1) It's MONDAY, JUNE 1. Welcome June! Please be better than May. 2) I was pleased to be host last week's Miami Herald All-County Athletic Awards, an annual tradition since 1957 -- but virtual this time because of the pandemic. Watch on the Herald's Facebook & YouTube pages. 3) Our Greg Cote Show podcast is now separately on Twitter and Instagram. Follow us on both! 4) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): George Floyd is why Kaepernick happened, MLB players holding out for more money not a good look right now, outrage in Alamance County, Greg Cote Show podcast Episode 13, our Shula tribute columns & more. 5) Join us on Twitter.com/gregcote and Instagram.
GREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: NEW EPISODE 14 OUT NOW!: Our new(ish) Miami Herald podcast, "The Greg Cote Show With Greg Cote," debuted in early March and Episode 14 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 14 episodes we've done so far right here. Please listen, subscribe, rate and review! In new Episode 14 we welcome in as guests a pair of Miami legends -- O.G. rapper Luther (Uncle Luke) Campbell and Zoo Miami's Ron Magill. Hear Luke discuss the killing of George Floyd and Canes football, and hear Magill and I escalate our Duck War. That and a lot more in the new Ep14! Find every podcast we've done so far HERE.
My Shula tribute columns: DON SHULA, 1930-2020, R.I.P. and WHAT SHULA MEANT TO A FATHER & SON. THE BOY WAS ME
Featured most recent other columns: George Floyd Is Why Kaepernick & Sports Must Continue Fight For Social Justice / MLB Players Demanding More Millions, Right Now, Is A Bad Look / and Amid a Pandemic, An Outrage in Alamance County.
HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (MAY 31-JUNE 1): 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. GEORGE FLOYD: Sports stars join outrage over Minneapolis killing: George Floyd, a black man unarmed and handcuffed in police custody, died when a white officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes. He was charged with third-degree murder. Athletes including LeBron James condemned the killing that has sparked protests across the country, some turning violent. In Atlanta, Martin Luther King's city, the College Football Hall of Fame was vandalized and looted. Trust that Dr. King would be leading the outcry but condemning the violence.
22. MLB: Negotiations for restart enter crucial week: Owners want players to take a pay cut beyond pro-rated salaries based on number of games. Players say no way. Owners will have a counter-proposal this week. Hey, just get it done, baseball. Rich men haggling over money and players holding out for more millions -- in the midst of a pandemic, economic woes and record unemployment -- is not a good look, fellas.
3. PANTHERS: It'll be Cats-Islanders as NHL details resumption plans: The NHL will abandon the rest of its regular season and go straight into the playoffs when/if it plays again in 2020, with 24 teams including Florida qualifying and competing in two as-yet-undetermined hub cities likely starting in late July or August. Panthers-Islanders would be among first-round matchups, although the league and players still must agree on health/safety protocols. Meanwhile MLB, the NBA and MLS have not yet been as definitive as hockey on a restart plan.
4. DOLPHINS: Hard Rock Stadium as a drive-in theater?: The Dolphins later this year plan to invite fans to drive their cars inside the football stadium for a pandemic-friendly drive-in theater experience featuring notable games in team history, classic movies, commencement ceremonies, concerts and more. Up to 230 cars will fit. Initial reaction? Ridiculous. Upon further consideration? Brilliant!
5. NFL: Owners vote down onside kick alternative: In a virtual owners meeting the NFL said nay to a proposal that would have presented a 4th-and-15 option to an onside kick. We predicted the no vote in calling the idea "too XFL-y." (Love it when I quote myself!)
6. CORONAVIRUS: The updated South Florida Games-Lost Tracker: The SFGLT updates you each week on how many major local pro sports games have been lost to the coronavirus shutdown. Through today/Sunday -- 103-plus games lost: Marlins have missed first 60 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 13.
7. AUTO RACING: The shame of Alamance County in North Carolina: Ace Speedway in Alamance County, North Carolina has opened to full crowds of up to 4,000 fans, with no social distancing and few protective masks. The track's owner, the local sheriff and those fans have been condemned by the state's governor and others for violating pandemic guidelines. The track should be shut down and the sheriff fired.
8. RUNNING: Boston Marathon canceled for first time: America's most famous marathon, previously postponed from April to September, has now been canceled for the first time in its 124-year history. Well, canceled for 2020 as a mass-gathering event. The 26.2-mile footrace still will be held as a virtual event in September.
9. SOCCER: NWSL will be first U.S.league to return: The National Women’s Soccer League said it will play a 25-game tournament beginning June 27 in Salt Lake City, becoming the first U.S. league in a team sport to resume play.
10. GOLF: Phil wants to continue 'The Match' charity event: Tiger 'n Peyton win charity match: It raised big money for hunger relief and did big TV ratings when Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning beat Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in a recent charity march. Now Phil wants to make it annual, citing Steph Curry and Michael Jordan as possible future guest.
Missing the HB10 cut: Actual headline as more random evidence we're still in a no-sports pandemic: 'ESPN hosting all-star Peleton ride.' Yes because we all hunger to watch B-list celebs in their homes, sweating on an exercise bike ..... The Basketball Tournament, an annual event with former college stars and overseas stars competing in a 24-team, single-elimination format, will go on this July on a single "quarantined campus" at one undetermined site ..... Hey anybody want Cam Newton? No, huh? ..... NASCAR is running again, sans fans, and Homestead-Miami Speedway prepares to host the Dixie Vodka 400 on June 14. Car race sponsored by a vodka. Hmm, yeah that makes sense ..... Broward College mulls dropping all eight of its collegiate sports teams ..... xxxxx ..... The Greg Cote Show podcast is out with new Episode 14 on Monday ..... Update: Countdown now 2,219 days (give or take) until Miami hosts its first match in soccer's 2026 World Cup. Hopefully we'll not still be standing eight feet apart by then.
Other recent columns: How Can A Man 6-7 Seem So Small? That's Pierce On LeBron / No Controversy Here. Dolphins Have Ideal QB Situation / Welcome to Sports Without Fans, the New Normal / As NBA, MLB Plot Return, We Miss Them -- Yet Sports Have Never Seemed More Trivial / Anticipation of Relevance, Excitement Is Tua's Gift to Miami / 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 / and 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 / 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 / NFL Draft Will Offer Blunt Verdict on Canes' Talent / 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? / 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 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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