GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND.
1) It is FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Heat future power rank, NFL Pix 'n Fantasy, Ndamukong Suh, Dolphins 50th team, Florida Sports Hall of Fame, latest SOPY rankings & more. 2) Follow us on Twitter @gregcote. Also on Facebook, Instagram, Vine and Periscope.
Happy birthday to us!: Light the candles because our Random Evidence blog turns 10 this week. We were christened as the Miami Herald first's online blog at this time in 2005 and, thanks to you, we're still going strong as the only MiamiHerald.com sports blog that covers local teams, national issues and also delves outside sports -- always with an eye on humor. Thanks for joining us on the ride!
"Welcome, Pope Francis, to America. We're still on for lunch today, right?" --Greg Cote
UPSET BIRD DAY/NFL WEEK 3: Licking wounds from a tough Week 2 (we had a 7-9 record overall, 8-8 
vs. the spread), we barrel on undeterred in our 25th Anniversary season of Friday Page NFL predictions. Week 3 got off to a strong start last night as we correctly had Giants winning and covering. Click on Week 3 Gems for all our latest NFL picks and full prediction capsules. Highlights: Dolphins are upset losers at home to Buffalo (sorry), and Cowboys stay unbeaten despite no Tony Romo. Also click on Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood for my accompanying Friday Page column. I write how about Aaron Rodgers' greatness overall reaches another level altogether at home.
CHAD "OCHOCINCO" JOHNSON IS DOING RETIREMENT RIGHT: I enjoyed writing today's column catching up with retired receiver Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson, the Miami-raised eccentric who last played in the 
NFL in 2011 and got his last shot in '12 training camp with Miami. He's one of a kind. Plays in a local men's soccer league. Shows up at strangers' houses challenging to play them in video soccer. He has 3.6 million Twitter followers and is blurring the line between celebrity and regular folks, making them one. He collects adventures and is having way too much fun to miss football. Click on Ocho to read the column in full. There are some great photos of Chad playing soccer in West Kendall by Gaston De Cardenas accompanying the column, including the one shown. Because Johnson is such a character, you forget what a great player he was. Great enough that, when he becomes Hall of Fame eligible next year, he should get a serious consideration. I certainly don't see him as a first-ballot guy and probably would bet he won't ever get into Canton, but check out the career comparison between Johnson and Michael Irvin, who is in Canton. Except that Irvin played for a more glamorous teams and has Super Bowl rings, they're close to the same. Food for thought:
Years Catches Yards TDs Pro Bowls
Irvin 12 750 11,904 65 5
Johnson 11 766 11,059 67 6
PANTHERS' JAGR HANDLES BLACKMAIL THREAT WITH SPLENDID NONCHALANCE: The Florida Panthers and ageless 43-year-old star Jaromir Jagr are in their preseason, and this happened to Jagr very recently. It's a bad-turned-great story on many levels. Essentially, in a blackmail attempt, somebody said to Jaromir, "We have compromising photos!!" And his response was to pretty much yawn and say, "Yeah? So?" An 18-year-old Czech model allegedly/reportedly tried to extort $2,000 from Jagr to stop her from releasing a photo of the two of them in bed following a recent go-round, according to the Czech tabloid Blesk. Jagr declined to pay, obviously not bothered by the photo (which I show here). Blesk identified the model as "Catherine from Moravia." She has since been identified elsewhere as Katka Provaznikova. In any case why would Jagr be bothered by this photo? He's single and he's famously active socially (shall we say), sort of a Derek Jeter on skates. What this model thought would bring him shame and embarrassment is far more likely to bring him high-fives from envious Panthers teammates and admiring NHL rivals.
REVISITING BULLYGATE: As 2013 Dolphins Bullygate central figure Richie Incognito returns to Miami this week as a Buffalo Bill, former Fins offensive line coach Jim Turner -- fired as a result of the scandal -- is in court with a lawsuit against Ted Wells, the NFL lawyer whose report Turner says made him a scapegoat and defamed him. Read this week's Daily Business Review update on the case here.
WEIGHING THE FISH (150 GAMES): We throw an occasional bell 'n whistle into the blog, and this year we debuted a new Miami Marlins feature. "Weighing The Fish" -- WTF! -- is a once-every-10-games (or so) cumulative ranking of every Marlins batter who is averaging at least one at-bat per game. Ten qualify for our latest ranking. WTF factors six offensive categories, serving as an ongoing de facto team MVP race -- a race Stanton once led comfortably before his extended injury absence. The numbers below might not mean much by themselves, but, relative to each other, it gives an idea who is having the most impactful overall season or is hot/cold. Here's the WTF after 150 games (actually 152, at 65-87):
Rank Player WTF# @140
1 Dee Gordon 505.9 1
2 Martin Prado 374.3 4
3 Adeiny Hechevarria 366.5 2
4 Christian Yelich 363.2 5
5 Giancarlo Stanton 362.5 3
6 Justin Bour 345.2 7
7 Jacob Realmuto 339.8 6
8 Marcell Ozuna 316.7 8
9 Ichiro Suzuki 253.1 9
10 Derek Dietrich 228.9 10
Note: Season WTFs leader-count is now Stanton 9, Gordon 5.
Join us on Twitter @gregcote and revisit the blog frequently because we constantly update and add to our latest posts...
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