1) It's MONDAY, MAY 18. I'm pleased to be hosting this year's Miami Herald All-County Athletic Awards, an annual tradition since 1957 -- but virtual this time because of the pandemic. Mark it: We'll honor Miami-Dade & Broward's best in prep sports on Wednesday May 27 at 6 p.m. on our Facebook & YouTube pages. 2) Our Greg Cote Show podcast is now separately on Twitter and Instagram. Follow us on both! 3) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Anticipation is gift Tua has given Dolfans, NBA and MLB plot returns but sports have never seemed more trivial, Greg Cote Show's all-Don Shula podcast & our Shula tribute columns & more. 4) Join us on Twitter.com/gregcote and Instagram.
GREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: NEW EPISODE 12 OUT NOW!: Our new(ish) Miami Herald podcast, "The Greg Cote Show With Greg Cote," debuted in early March and the new Episode 12 is out now! Find a new episode out every Monday morning on Apple and Google Podcasts as well as on Spotify, iHeart, iTunes, Megaphone, Stitcher or wherever you do your podding, and of course at MiamiHerald.com. Find all 12 episodes we've done so far right here. Please listen, subscribe, rate and review! Episode 11 was a special hour-long, all-star tribute to Don Shula. Now in Episode 12 m wife in her first interview reveals embarrassing things about me and we make fun of Le Batard for a gross noise he made while talking about Don Shula. Also, ex-Marlins president David Samson joins us. Find every podcast we've done including the new one HERE.
My Shula tribute columns: DON SHULA, 1930-2020, R.I.P. and WHAT SHULA MEANT TO A FATHER & SON. THE BOY WAS ME
Most recent other columns: As NBA, MLB Plot Return, We Miss Them -- Yet Sports Have Never Seemed More Trivial and Anticipation of Relevance, Excitement Is Tua's Gift to Miami
HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (MAY 17-18): 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. NFL: Teams may reopen facilities Tuesday but with major restrictions: NFL teams can begin reopening their facilities this Tuesday but with coaches and non-rehabbing players still not permitted. Teams must meet protocols and have permission under state and local regulations. Employees allowed back into facilities would include no more than 50 percent of non-player staff, up to a total of 75 per day. Meantime the NFL extended its virtual offseason workouts another two weeks, through the end of May.
2. DON SHULA: Dolphins detail first public event honoring late coach: Fans may pay tribute to Shula, who passed away May 4 at age 90, later this week in the team's first public event honoring the coach. Fans may form a procession line -- with social distancing -- past the statue of Shula outside Hard Rock Stadium this Friday from 2 to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 to 4. Fans may enter through Gate 5. Due to current COVID-19 restrictions fans are asked to not bring items to the statue.
3. MLB: Player salaries a sticking point as baseball plots return: MLB plans to resume spring training in June and eyes a July 4 (or thereabouts) start to its season, in home stadiums where allowed by local regulations, but with no fans. However, Tampa Bay ace Blake Snell emphatically said he won't play with a pay cut for a shortened schedule, and others including Bryce Harper support that stand.
4. NASCAR: Harvick wins as racing resumes, sans spectators: NASCAR was back Sunday with a no-fans race at Darlington, and Kevin Harvick took the checkered flag in the sport's first race since March 8. It was the first of seven races in 10 days, all at Darlington or Charlotte. Noise will be back at fan-less Homestead-Miami Speedway as well on June 13-14, culminating with the Dixie Vodka 400.
5. NBA: Basketball toying with two-city return plan: No timetable is set but the NBA is considering a no-fans resumption in what commish Adam Silver calls a "campus environment" with all games at two locations. Focus continues to be on Orlando's Disney World Resort and on Las Vegas.
6. FOX SPORTS: One network's bizarre plan if games have no fans: Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck said NFL broadcasts on his network will use recordings of crowd noise and fake images of fans in the stands if the league’s games are barred from having real fans attend. Yeah that'll really fool viewers! How about they throw in a '60s sitcom-style laughtrack as well!
7. GOLF: Details set for Tiger-Phil charity match: It'll be Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning vs. Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady next Sunday in "The Match: Champions for Charity." TBS and TNT will televise the 3 p.m. no-fans event from Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla., 100 miles north of Miami. On Sunday, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson defeated Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in a charity skins game, leading analysts to wonder, "Who on earth is Matthew Wolff?"
8. CORONAVIRUS: The updated South Florida Games-Lost Tracker: The SFGLT updates you each week on how many local pro sports games have been lost to the coronavirus shutdown. Through today/Monday -- 90-plus games lost: Marlins have missed first 48 games of regular season. Heat missed last 17 games of season and at least two first-round playoff games based on NBA standings when season stopped. Panthers missed last 13 games but would not have made playoffs based on NHL standings at time of stoppage. Inter Miami, after playing first two games of season, has missed last 10.
9. NFL: Rewards coming for teams who make minority hires?: The NFL is considering "improved draft slots" for teams that hire minorities as head coach or primary football executive. Too bad it isn't retroactive. Dolphins would hit the quiniela with coach Brian Flores and GM Chris Grier.
10. INTER MIAMI: MLS plans to return in June: Major League Soccer's plan to return would have all 26 teams including expansion Inter Miami begin training June 1 at Orlando's ESPN Wide Wodl of Sports complex, followed three or four weeks later by a summer tournament with all matches sans fans.
Missing the HB10 cut: Zion Williamson's ex-agent says he received improper benefits before his one-and-done career at Duke. And the people utterly shocked by that will be convening over there in that phone booth in violation of social distancing edicts ..... The World Baseball Classic, which was to have included games at Marlins Park, will not be played in 2021 and may not return until '23 ..... The people running the Kobe Bryant-affiliated Mamba Sports Academy have dropped "Mamba" from the name, and ex-Heat star Dwyane Wade called that "quite disrespectful." Right on, D-Wade! ..... Um, anybody want a slightly used Cam Newton? ..... The Bundesliga (German soccer) became first European sport to resume, albeit with no fans ..... English Premier League resumes training June 1 but henceforth no tackling will be permitted in matches ..... Arrest warrants were issued by for Giants cornerback DeAndre Baker and Seahawks CB Quinton Dunbar (both from Miami) in connection to an armed robbery at a party in Miramar. Sure, because NFL players don't make enough money? Lawyers for both claim their clients' innocence ..... OK, I'm officially getting tired of that Michael Jordan documentary series ..... Tualia Tagovailoa (Tua's brother), rumored transferring to the Miami Hurricanes, took the portal to Maryland instead ..... Aaron Rodgers says retiring a Packer "may not be a reality" after team drafted eventual replacement Jordan Love ..... As NHL remains in limbo, American Hockey League canceled rest of its season ..... ATP and WTA canceled all tennis events through July ..... Mike Tyson planning a comeback at 53? Oh lawd ..... MLB plans a virtual/remote and shortened draft on June 10-11 ..... PGA Tour will resume mid-June in Texas, with no fans ..... The Greg Cote Show podcast is out with Episode 12 Monday ..... Update: Countdown now 2,233 days (give or take) until Miami hosts its first match in soccer's 2026 World Cup. Hopefully we'll all be out of our masks by then?
Featured most recent other columns:
Hall of Famer Andre Dawson On Baseball and Owning a Funeral Home Amid COVID-19
Miami Sports Right Now If Coronavirus Never Happened and Games Never Stopped
Dolphins Are Winning Rebuild With 3-Year Plan That Won't Rush Top-Prize Tua
Also: Dolphins Aim High, Win Big With Tua Tagovailoa Pick / Greg Cote's 2020 NFL Mock Draft / Hackers, Barking Dogs, Crazy Pressure: Why Virtual NFL Draft Is Biggest Ever For Dolphins / Coronavirus, Tua Make This Dolphins' Weirdest, Most Interesting Draft Ever / Amid a Pandemic, to Florida, Pro Wrestling is 'Essential' / A Pie Chart of QB Possibilities For Dolphins / Baseball's Bizarre Restart Plan Would Be Unfair to Players / and NFL Draft Will Offer Blunt Verdict on Canes' Talent
Other featured recent columns: 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 No-Fans Florida Derby / Time for NBA, NHL to Shut it Down, End Seasons / Le Batard Show Deals with Coronavirus-Related Upheaval / 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.
Select other columns from earlier in 2020: Inter Miami Is Market's Sleeping Giant As Home Opener Nears / Jeter Arrives At Camp, Calls Marlins 'Layered With Talent' / Dwyane Wade, His Transgender Daughter And A Lesson In Love / Pressure On Marlins for Big Improvement Now -- and It's About Time / 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 / 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
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Revisit this blog often because it is updated regularly. The Associated Press Sports Editors writing awards ranked the blog's author a Top 10 national sports columnist in the major-outlet category in 2018. Greg is also a regular co-host on the Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz on ESPN Radio. Finding Greg Cote: Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Columns. Podcast. Podcast on Twitter. Podcast on Instagram. LeBatard Show. Book: Fins At 50. Songs: Letting Go and The Ballad Of 1440.
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