GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND
1) It's MONDAY, JULY 13. Our Greg Cote Show podcast is now separately on Twitter and Instagram. Follow us on both! 2) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Racist Redskins nickname must go, Will football be smarter than other sports?, Rise of Miami sports is good news in tough times, the 2020 face of Miami sports, Greg Cote Show podcast new Episode 19 & more. 3) Join us on Twitter and Instagram.
GREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!: Our Miami Herald podcast, "The Greg Cote Show With Greg Cote," debuted in March and Episode 20 is out now! A new episode is out every Monday morning on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Megaphone, iHeart or wherever you do your podding, and of course at MiamiHerald.com. Find all 20 we've done so far RIGHT HERE. Free! No paywall! Please listen, subscribe, rate and review. In new Episode 20 we chat ESPN's IT wizard Tim Cronin, who shares behind the scenes stories about working with the network's on-air stars, and about his recently being diagnosed with COVID-19. We also throw a pod-y party for our 20th podiversary, including a montage of Greg's greatest throat clears, and bring you the controversial Mount Gregore Name Game (the C's). Oh, and we bury the Redskins name. Hear it all now!
Our columns from the past week: 'Redskins Is Racist Nickname Based On a Lie. Time For It to Disappear / Money Or Health? NFL and Major College Football Face A Decision / Tough Times All Around, But Rise Of Miami Sports Offers Hope / and The Face Of Miami Sports in 2020: Our Top 20 And Who's No.1.
HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (JULY 12-13): 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 sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. This week's HB10:
Final South Florida Games-Lost Tracker: The SFGLT has been a weekly update on how many major local pro games have been lost to the coronavirus shutdown between the stoppage of play March 12 and Inter Miami the first to return on July 8. Lost in between: 145-plus games -- Marlins missed first 96 games of regular season. Inter Miami, after playing first two games of season, then missed 19. Heat missed last 17 games of season and at least two first-round playoff games based on standings when season stopped. Panthers missed last 13 games but would not have made playoffs based on NHL standings then.
1. INTER MIAMI: Soccer leads South Florida's return to live sports: It was a 2-1 loss to Orlando City, in the Orlando bubble, eerily before no fans. Still, it was live sports, the first for a Miami team in four months, since the coronavirus/COVID-19 shutdown on March 12. Two of 26 teams withdrew for too many test positives but the MLS Is Back tournament continues with expansion-team Inter Miami (0-3) seeking its inaugural franchise win again Tuesday night back in the bubble vs. the Philadelphia Union.
2. HURRICANES: UM loses game; is college football season in jeopardy?: First the Division 3 Centennial Conference canceled its 2020 season. Then the Ivy League did the same. Now the Big Ten conference announces it will play a reduced, conference-only schedule if it can play at all -- meaning the Miami Hurricanes' Sept. 26 game at Michigan State is canceled. Other major Power 5 leagues have not followed the Big Ten's lead. At least not yet. Meanwhile UM's preparation for the coming season (should there be one) gets underway Monday, when coaches may begin interacting with players. Formal training camp is to begin August 7.
3. NFL: Mahomes lands record contract with KC: The Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes agreed on a record-shattering 10-year contract extension worth between $477 and $503 million, depending on reports and interpretations. It runs though 2031. Can you say "dynasty"?
4. MARLINS: MLB sets schedule for truncated season restart: Unless the whole thing collapses Miami will open its 60-game season July 24 with three three games at Philadelphia, and open at home July 27 vs. Baltimore. (Will some fans be allowed? Will Angels superstar Mike Trout be playing? Stay tuned). Notable: Fish host Red Sox for three in September and close season at Yankees. MLB also announced its full 2021 schedule. All teams open April 1 (no fooling), with Marlins hosting Tampa Bay.
5. HEAT: Riley notably absent as Miami hits the bubble: Pat Riley, 75-year-old club president, notably did not travel with the Heat as it entered the bubble in Orlando for a three-week training camp running through July 29. Twenty-two teams will play eight games to finish the regular season prior to the playoffs, with Miami restarting August 1 vs. Denver.
6. PANTHERS: Florida and rest of NHL open camps Monday: NHL teams including the Panthers opening training camps on Monday in their home cities, then travel to hub cities Edmonton or Toronto starting July 26 to prepare for the season's straight-to-playoffs restart on August 1. Florida will open with a best-of-5 series vs. the New York Islanders in the Toronto hub.
7. REDSKINS: Pressure mounts to erase racist nickname: The money is talking now. "Redskins" doesn't have a chance, Main sponsor FedEx has called for the end of the racist nickname, and retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Target and Dick's Sporting Goods have stopped carrying team merchandise. So Redskins is headed to the same graveyard containing Confederate statues and Aunt Jemima. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the Washington ... Redtails?
8. GOLF: Tiger returns, ends long hiatus this week: Tiger Woods returns to competitive golf at this week’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield in Ohio. This will be Woods’ first start since the PGA Tour returned from a hiatus of more than three months due to the pandemic. The 44-year-old last played a tour event in February.
9. UFC: Miami's Masvidal loses on Fight Island: Dana White's wacky 'Fight Island' series debuted Saturday night with UFC 251 in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates and richest city in the world. And the legend of Miami-born Jorge Masvidal took a hit as he lost a unanimous decision to Kamaru Usman in the main bout.
10. DESEAN JACKSON: Anti-Semite sets out on apology tour: Philadelphia Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson has apologized for a series of anti-Semitic Instagram posts over the weekend, although insisting his posts were misinterpreted weakened the apology. The team has condemned the posts. Meantime, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, who is Jewish, has a production company about to release the documentary, The Meaning of Hitler, which explores our culture’s fascination with Hitler and Nazism against the backdrop of the current rise of white supremacy and normalization of antisemitism. Could be a learning tool for a certain receiver who just volunteered his own ignorance on social media.
Missing the HB10 cut: FREE WOJ! ..... Tom Brady, Floyd Mayweather and Scott Boras are among sports figures whose companies have received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) government loans intended to help small businesses survive the pandemic. Hmm. That would be "Money" Mayweather, who owns more than 100 exotic cars, right? Just checking ..... The WNBA's scheduled July 24 restart in a bubble in Bradenton is going really well, not counting players complaining that their rooms have bugs, rodent traps and showers that don't drain ..... Two semifinals Sunday will determine who reaches The Basketball Tournament championship game Tuesday, with ESPN cameras and a $1 million prize lending the illusion of an actual major event ..... Miami Dolphins still planning to open full training camp on July 28. Wonder what a socially distanced huddle will look like? ..... The Greg Cote Show podcast is out with new Episode 20 on Monday ..... Update: Countdown now 2,178 days (give or take) until Miami hosts its first match in soccer's 2026 World Cup, presuming the world hasn't exploded by then.
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Other most recent columns: Time to Abort Season Restarts and Call Off Sports For Rest Of 2020 / Uh-oh. Cam Newton means Belichick and Patriots Are Back / Saving the National Anthem From Sporting-Event Extinction / Baseball Joins In With Restart Plan. But Is Sports Walking Into a Giant Mess? / Noose Left For NASCAR's Bubba Wallace's Only Grows Resolve to End Racial Hatred / Team That Signs Kaepernick Will Be Champions Of the Street
Special Don Shula tribute columns: Don Shula, 1930-2020, R.I.P. and What Shula Meant to a Father & Son. They Boy Was Me
George Floyd-related columns: Sports' Gradual Return Offers America Relief We Desperately Need / It Took George Floyd To Finally Wake Up White America / Goodell's NFL Response to Floyd Killing Is Hypocrisy At Its Most Ironic / and George Floyd Is Why Kaepernick & Sports Must Continue Fight For Social Justice
Select earlier columns from 2020: Amid Pandemic And Protests, 'America's Pastime' Is Letting American Down / Return Of Sports Promises Historic TV Smorgasbord / Homestead Is Test Lab As NASCAR Gradually Welcomes Back Fans / R.I.P. Kurt Thomas, an American Gymnastics Pioneer / MLB Players Demanding More Millions, Right Now, Is A Bad Look / Amid a Pandemic, An Outrage in Alamance County / 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 / 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 / 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 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 / 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 / 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 updates regularly. The Associated Press Sports Editors writing awards ranked the blog's author a Top 10 national sports columnist in the major-outlet category. Greg is also a regular 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 (audio) and The Ballad Of 1440 (video).
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