1) It's THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19. Check out our 'Fins At 50' book at Amazon. 2) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Laughingstock Dolphins worst team ever?, NFL Week 2 Pix 'n Fantasy results, my weekend in New York City & more. 3) Join us on Twitter.com/gregcote. Also on Facebook and Instagram.
Herald Week 2 NFL QB Rankings: There's a new overall No. 1 for the season. Who it is should surprise nobody. Visit Herald Week 2 NFL QB Rankings.
NEW! OUR NFL WEEK 3 PICKS ARE IN!: Off our record-setting 2018 season we're back for our 29th year of NFL picks in the Miami Herald, and here are our Week 3 selections. Will the Dolphins cover that gargantuan 21 1/2-point line at Dallas Sunday or get blown out yet again? Find out that, our Game of the Week, our upset picks and all the rest by visiting Week 3 Gems now. Our picks appear online Thursday afternoons every week, and Fridays in print. (Our Thursday Night Football pick appears Wednesdays online and Thursdays in print. Visit Week 3 Thursday Gem for tonight's Titans-Jaguars pick). We are inexplicably coming off our best season ever, with a .705 winning percentage overall last year and .582 against the point spread. It's been tougher so far in '19, but, early days!
QBS KEEP FALLING, AND NFL'S SHAMEFUL BLACKBALLING OF COLIN KAEPERNICK ENTERS YEAR 3. NEW COLUMN: The NFL has never tried harder to baby its precious quarterbacks with legislated protection. Even the sack itself is now penalized unless it is sort of paradoxically gentle, with the defender not permitted to land with his full weight upon the poor QB, the wide-eyed fawn trying to survive the mean jungle. Yet we have just set out on what already is a calamitous season for the most fragile, important position. Andrew Luck abruptly retires from the collective weight of too many injuries. Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger is injured Sunday and out for the season. New Orleans’ Drew Brees is hurt the same day and out at least six weeks. Would-be Jacksonville savior Nick Foles is injured in the season opener and done until at least November. Aging Eli Manning is benched by the Giants. The Jets’ Sam Darnold (in the most Jets thing ever) is lost indefinitely with mononucleosis. Now Carolina’s Cam Newton seems injured. Again. The increasing reality is that teams need two quality quarterbacks, not just one. And yet Colin Kaepernick cannot find a job. Darnold’s replacement, Trevor Siemian, also gets injured and is lost for the year, so the Jets are down to third-stringer Luke Falk. The Miami Dolphins can’t decide who’s the least bad between Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen. The Eagles backup is the relentlessly recycled Josh McCown. The Jaguars are now starting somebody named "Gardner Minshew." And, still, Kaepernick can’t get a job. This the intro to my latest column. This story is a continuing shame more relevant than ever this early season, and the NFL should not be let off the hook. For the full column, visit Turning Its Back on Kaepernick Enters Year 3 As NFL's Ongoing Shame.
Other most recent work: Worst Miami Team Ever? Epic Losing Already Making Dolphins A National Joke / Also: Quit Whining! Yes Dolphins Are Tanking, And Yes They Should / It's Up to Today's Dolphins to Defend Shula's Legacy / and The Dolphins aren't awful. They're worse than that (game column from opening loss).
Other select recent columns: Trading Tunsil Hurts, But Dolphins Won This Deal / Who's Super Bowl-Bound And Where Dolphins Land (NFL Team Rankings) / Luck Deserves Praise For Putting Health, Life Above Football / Hurricanes Have Only Themselves To Blame For Opening Loss / Dolphins' Ross Cannot Be Surprised By Major Fallout Over Trump Fundraiser / Le Batard on Miami Radio Turmoil: 'We Were Evicted' / Buoniconti: Hall of Famer, But Even Greater Off the Field / The 4 Ways Miami Heat Had A Winning Offseason / Wimbledon, Tiger, U.S. Women For Starters. Why 2019 Is Greatest Sports Year Ever / Queens of the World. U.S. Soccer Wins Again / Bold Moves To Get Jimmy Butler Make Heat -- And Pat Riley -- Relevant Again / New-look Panthers: Lots Of Hope, Zero Excuses Left / It Is Megan Rapinoe's World Cup -- On And Off The Field / An Era Ends As Panthers' Luongo Retires / Drip Or Swag, Herro Brings It, And Heat Need It / O.J. Can Tweet What He Wants, But How He's Seen Is Not Up To Him / Ranking Dolphins, Heat, Marlins & Panthers' Best Young Players / Inter Miami Aiming High With Barca's Suarez / End The Illogical Shame and Honor Schnellenberger / Oh To Be Hated Again! Lean Times For Miami Sports / Why Tiger's Masters Triumph Is About More Than Golf / Transgender-Athlete Firestorm A Necessary Debate / Across the Rio Grande to the PGA Tour / From Dark and Empty to Top Of the World: Dan Le Batard at 50 / And, our Dwyane Wade Farewell Trilogy: The Last Star: Post-Wade, Miami Sports Is Bereft; Wade Fittingly Goes Out A Winner And 30-point Star; and Thank You, Dwyane Wade, Miami's G.O.A.T.
APSE-HONORED WORK: The Associated Press Sports Editors 2018 writing awards ranked us a Top 10 national sports columnist in the major-outlet category. Thanks, APSE. Here are the five nominated columns that earned the honor: At Doral, an annual tradition since 1962 is replaced by silence, and by what's missing / Marlins' Jose Fernandez statue is divisive yet has a chance to serve a greater purpose /NFL has moral obligation to help Buonicontis and Kiicks while it limits future suffering / What led to El Clasico Miami began with Joe Robbie's unlikely, accidental love of soccer / With 59 home runs, Stanton still had a magic season. Just hope this wasn't goodbye.
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Twitter @gregcote
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