bills outscore the Ravens 22-6 in the fourth quarter after trailing by 16 points. Just an all-time great comeback. We'll talk more about that coming up in just a little while, but let's actually go back to college.
Let's talk some college football coming up next with my guy Will Wartner. as he joins us on the Infiniti Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. Here's Sean Levine.
Well, it's good. Good morning, night to you. It is Monday Night Football. just getting under way from Chicago. 11 minutes left in the first, no score.
Vikings got the ball first. One pass complete for J.J. McCarthy. So he's one for one for five yards. He also got sacked.
They turned the ball over, I should say, on downs. They kick it away. And then Caleb Williams has thrown the ball three times for the Bears, three for three for 22 yards, as the Bears are moving the ball right down the field.
So good start, at least very early on from Chicago. 10:47 left in the first quarter. We'll keep you updated on all of that. There's nothing sadder than when you find out that somebody that you knew, or even if you didn't know them, but you just like cared about them, some celebrity, passed away. You're like, oh man, that sucks.
Like, I really like that person. But on the flip side of that, do you ever find out that somebody you thought was dead is still alive? And you're like No way. All right. And then you can celebrate for a little bit.
That's happened twice to me now in the last 24 hours. I was trying to bring on a guest earlier. He goes, No, I can't come on because I'm going to a James Taylor concert tonight. And I was like, James Taylor's still with us? I look how old he was.
He's only 77, so that's on me. But I thought for sure he was no longer a thing. And then yesterday before the Sunday Night Football game between Baltimore and Buffalo, they had Marv Levy do the preview, and he did a really good job. And he's very coherent and still with it, and sense of humor and all that. He said, I can't 100 years old.
I'm like, Marv Levy? Who knew? I'm excited. I've I'm that's awesome. I was sure he was gone, anyway.
I'm gonna digress. Let's uh talk some college football for a few minutes with my good friend Will Ortner Will, did you know Marvel Levy was still with Beyond? Did you know Marvel Levy was still with us? Who's Marga Levy? Not a lady.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he is. The old Bills coach. Apparently, he's still around.
So, how about that? What about Biff Pogie? You know anything about Biff Pogie? Wasn't that the old Charlotte coach who wore all the horrible, horrible cutoffs? Yeah, that's the guy.
Michigan named him as their interim head coach.
So we'll see if he wears the cutoffs on the sidelines for Michigan. After the first couple of weeks, just big picture, who do you think, based on their actual play, has been the most impressive team? Not what we thought in the preseason, but based on what they've actually done, who's been the best college football team? Oh, look, I might be a little bit biased, but I love my Duckies. I think what they were able to do to Oklahoma State and basically end Gundy's career, basically at this point, we know that he will not be the coach at Oklahoma State next year.
I think that's pretty darn impressive, although you can say they haven't really done anything. USF might beat the team. They go at home and they beat a Boise State team that made the playoff last year. Florida was everybody's darling, myself included. I was falling for the DJ Lagway hype, and frankly, he's underwhelmed for me, honestly.
And for them to go into the swamp and go out and beat them, I think that USF has to be a team you have a conversation for. I mean, shoot, Florida State beat a team by 100 and they called the dogs off at the end of the first quarter.
So I named three teams there as kind of a cheat way of saying there's a lot of good teams still playing college football. And I've been impressed with probably about four or five of them. What's the opposite of that? And feel free to cheat again with a couple of different teams. Who's been the most disappointing?
Clemson's looked terrible. I mean, yeah, they ended up pulling off that game against Troy, but they lost week one at the crib. They were down at halftime. Let's just start there. What the hell is going on?
I thought they were going to win the national championship. I've never been more disappointed in a team that wasn't a team I rooted for than this Clemson team. I told everyone and their mother they were going to win the title. I said that Cade Klubnik was the next version of a great Clemson quarterback. He was going to join the likes of Lawrence and Watson, someone that we talked about as a great quarterback in Davo Sweeney's history.
Davo Sweeney finally went into the portal and grabbed good wide receivers. The offensive line is supposed to be strong. The defense is supposed to be nasty. The D line, Is unbelievable. Again, and then when you watch this team offensively, they can't run the football.
Cade Klubnik looks like he's taken two gigantic steps back. You know, the D-line is great, but I wouldn't say that the rest of the defense is fantastic. I think that LSU showed me something week one, and they're a better team. Than I had given them credit for, but now I'm almost thinking: hey, maybe that is the same LSU team that we thought. And this Clemson team is just two steps down on the rung more than we believed.
You know, like I remember last year when USC beat LSU and it was like, oh, USC's back. They had a neutral side game and they beat LSU. And then you get a month and a half into the year, and that USC team is the same USC team that you thought they would be. And they were kind of a letdown because we thought LSU was something greater than they were. And we found out that both USC and LSU last year were men.
Now I'm wondering, are we finding out that both Clemson and LSU are mid-teams again? Or is it maybe LSU slightly a step better and Clemson? really isn't the title contender that we thought they might be. Speaking of USC, former Trojan quarterback Caleb Williams going at it right now on Monday night football. He's six for six on their opening drive with 51 yards as the Bears have worked their way into the red zone against the Vikings on their opening drive.
We'll keep you updated on that. Speaking of quarterback play, Will Ortner, Arch Manning, he looked okay. Obviously, he's got high expectations for himself. He's got the last name. He's got the Heisman favorite, at least the beginning of the year in the number one ranking.
It looks to me, and I'm far from a body language expert, that he feels the pressure. Is that what you're saying? Like, it looks like he understands how big this is. Yeah, I also wonder, and I hate to be the guy who's doing it, but you see all the videos where he's grimacing. Like, is he hurt?
Is this a Quinn Ewer situation like last year, where Quinn came back because he was worried about losing his job to Arch Manning and he didn't let his core heal? And then you could tell anytime he tried to throw the ball with any zip on it. Or if he tried to throw the ball deep, he just couldn't get through it because of how bad his core looked. Arches looked like. I don't want to say he's looked awful because that's not fair, but he hasn't looked like what the Arch Manning we all expected.
And every single time I go on Twitter now, there's a new video dissecting, well, what's hurt? Is it his shoulder? Is it his AC joint? Is it a labrum? Is it the way he throws?
Why is he mechanically off? And I'm wondering, is he hurt? Or is this maybe the archmaning that we're gonna get? A kid that's a fine college quarterback, but maybe is getting too much love and too much hype because of the last name on the back of the jersey. I definitely think it's more the latter.
Now, I'm not saying that you're wrong and that he's not maybe not a little bit dinged up or even more hurt than he's leading on to. The Bears, by the way, on the board, early touchdown up 6-0 on the Vikings, but I think Arch Manning. Definitely had way too much hype because of his last name, because it's Texas, all those different things that there was no way that anybody's going to be able to live up to it. And now that we've seen him struggle for the first couple of weeks, that just adds more pressure. I'm not saying I'm down the line, he's not going to turn into the bill of goods that we were sold, but through two weeks, my eyes don't lie to me, bro.
I got LASIK, I got 2020, and my eyes tell me he's not the guy that he was supposed to be, at least not right now. There are some good games on the college schedule coming up. This Saturday. Let's start with number six, Georgia, at number 18, Tennessee. A huge matchup in the SEC.
Is Georgia still Georgia, and is it time for Tennessee to take the next step?
Well, it's all going to depend on Joey Aguilar. Like, how good is this kid? We saw some flashes against Syracuse, but then we saw Syracuse barely beat a Yukon team.
So, how good is that Syracuse defense? And how good is Joey Aguilar actually? I mean, remember last year, I was a big Nico Emaliava guy singing his praises after what he does to NC State, and then he looks like. He's not good. He's not good at football, but I've listened the last two weeks and I've come away with money.
So when I look at this Joey Aguilar situation, is he feasting on lower competition? And so he looks good. What are we going to see when we look at this Georgia team? In my eyes, I don't think this is the strongest Georgia team that we've ever seen. But it's Georgia.
At this point, you just kind of have to give them the benefit of the doubt that I don't think Tennessee is quite earned yet. I think if I'm leaning anyway, I'm going to lean towards Kirby Smart and Georgia. But we're going to truly know just how good this Tennessee team is, and specifically just how good Joey Aguilar is. If Joey Aguilar is going to go out there and be, I don't know, a top. Five quarterback in the SEC.
Tennessee might win this ballgame and then we have to talk about Tennessee in a completely different light. How we talk about South Florida. They were unranked. They were huge underdogs in their first couple of games. They go into the swamp.
They beat Florida. We spent so much time talking about Florida State's good again. Last week, we thought Florida was the U. And now here we go: South Florida undefeated in the polls, ranked number 18, playing number five, Miami. Can the Bulls pull off the upset against the Canes?
I don't think so. The way that that Miami team is built and the way Carson Beck is playing, but the way that this USF team has played this year, I'm not going to tell them no. If you would have told me, hey, Will, they're going to go in and score 18 points against Florida and the swamp, I would have told you they lost by 30 in that game. I just didn't buy into this USF team. I felt like You know, Boise, they got a little bit of extra credit last year because of the success.
And so this year, hey, they're a top 25 team. They're really not that. And then, not only does USF pounce on him and just trounce him, then you go into the swamp and you beat Florida. Here's the thing: after this Miami game, there's no one on that schedule that scares me. I think we have to seriously start talking about South Florida as the group of five team that gets into the playoff.
Because after Miami, there is no one on that schedule. Not even the University of North Texas, the Mean Green, my new neighbors in Denton. Not even them are worrying me right now with the rest of this schedule.
So, whether they beat Miami or not, if they can keep it within two or three scores. USF might be a team that we're talking about being in the playoff at the very end of the year. He is Will Ortner. He is joining us live from Dallas right here on the Infinity Sports Network. Another ranked game coming up this weekend.
Notre Dame versus AM. That game's in South Bend. If I'm a better, that's one of those games, Will. Just who's the home team? Right, right.
In my eyes, what's funny about it though is I don't know that I trust Texas AM. Like, have you looked at a score and been like, wow, Texas AM really dominated them? Wow, did you trust Marcelo? Not for a decade. No, well, and what's their calling card?
Their calling card is supposed to be: well, they're a good defense because they've got Mike Elko. Their defense hasn't looked good, it hasn't looked strong.
Now, I don't know that I love the spread as I'm pulling it up right now, but you're telling me I get a Notre Dame team that's had two weeks to prepare, a Notre Dame team that knows if they lose this game at home, they're not going to make it in the playoffs. Playoffs are completely gone for them, and I'm getting a Texas AM team that, frankly, I don't buy into. I think Notre Dame wins this game. I wouldn't be shocked if Notre Dame wins it by 10 points. Will, before I let you go, how about that Sunday night football game, man?
Lamar Jackson versus Josh Allen, Buffalo and Baltimore. Was that an ASC championship preview we saw last night? If it wasn't, then you saw the AFC championship preview on Friday night. That was awesome between your Kansas City Chiefs and the LED Chargers, Herbert and Mahomes going back and forth. Look, I'm not here to poke the bear.
I'm not here to twist the knife in your wound. It was a great game. I just think you have four teams in the AFC right now. If Justin Herbert's going to play that way, I mean, Cincinnati will figure it out. I just don't trust their defense.
I think you got four legit teams in the AFC that are. Super Bowl contenders. When you look in the NFC, I might have been wrong about Greenberry after their thumping of Detroit. But in my eyes, there might be two teams that I think can win the Super Bowl in the NFC. I think we're going to have an AFC title winner again, and I think there's four teams.
And honestly, at this point, just flip a coin. I assume the two were Green Bay and Philadelphia in the NFC? Those are my two. I thought Green Bay looked unbelievable, and I am okay eating crow on Micah Parsons. Micah Parsons did make a big difference on that defense.
To have a sack in your first game when you've only been in a town for what, seven days, six days, and to come out and play like that, he's only going to get better. I'll eat crow on that one. I was wrong. Yeah, you deserve it. And I love how much we make out of one week of football.
This is going to change the world, and it's one week. Will, you're the best, man. Appreciate your time. Ew, thank you for having me on, your beast. Gotcha.
Will Ortner talking a little college football with us here as Monday night football kicks off and the Bears are up 7-0, 451 left in the first quarter. We'll get you updated on that with Rich Ackerman here in just a second. We're going to play a game of Get Rid of One, and then we only got one hour left. This show is flying by, but it's time for that sports flash with Rich Ackerman. Why does every recipe I try need 18 ingredients, including a jar of something paste I'll never use again, but will sit in my fridge for nine months?
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Here's Sean Levine.
Bear down Chicago Bears. I don't know any of the other words. Same thing with the Cubs song, now that I think about it. What is Go Cubs Go? Go, cubs, go Ten turns.
I mean, the Bears are awesome, and Caitlin Bloom is the best quarterback ever. He's nine for nine with 56 yards rushing. He's got two rushes on the ground for 21 yards and a touchdown. It was sick, a 12-yard touchdown run, and his Bears are up seven to zero.
So, so far, it's all gravy, baby. for Chicago. As far as Minnesota goes, don't you know? JJ McCarthy has thrown the ball one time through the first quarter. He is.
He completed the pass. That's good. He's one for one for five yards.
So We don't really know anything about him yet. Caleb Williams? Ben Johnson, the experiment through one quarter, looking pretty good. This portion of the show is brought to you by Wesley Financial. Are you stuck on a timeshare and one out?
Contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free Timeshared Exit Information Kit. At Wesley Financial Group. Dot com. I'm a sports machine, Sean Levine, with my guy Ryan, spinning the wheels. The number's 888.
710 for ISN. As long as the Bears and the Vikings don't have to use a kicker. They should be good because it was not a great weekend for kickers in the NFL.
Now, I get it. They moved back the extra point a couple of years ago, so it's not what it used to be. And actually, it's kind of funny they didn't do that before. It used to be like a 97% clip, I think. Extra points were made in the NFL.
And now it's still something in the high 80s, but. It's not a gimme, at least it's somewhat of a play, opposed to like, let's just go to commercial and tack that point on. And while we're talking about kicking, I actually like the new. Kickoff rule. It seems to be working in the NFL where something like 70% of kickoffs have actually gotten returned so far this year.
But man, like, I don't understand. How NFL kickers miss extra points. Even though I just said I know they moved it back and they got to deal with weather, you've got one job. You're an adult. You're a grown-ass man that's entire job during the week.
Why everybody else is getting hit? Maybe they're wearing pads. Maybe they're not. They got to learn the plays. There's a lot of mental gymnastics and physical, and you're running the hills and all that.
The entire time as a kicker, all you're doing. All you're doing is swinging your leg. At practice, I would assume in the backyard, you're a kicker. I wanna know what your job is. I'm a radio host.
So, I got to get interviews. I got to line up stuff with my guy Ryan. We got to get some sound. I got to get clever. I got to make up these funny segments.
You know what I'm saying? I got to relate to the callers. There's just a lot of stuff going on. If you're a lawyer, you know, it's not an easy job. A doctor, a teacher, a garbage man, whatever you do, you've got a lot of stuff.
A kicker has one job. It's the kick of football. That's it. You just kick a football.
So, I'm not going to hold against you if you miss a 50-yard field goal, and they're running you on last second with no timeouts. Pressure at the end of the game. But if you're the What was our guy's name for the Browns that missed an extra point in a gimme field goal? If you're that guy, Yeah. How are you missing extra points?
That's unacceptable. Truly. And then Matt Prater comes out there. You look like he's somebody's great-grandfather. He's only been in Buffalo for five minutes.
I know it was a chip shot, but also everybody's watching National Stage Sunday Night Football for the Super Bowl favorites against Baltimore, one of the greatest comebacks we've ever seen. It'd be pretty easy to choke that one off. And his old ass kicked it right through the uprights. I don't get it, man. Kickers We're still part of the team.
No, you're not. Unless you win. 888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Give me some beats. Let's get rid of one.
We got a few minutes left. You know, we do this, Ryan. You get four choices, you got to get rid of one. Aaron Rodgers. Bread Fav By the way, Aaron Rodgers is now two touchdowns behind Brett Farr for career touchdown passes.
not to sway your opinion. John Elway Drew breathed. Get rid of one. Brett Farf. Just way too many turnovers compared to everybody else.
And there's just more winning. I I'd say more success. in their career than Bread Far.
So Breeze Breeze is just a lovable character. You know what I'm saying? San Diego, when they installed a football team, passed up on him. He goes to New Orleans. Katrina happens.
Just becomes like one with that city. There's probably some people listening right now that are like, what? Drew Brees didn't play his whole career with the Saints? No, no, he started with the Chargers. But if you look at his all-time numbers, what he did for that city, winning the Super Bowl, he ain't going anywhere.
John Elliott won two Super Bowls at the end.
So I already thought he was one of the top five best quarterbacks of all time throughout his career. And then he cashed in with two at the end. This one's for John.
So he's not going anywhere. And if I just said that Aaron Rodgers is about to surpass Brett Favre when they both got one ring, Yeah, I think I'm going with Farv too. Doctors, get rid of one. Dr. Dre, Dr.
J, Dr. Phil, Dr. Pepper. Doctor Pepper. What?
I'm not a fan of Dr. Pepper. What? I thought we were friends, bro. I know Dr.
Pepper is by far. A top two. Top three soda for most people, but I'm just not a fan of it. Are you not a soda guy? Are you not a Dr.
Pepper guy? No, I'm just not a Dr. Pepper guy. Just never drank it as a kid. Never Got into it.
First team, all weirdo, right? I've never, if you're just anti-soda, well, then I understand. How do you feel about Mr. Pibb, the weird cousin of Dr. Pebb?
I've never even known that existed. You've never read a lot of the normal. A pib extra? Nope, never had it. Never had a a root beer.
Have you ever read the knockoff version of a Dr. Pepper, known as a Dr. Thunder? I've heard of it. I've seen it.
Never tried it. I grew up with Doctor Thunder because my parents, we weren't poor. We were just cheap. My parents were.
So it was all knockoff foods. It was Doctor Thunder soda. It was White Lightning, which was, I think, Sprite. It might have been the Knockoff Mountain Dew, actually. And there was like, instead of Cheerios, we had like Gurganios or something like that.
Yeah, it wasn't good. Um, get rid of one. Aaron Judge. A rod Mariana Rivera Derek Jeetah Jeeter. I'm assuming we're going based off of just Yankees legends.
You gotta get rid of A-Rod just because he didn't spend his whole. Tenure. Oh, you weaseled out of it. No, because when you look at it, too, he got caught with the steroids, he had a bad fallout leaving. There's a whole lot against A-Rod.
Where you can you can Pick him over the other three. What about the fact that A-Rod, correct me if I'm wrong, he did cash in that one time and won a World Series as a Yankee. He did. He does have a World Series with them. It's just.
And Moe's got a bunch, and Jeter's got. Even more than all these guys. Correct me if I'm wrong, Aaron Judge is still looking for a ring. Yeah, no, but the MVPs make up for it.
Okay. I like the rationale. I like this guy. He's not bad. Um Chiefs?
Lions, Commanders, Packers. Get rid of one. I gotta go with the Lions. I just I've not seen anything good coming out of Lyons Can't they I feel like they're overpaying. Players that don't deserve it.
I don't think Jameson Williams deserved that contract. He just was a big deal. What did he get, like three for 80 something? It was close to like 30 million per year. I think it's like 27.
Perfect. Which is just absurd for a player his caliber. To me, I don't think he's that good. And on top of that, you didn't resign Aiden Hutchinson, you lost Ben Johnson, you lost Aaron Glenn, and the offensive members of that staff and Ben Johnson, and Jared Goff's only getting older. They think they missed their chance.
I wonder how much of what we saw was missing the coordinators versus just one game or making a big deal out of it. It's just the one game was a division opponent on the road that just got Micah Parsons, so there was already a lot of attention on it. And there were a lot of people, Ryan, like me, that were saying before the Micah Parsons deal that I think Green Bay was the team to beat in the North. And now they just went out there and, in my opinion, proved it. I you know I'm gonna get rid of my Chiefs.
DC won, but we don't really know if they are in 2025 yet because they beat the Giants and nothing against the Giants, but they put Russell Wilson out there, and somehow they're going to do it again. And Green Bay was just awesome. I think. Man, I feel bad getting rid of the Lions because they've already lost half the games they lost the entire year last season, where they went 15-2 and had the buy, and it didn't work out well for them. Ultimately, 15.
Philly end up. Getting out of the NSC and winning the Super Bowl, but we're talking about a team that's. 15-2, and now 0-1. You got to get rid of the Lions. New York Rappers, get rid of one.
We know Biggie's the goat. D M X Nas Jay-Z. Fifty cent. For going music? I listen to the least amount of 50 cent.
If we're if we're going based off that. If we're going off. icons, you'd probably have to say DMX. Even though he's an icon, too. That's probably the toughest one so far.
Well, yeah, because DMX, you got the snake, the rat, the cat, the dog. I mean, Nas put out Maybe the best rap album of all time. Certainly top five. Hova, Jay-Z. You're not a big fittie guy.
No in the club? No, many, many, many men? I like those. I like those, but I know, but like, I was in the club, I played so much as a kid for like birthdays. Because it was awesome.
Oh, I know. It kind of, you know, and I'm like, oh, that's the in the club. Play it on your way home and then text me and tell me it's not still a banger. It is. Can you do that?
I will. I think it's still good. You know it is. One more. Then we'll get out of here.
And then three hours are already in the book. Wow. Um Allen's Josh Allen. Ray Allen. Alan Iverson.
My grandpa, Alan Levine.
Now, before you answer that, you're like, I don't know anything about your grandpa, I talked about him earlier. We did the math. He said that he smoked eight cigars a day from the time that he was 17 years old, and he lived to be 89, Ryan.
So, by my math. He smoked like 918,500 cigars, which is pretty impressive.
So now you know about Alan Levine, get rid of one. Josh Allen, Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, or my grandpa. Ray Allen. Just because he's not in the media anymore. I feel like he's going.
Yeah, your Grandpa Allen. Ooh, that's a lucky. I appreciate that. That's Hall of Fame worthy. Thank you.
I appreciate that. Rest in peace, Paul. His house was awesome, but he smoked so many cigars in it that. They literally had to they kept the framework They just had to knock down all of the walls inside and redo the ceiling and get rid of the carpets because it was stained with like the thickest, grossest yellow you could ever imagine.
Something tells me if you step in there, even though they spent like a million dollars on renovation. You can still smell the cigar smoke on a good day. If you give it a. Real good smell. Sit in that living room where Paul was.
Something tells me you could smell that. And he smoked these cheap, nasty Don Mateo cigars. Goodness. Three hours down. One more coming up.
We'll get you updated. Vikings on the board. Touchdown, feel goal? I'll tell you next. You know how everything's a subscription now?
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