GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND
1) It's FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18. The Greg Cote Show podcast is now separately on Twitter and Instagram. Follow us on both! 2) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Dolphins drop opener at New England, Hot Button Top 10, Greg Cote Show podcast new Episode 28 & more. 3) Join us on Twitter and Instagram.
Our football special-section column troika: TUA TAGOVAILOA IS DOLPHINS' SAVIOR SENT TO BRING NEW GLORY ... IF PROPHECY IS TRUE / WHO'S SUPER BOWL-BOUND? WHERE DO FINS FALL? OUR 2020 NFL-IN-PANDEMIC TEAM RANKINGS / and FOR MIAMI & AMERICA, HERE COMES A COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON WE'LL NEVER FORGET
Column off Dolphins' season-opening loss at New England: Dolphins Lose to Pats, But Win With No-Hurry Plan On Tua
Herald launches 23rd year of NFL QB rankings: NFL Week 1 QB Rank: Wilson out front; guess who's last?
HEAT-CELTICS GAME 2: MIAMI IN COMMAND AFTER ANOTHER RALLY, ANOTHER WIN: Something very strange is going on here. The kind of thing that makes you believe in magic and miracles and all that other stuff with no ties to logic. The Miami Heat keeps winning. Relentlessly. Astoundingly. Now Miami is two wins from reaching the NBA Finals. After not even making the postseason last year. After being the underdog in all three playoff rounds so far in the surreal pandemic bubble that is 2020. For the Heat, the Disney bubble is not bursting. It is lifting this team. Thursday night Miami trailed by 13 points at halftime. By as many as 17 at one point. It was understandable. The desperate Boston Celtics, after losing Game 1, had to have this. The Heat was so due a loss. The third quarter score was 37-17, Miami. Bam Adebayo lit it up for 15 in the quarter, of his 21 total. Final: Miami 106, Boston 101. Heat, now up 2-0 entering Game 3 of this best-of-7 Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night. Thursday’s rally was after Miami had trailed by 14 points in the fourth quarter in the series opener, only to win in the frenetic last seconds on Jimmy Butler’s basket and then Adebayo’s epic block of Jayson Tatum’s attempted last-second winning dunk — a play instantly installed as an heirloom of Heat legend and lore. Thursday’s magic? How about Goran Dragic, the Dragon breathing fire, with seven consecutive points of his 25 total to forge the late lead? Magic? Consider: None of the Heat’s three championship-winning teams had ever begun a postseason on the 10-1 run this Miami team is on. None with Dwyane Wade. None with LeBron James. Yes, something strange is going on here. For our full latest column, please visit Miracle Or Magic, Miami Heat's Stunning Postseason Run Continues.
Game 1 column: Unexpected Playoff Run Makes Miami Heat the Most Fun Ride In Sports Right Now.
GREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: NEW EPISODE 28 OUT NOW!: Our Miami Herald podcast, "The Greg Cote Show With Greg Cote," debuted in March and new Episode 28 is out now! New episodes drop early every Monday morning on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Megaphone, iHeart -- wherever you pod, and of course at MiamiHerald.com. Find all 28 we've done so far RIGHT HERE for free! Please listen, subscribe, rate and review. Start on Episode 1 and catch up. In Ep28 we get all sportsy -- sportsier than we've ever been. Greg and Chris chew over the Dolphins and Hurricanes season openers with a dash of Marlins and Inter Miami talk. Mostly we dive deep into Heat-Celtics with special guest Amin Elhassan, the ESPN NBA expert. And he makes a bold prediction. Of course there's a new Mount Gregmore, too -- the K's. Hear all of that and more on the new Greg Cote Show podcast now!
OUR NFL WEEK 2 PICKS: DOLPHINS-BILLS AND THE REST: As we dig into our 30th season of NFL picks in the Miami Herald, here are our Week 2 selections for Dolphins-Bills, our Game of the Week -- Lamar Jackson vs. Deshaun Watson -- our Upset of the Week and all the rest. We pick two big upsets in all including a prime-time stunner ("Aawwk!). Is a Dolphins home-debut win one of those upsets? To find out please visit NFL Week 2 Gems for our previews and picks on every matchup. Our picks appear Thursday afternoons every week online, and Fridays in print. (Our Thursday Night Football pick appears Wednesdays online and Thursdays in print). Visit Week 2 Thursday Gem for our separate Bengals-Browns pick. We nailed it for a perfect start to our Week 2, getting it right straight-up and against-the-spread win. We had Cleveland winning but Cincy-plus-six. Thanks to Joe Burrow's late TD drive, both happened. Thanks, Joey. Owe you a cup o' coffee.
NFL PIX 'N FANTASY: WEEK 1 RESULTS: Late on this. Will have it in the blog Tuesdays each week henceforth. NFL Pix: Rough start. Went 8-8 straight-up and 6-9-1 against the spread -- not the kind of launch I envisioned for my 30th season of picks in the Herald. Had some bad luck. Example: Dropped last-second TD pass costing me the Lions win I'd predicted. Anyhoo. No excuses. Sally forth! Greg's Lobos: Opening loss: No Le Batard Show league this year so this is our friends 'n family league. The 'Bos fell 139-109, with five starters perfoming below projections. A bright spot: Chris Carson's team-leading 24 points. The bad news moving forward: My thoroughbred spilled his jockey out the gate. Top draft pick Michael Thomas, with a high-ankle sprain, could miss several weeks. Oy vey. Stay tuned.
Other most recent columns: 'If I Die, I Die.' QB Cousins' Shamefully Cavalier Attitude On Pandemic and our columns off Heat-Bucks Games 1 and 2: Lifting Spirits And A City: Heat, Up 2-0, Continue Pandemic Playoff Run and Heat Beat Bucks In Game 1, In A Series Also About '21 Free Agency. Also: Boycott Of NBA Playoffs Shows Nation That Injustice Is Bigger Than Sports Right Now and Having Fans at Dolphins, Canes Games A Bad Idea And Big Risk. And: Pat Riley's Grand Plan On Track As Heat Close In On Playoff Advance / For Marlins, A Home Opener -- And First Place -- In Mid-August / Fractured College Football Mirrors America's Divide On How to Handle a Pandemic / Fall Without Football: Big Ten, Pac-12 Set Moral Compass for NFL, Others to Follow / As Panthers Move on From Tallon, Who's Next Miami Team Executive on Hot Seat? / and 'Perfect Storm For Virus Transmission': Why Football Is Struggling to Lift Off.
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THE COTE ARCHIVES:
Marlins Hell Week Trilogy: Are Marlins To Blame For Own Outbreak? If So It Would Mirror America's Struggle / Marlins Outbreak Worsens, Sports Should Rethink Playing Again in 2020 / and Marlins Delaying Home Opener For COVID Outbreak a Scary Lesson For All Sports. Special Don Shula tribute: Don Shula, 1930-2020, R.I.P. / and What Shula Meant to a Father & Son. They Boy Was Me. George Floyd-related: 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
Other most recent columns: Here's Why Nobody Should Rule Out Heat Reaching NBA Finals / Marlins and Dolphins, In a Race For Relevance, Offer Hope At a Time We Need That / When Will Dolphins Unleash Tua? Exploring the Timetable as Rookies Report / Sports Resume, But Major Concerns Complicate Opening of Football Training Camps / 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 / '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
Select columns from earlier in 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 / Kobe's Death Sends Sports World Reeling, But Immortality Is His / Jimmy Johnson's Biggest Triumph? Knowing When To Quit -- And Why / Announcing Miami Dolphins' 2010-19 All-Decade Team / and two-part series on how Dolphins' Glory Day happened: 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
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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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