1) It is SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14. Did you survive yesterday? The superstition and fear of Friday the 13th is sometimes called paraskevidekatriaphobia, and its believers triskaidekaphobes. 2) To the e-mailers asking, I have bunch of back-loaded vacation days I need to use before end of year. That's why I have had fewer columns lately. 3) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Heat quarter-mark poll, Marlins trade, Dear Greg & more. 4) Follow us on Twitter (gregcote), Instagram (Upsetbird), Vine (Greg Cote) and Facebook (Greg Cote).
WINSTON DESERVES BENEFIT OF DOUBT AS HE MUCH AS HE DOES THE HEISMAN: Last night in New York they announced Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston as the landslide Heisman Trophy winner, 
as expected. He deserved it. He is the indispensable catalyst for the No.1 college football team in America. There are plenty who are bemoaning the vote result, though, and trying to apply an asterisk. These are the Moralists. They think that because Winston was investigated in a sexual assualt case -- never charged, let alone never convicted, but investigated -- that he does not merit the holy company of the Heisman. That's bulls---. The presumption of innocence applies here. There are two people on Earth who truly know if Winston is guilty or innoncent or the shades of gray that sometimes exist in between. Those two people do not include you or I.
UPSET BIRD DAY: WEEK 15 NFL PREDIX: DOLPHINS BEAT BRADY, BELICHICK: Patriots at Dolphins, in 
December, with playoffs on the line. Doesn't get much better than this, folks. (Dolfans, y'all better fill that damn stadium!) I like Miami in a home-'dog upset. Pats' luck in overcoming big deficits exposes a flawed team, now weaker with Rob Gronkowski's latest injury. Click on Week 15 Gems for full prediction capsules on the Dolphins and all other games, and on Broncos' Record Pursuit for our Friday Page NFL notes column. (Denver remains on pace to set the NFL scoring record even after last night). My week got off to a split start. I wrongly had Denver winning, but rightly had San Diego with the points.
MANNING BREAKS A MILLION HEARTS: You could almost hear it Thursday night. The air leaving a million deflated fantasy owners as their playoff hopes sank. Peyton Manning, consensus No. 1 scorer in fantasy football this season, managed only 17 points (at least in my league) last night, less than half of what his owners surely hoped.
Poll result: Heat three-peat hopes take a hit, but still buoyant: We asked in the last blogpost, at the quarter-mark of the NBA season, if you thought the Heat would win a third straight championship -- yes or no -- and 68.2 percent said yes. (You may still vote). We'd asked the same question just before the season started and then it was 83.0% yes.
Click back. Will be updating/adding to this latest blogpost...
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