GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND
1) It's MONDAY, JULY 20. Our Greg Cote Show podcast is now separately on Twitter and Instagram. Follow us on both! 2) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Defending Dwyane Wade, Marlins' Miguel Rojas on MLB in a pandemic, Good riddance Redskins nickname, Greg Cote Show podcast new Episode 20 & more. 3) Join us on Twitter and Instagram.
GREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: NEW EPISODE 21 OUT NOW!: Our Miami Herald podcast, "The Greg Cote Show With Greg Cote," debuted in March and Episode 21 is out now! A new episode drops every Monday morning on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Megaphone, iHeart or wherever you do your podding, and of course at MiamiHerald.com. Find all 21 we've done so far RIGHT HERE. Free! No paywall! Please listen, subscribe, rate and review. In Episode 21 we chat with Miami Marlins captain Miguel Rojas about Opening Week in a pandemic, and also about fun stuff. New episode also stars Greg's wife complaining about an odd habit of mine; the Mount Gregmore Name Game (D's); and some gossip about David Beckham that's blowing up the British tabloids. Hear all of that and more in new Ep21!
Our columns from this past week:
He Made a Mistake, But Miami Knows Who Dwyane Wade Is -- And Knows It By Heart
Marlins Captain Miguel Rojas On Pandemic And Playoffs As Baseball Returns
Rest In Pieces, Redskins. Now Here Are Sports' Other Suspect Nicknames
HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (JULY 19-20): 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:
1. MARLINS: Play ball? It's (finally) Opening Week for MLB: Ready or not, smart or not, the truncated 60-game season-in-a-pandemic is upon us. Miami opens this Friday with three in Philadelphia, then opens at home next Monday July 27 vs. Baltimore. No fans allowed for the foreseeable future, but it'll sound like there are, sort of. MLB will play crowd noise from its official video game through ballpark sound systems during games. Somewhat bizarre, if you ask us.
2. DOLPHINS: Team will ban all fans at least through preseason: COVID-19 continues to pound South Florida particularly hard, which led the Miami Dolphins to announce they will bar fans from attending all training camp practices as well as preseason games. Also, no tailgating will be permitted throughout the season. The club still hopes a limited number of fans might be allowed in Hard Rock Stadium for regular season games starting in September. Training camp is supposed to start next Tuesday July 28, which I'll believe when I see it.
3. NFL: Washington drops 'Redskins,' now faces new scandal: Better (decades) late than never on dropping the racist Redskins nickname. Now, though, 15 women who previously worked for the organization have alleged sexual harassment, verbal abuse and a toxic culture under Dan Snyder's ownership. Astonishingly, the NFL says it will rely on the results of a (supposedly) independent investigation by lawyer hired by Snyder. Hmm. Meantime, NFL announced 72 players leaguewide had tested positive for COVID-19 in advance of the planned July 28 opening of full training camps. In a conference call with teams this week the NFL did not waver on its intention to start the season on time, although how many if any fans will be permitted remains to be determined.
4. INTER MIAMI: Still a faint prayer of advancing in MLS Is Back tourney: Inter Miami, with two one-goal losses since the season resumed, must beat New York City FC this Monday and then get lucky with other results to advance to the knockout stage of the MLS Is Back tournament in Orlando. Tournament runs through August 11, after which the regular season will resume. Meantime, Fort Lauderdale CF — Inter Miami's lower-tier USL League One team — kicked off its inaugural season vs. Greenville on Saturday night, the first professional soccer game at the team’s new stadium in Fort Lauderdale on the old Lockhart grounds.
5. HURRICANES: Three football players test positive as camp nears: At least three University of Miami football players tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the cancellation of a scheduled Thursday workouts. Full training camp is supposed to start August 7, supposed to being the key phrase there.
6. HEAT/PANTHERS: Our other local teams 12 days from resuming seasons: With Inter Miami already back at it and Marlins playing again beginning this Friday, So Fla's other two spring and summer teams prepare to both resume their seasons August 1. Heat training camp ends July 29 in the Orlando hub. Cats have been practicing locally and travel to the Toronto hub July 26.
7. GOLF: Tiger returns, ending long layoff: He finished tied for 40th, 15 shots behind winner Jon Rahm in the no-fans Memorial in Ohio. The good news? At least Tiger Woods, 44, rallied to make the cut in his first PGA Tour event since February and first in the pandemic.
8. DWYANE WADE: Tough week for D-Wade after Twitter misstep: Wade tweeted support for Nick Cannon after ViacomCBS fired the TV host for anti-Semitic comments on his podcast -- and got buried for it. Tweet deleted, then the clarification/apology. Wade f'd-up but deserves benefit of doubt as a man of character consistently promoting inclusion and condemning hate speech.
9. NASCAR: Sports welcomes back fans, health risk be damned: NASCAR held its All-Star Race in Bristol, Tennessee this past Wednesday and let roughly 20,000 race fans attend, the most since the pandemic hit in March. Chase Elliott won the race and its $1 million prize, but shame on NASCAR for not doing as much as it can to help fight the spread of COVID-19.
10. WNBA: Women's hoops opens under Delle Donne cloud: The WNBA opens its season this coming Saturday July 25 in the Bradenton bubble amid the controversy involving Washington Mystics forward Elena Delle Donne, reigning MVP and the league's best player. She requested a medical waiver to not play and still be paid because she suffers Lyme Disease, requiring she take 64 pills per day -- but was turned down. Mystics will pay her regardless, but, c'mon WNBA!
Missing the HB10 cut: No, Canada. The Toronto Blue Jays have been prevented from playing games in Canada this season due to he coronavirus ..... Power couple Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez have enlisted other investors in their bid to buy the New York Mets, all the proof you need that their pockets are way too light and that their bid won't succeed ..... Arsenal reached the August 1 FA Cup final by upsetting Manchester City on Saturday. Gunners will face winner of today's Chelsea- Man U match ..... ESPN announced the Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz would be only two hours, not three, starting in August. Did the stock market plummet? ..... Dolphins coach Brian Flores says it is "hard to say" whether rookie QB Tua Tagovailoa will be physically ready to start the season. Which is just about the same as saying absolutely nothing at all ..... Danica Patrick and Aaron Rodgers have split up. OK who was cheating on whom? ..... Um, can somebody please explain to an apparently unenlightened Jorge Masvidal that QAnon is a far-right ideology that purposely and dangerously promotes utterly false and usually patently absurd conspiracy theories? ..... Speaking of James Harden (!) ..... The Golden Eagles, with a roster of mostly alumni from Marquette, won The Basketball Tournament (what genius came up with that name?) and its $1 million prize ..... #FreeWoj ..... The Buffalo Bills' stadium needs a new name sponsor, and a bidet company called Tushy is bidding. Decorum prevents us from noting that Tushy Stadium sounds like a pretty crappy name ..... A realtor in Alexandria, Virginia has trademarked all the likeliest new nicknames for the former Washington Redskins. As Stugotz might says: "Heady play!" ..... The Greg Cote Show podcast is out with new Episode 21 on Monday ..... Update: Countdown now 2,171 days (give or take) until Miami hosts its first match in soccer's 2026 World Cup. In front of crowds again by then, we hope?
Other recent columns: '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 / The Face Of Miami Sports in 2020: Our Top 20 And Who's No.1 / 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 / and 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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