1) It's MONDAY, APRIL 6. Hang in, stay apart and eventually we rise together! 2) Our new Greg Cote Show podcast is now separately on Twitter and Instagram! Follow the show on both platforms at TheGregCoteShow. 3) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): NFL Draft and Tiger 'n Phil golfing a bad look right n0ow, fight boredom with our sports trivia challenge, time for sports to face reality, new Back In My Day & more. 4) Join us on Twitter.com/gregcote. Also on Facebook and Instagram.
GREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: EPISODE 6 OUT NOW!: Our new Miami Herald podcast, "The Greg Cote Show With Greg Cote," debuted in early March and the new Episode 6 is out now! You can find a new Greg Cote Show out every Monday on Apple, Spotify or wherever you do your podding, and of course at MiamiHerald.com. Find all six episodes we've done so far right here. Please listen, subscribe, rate and review! Our podcast is a variety show, sports and non-sports, 3-0-5 and national, fun and (when necessary) serious. In Episode 6 we endure mockery in a new edition of "Greg Doesn't Watch Movies," and chat up Hurricanes AD Blake James about coronavirus, football, Manny Diaz and expectations: "We need to win the Coastal every single year." Check it out now HERE!
HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (APRIL 5-6): WHAT SOUTH FLORIDA SPORTS FANS ARE TALKING ABOUT: Our blog-exclusive Sunday-into-Monday feature is part week-in-review, part look-ahead. Hot Button means what's on our minds, locally and nationally, from a Miami perspective, as the (non)sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. This week's HB10:
1. CORONAVIRUS: Sports continues its awkward navigation through a pandemic: Donald Trump had a conference call with top league commissioners to discuss when sports might resume but could give no definitive answer. With U.S. leagues trying to figure out when or if to resume, after shutting down and postponing seasons en masse last March 11-12, we are coming up on one month of having to stay at home with no live games to watch. Hey, the COVID-19's rising death toll has surpassed 65,000 worldwide and 8,000 in the U.S. Can we please stop complaining about no sports?
2. NFL: This month's draft on as scheduled: Despite most team general managers wanting a postponement, commissioner Roger Goodell says NFL Draft in Las Vegas will go on April 23-25 as planned, albeit remotely, sans fans. Meantime, owners as expected voted to expand the playoffs from 12 to 14 teams beginning in 2021.
3. GOLF: Tiger vs. Phil 2.0 in the works: Tigers Woods and Phil Mickelson dueled in 2018, Phil winning. Another match is in the works and might include Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, all for charity. Hey, here's another idea. The four of you each wrote a big charitable check and stay the [bleep} home!
4. PATRIOTS: Robert Kraft does a very good thing: Kraft's private jetliner flew to China and brought back 1.2 million protective masks to aid in America's coronavirus fight. It's the first time in 20 years I haven't felt like booing the Patriots.
5. ESPN: Long-awaited Jordan documentary will air sooner: ESPN is moving up its 10-part Michael Jordan documentary, "The Last Dance," on the Bull's final championship season of 1997-98. It will now commence April 19 in order to sate a sports-starved nation. So that's where we're at? Eagerly awaiting the story of a season from 22 years ago?
6. NBA: Heat's Jones wins opener in video tourney: The NBA 2K Players Tournament began Friday night on ESPN with the Heat's No. 16-seed Derrick Jones Jr.'s Bucks upsetting the Nets' No. 1 seed Kevin Durant's Lakers, 78-62. So this is also where we're at? Ravenously watching a bunch of sequestered players playing a video game? Now the NBA and ESPN are talking about televising a game of H-O-R-S-E among top players. Gawd.
7. BASKETBALL: Hall of Fame inducts Kobe, eight more: The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inducted nine persons on Saturday -- notably the late Kobe Bryant, along with Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and The Overshadowed Six.
8. TENNIS: Wimbledon erased from 2020 calendar: London's tennis major set for June was not postponed but canceled completely, for the first time since World War II.
9. TOM BRADY: New Bucs' QB finds a famous home in Tampa: Tom Brady is now renting Derek Jeter's mansion in Tampa. Of course he is!
10. GOLF: Will British Open be next to cancel?: Denying reports it would cancel, the British Open said it is weighing options -- meaning it may soon announce it too is canceling. Meantime the U.S. Women's Open postponed until December.
Missing the HB10 cut: The Greg Cote Show podcast, new Episode 6, is out Monday morning! Please listen, subscribe, rate, review and stay home ..... The WNBA has indefinitely pstponed the schedule May 15 start of its 24th season ..... Scripps said it would not hold its annual National Spelling Bee May 24 as planned, leaving a bunch of 13-year-old brainiacs totally c-h-a-g-r-i-n-e-d ..... The men's NCAA Tournament college basketball championship game was to be Monday night, before a pandemic wiped out March Madness ..... WWE's Wrestlemania 36, hosted by Rob Gronkowski, wraps up Sunday in Orlando, with no fans. Why bother? Pay-per-view $$$, of course ..... Major League Soccer is still saying its season will commence May 10. I'll take that bet ..... LSU football coach Ed Orgeron and his wife are divorcing. She gets the house. He gets to keep the gravelly voice ..... The XFL canceled the second half of its inaugural season, and nobody noticed ..... Keep booing the sign-stealing Astros, please. Even while they're staying at home ..... Update: Countdown now 2,275 days (give or take) until Miami hosts its first match in soccer's 2026 World Cup, by which time hopefully we're all out of self-quarantine.
FEATURED RECENT COLUMNS:
NFL Draft, Tiger 'n Phil Not A Good Look Right Now
Ultimate All-Time South Florida Major Sports Trivia Challenge
Sports Should Stop Pretending It Will Resume Anytime Soon As Coronovirus Rages
How a Longtime Herald Sport Writer Came to Own a Top Contender in Saturday's No-Fans Florida Derby
In Midst Of Pandemic, A Horse Race
Time for NBA, NHL to Shut it Down, End Seasons
Backlash Over NBA Coronavirus Testing Mirrors Growing Anxiety, the New National Mood
Le Batard Show Deals with Coronavirus-Related Upheaval
Dolphins' Most Important Rebuilding Is Yet to Come
Brady Leaving Patriots for Tampa. Will Belichick Be Proved Right In Letting Him Go?
Desperate Fans Turn to NFL After Reality Of First Weekend With No Games
Miami Sports Now Utterly Engulfed By Coronavirus Threat -- But Precaution Is Justified
It's Dominate Or Bust For Dolphins GM Grier Over Next 6 Weeks
SONG OF THE DAY: An upbeat, optimistic message at a good time for it, from Brendan Benson's upcoming album, Dear Life:
Select additional recent columns: Repentant Cheater A-Rod Slams Astros With Lesson On How to Handle Their Own Scandal / Inter Miami Is Market's Sleeping Giant As Home Opener Nears / As NFL Free Agency & Draft Near, All You Need To Know About Dolphins' QB Situation / Beckham, Inter Miami Survive To Finally Reach Opening Week / Jeter Arrives At Camp, Calls Marlins 'Layered With Talent' / Dwyane Wade, His Transgender Daughter And A Lesson In Love / Why Marlins Aren't Pursuing Puig All About Change In Ownership / and Pressure On Marlins for Big Improvement Now -- and It's About Time / It's Time For Anonymous Lone Voter Who Denied Jeter To Step Forward / Heat And Gloriously Impatient Riley Win In Trade For Iguodala / Return Of Ed Reed, Even If Mostly Symbolic, Leads Surge By Canes Football / Poor Dolphins Finally Getting Rid Of Brady Only to Have Mahomes Take His Place / Our two-part series: How One Man Long Forgotten Changed Everything For the Miami Dolphins and How Shula Made Dolphins Perfect and Made Miami Matter, And the Coach Today at 90 / Kobe's Death Sends Sports World Reeling, But Immortality Is His / Jimmy Johnson's Biggest Triumph? Knowing When To Quit -- And Why / and Announcing Miami Dolphins' 2010-19 All-Decade Team.
Visit Greg Cote Column Headquarters, and revisit this blog often because it updates regularly. The Associated Press Sports Editors 2018 writing awards ranked the blog's author a Top 10 national sports columnist in the major-outlet category. Author of 'Fins At 50,' available on Amazon. Regular co-host on the Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz on ESPN Radio and ESPNews. Follow on Twitter @gregcote; also on Instagram and Facebook.And check and our new The Greg Cote Show With Greg Cote podcast HERE and listen, subscribe, rate and review for free!
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