GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND
1) It's SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 2022. When do we start looking at somebody funny for still saying Happy New Year? Not yet, right? 2) Join me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Follow the Greg Cote Show podcast separately on Twitter, Instagram and now TikTok, too! 3) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Hot Button Top 10, Dolphins routed at Tennessee and miss playoffs, NFL Week 17 picks, new Greg Cote Show podcast.
I was back in-studio this week on the Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz ... dressed as astronaut Jeff Bezos to pay off a Grid of Death punishment. Check out Tuesday's show podcasts or show YouTube channel.
GREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: SPECIAL NEW YEAR-END BEST-OF EPISODE OUT NOW!: Our 1st episode of 2022 and 92nd overall is out now! A new pod drops every Monday at 7 ET on Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, Stitcher, Megaphone, iHeart -- wherever you pod, and of course at MiamiHerald.com. Find all 92 we've done so far HERE, free. In our new episode: It's GregFest: Our Best-Of Year-End Extravaganza (with new stuff, too). We relives out greatest hits from the past year: Interviews, Songs, Greg Doesn't Know Movies, Hard Knocks/Lobos -- the fun don't stop! Inlcuding a new Mount Gregmore of OUR favrite epsiodes. You won't want to miss it! Thanks as always for the support, pod family. Please listen, rate, review and follow. (Our pod simulcasts on Sirius XM every Monday 5-6 p.m. ET).
NFL WEEK 18 PICKS: DOLPHINS-PATRIOTS, BIG UPSET, FINAL PLAYOFF TICKETS, ALL THE REST: Our second-half heater resumed in Week 17 as went a big 12-4 overall (again) and 8-8 against the spread. Nailed another Upset of the Week in Steelers beating Browns Monday night. With one week to go our overall season total has risen and our number against the Evil Betting Line is above what it was a year ago. Time to finish strong! For our Game of the Week, Upset of the Week, Dolphins-Patriots call and who's getting the final three unclaimed playoff tickets, visit NFL Week 18 Gems.
WHY 'WHAT IF' STILL HAUNTS MIAMI, 15 YEARS AFTER NICK SABAN LEFT THE DOLPHINS: He abruptly left Miami 15 years ago this week, quitting on the Dolphins after only two seasons. He lied about leaving, and South Florida hated him for that. Many among us still do. Some always will. But 15 years later we understand very well it wasn’t the lying we hated, after all. It was the leaving. It was all Nick Saban took from us that we have spent every day since trying, and failing, to recover. The relentless winning, the championships, the national stature — everything he created at Alabama could have belonged to the Dolphins and South Florida. Then-owner Wayne Huizenga was convinced of it when he hired Saban and convinced of it ‘til the day he died. When Saban packed for Tuscaloosa, he took what might have been with him. He took hope, and possibility.
NO PLAYOFFS, NO FIRM IDEA ON TUA IS WORST POSSIBLE WAY FOR DOLPHINS TO END SEASON. NEW COLUMN: These have been the three longest playoff droughts in the once-proud history of the Miami Dolphins: Seven seasons, from 2009 to 2015. Six seasons, from 2002 to 2007. Now five seasons, from 2017 ... and counting. College-age Dolphins fans have grown up not knowing their team to be anything but almost always bad. Even worse — irrelevant. They hear their fathers and grandpas with misty eyes reference “The Perfect Season,” but the words are a near-foreign language. Yellowed pages in a scrapbook. They hear the words “Marino and “Shula” said, but these are vague, distant deities who hold no sway in the modern age. They are but strong-yet-powerless memories, reminders of a fallen empire. And the Lost Century slogs on. For our full column -- which inevitably gets around to Tua Tagovailoa, and whether he's the solution or not -- visit No Playoffs, No Firm Idea Yet On Tua Is Worst Possible Way For Dolphins To End Season.
Our Dolphins-Titans column: Party, Meet Hangover: Tua, Dolphins Out Of Playoff Chase With Loss at Titans.
Our Orange Bowl column: Georgia Crushes Michigan in OB. The Bad News? 'Bama Next.
Most recent other columns: Revealing And Discussing My 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot / Also: Hey, America, After 7th Straight Win, Do Miami Dolphins Have Your Attention Yet? / Duuuuuke Lifts Fins to 6th Straight Win, .500 / Canes Land Grand Prize In Cristobal, So No Excuses Left. New Glory Days A Must / UM Legend Frank Gore Talks NFL Future, Cristobal, Boxing As He Prepes For Ring Debut / Tua Keeps Showing Dolphins How Silly They Were To Doubt Him So Soon / and 50 Years At the Herald For Me -- And a Lifetime Of Gratitude.
(*) OUR PICKS: SOLID OVERALL, EVEN A.T.S.: We went a solid 12-4 overall (again) in Week 17, and an even 8-8 against the spread. Finished strong with Steelers (+3) over Browns Monday night in our Upset of the Week. We've had a great year on featured upset picks: 11-6 outright and 12-4-1 ATS.
(*) GREG'S LOBOS: YESSS! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!: Greg's Lobos are PFPI Fantasy champions for the first time in the league's 13-year history, with a 136-130 title game win over my eldest son, Chris' Crown Me The Champ team. It was a close call into Monday night, with me very lucky Nick Chubb didn't have a bigger role. I got 57 points (!) from JaMarr Chase to carry me, but narrowly avoided an embarrassment I never would have lived down -- or forgiven myself for. I started inactive Lamar Jackson, getting zero points from th QB position. And won anyway! Wow.
(*) HERALD NFL QB RANKINGS: BURROW WINS (AGAIN); BIG RACE FOR 2ND: Cincinnati's Joe Burrow wins Week 17, his second straight weekly title, and joins a tight five-man race for second place, with Tom Brady soaring to the season crown. Details and the latest Top 25: NFL Week 17 QB Rankings.
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ARCHIVES
Select other recent columns: UM And Blake James Parted Ways With Class -- Which Butch Davis Didn't Get From FIU / How Miami Dolphins Are Poised to Transform Their 1-7 Start Into Playoff Contention / Dolphins' Watson Lust Ruined Season, Damaged Tua. And That Starts With Owner Ross / Quenneville Rightly Sacked as Panthers Coach Over 2010 Chicago Scandal / As Dolphins' Dysfunction Surrounds Him, 10 Ways Tua Is The Unluckiest Man On Earth / State of the Art: Heat, Miami's Best-Run Franchise, Sails In Opener / 'Time to Hunt': Cats' Hyped Season Off to Wild, Winning Start / Dolphins Fans, Ex-Players Gather For Emotional Farewell to Don Shula, Father of the Glory Days / If Sports Had A Spine, Kyrie Irving & Other Anti-Vaxxers Wouldn't Be Playing / Kyle Lowry Must Channel 'Doctor Of Greatness' If Heat Is To Chase NBA Title / Fairy Tale With Wrong Ending: Remembering Jose Fernandez 5 Years Later / Why It's Too Soon, And Dumb, To Quit On Tua As Dolphins Answer / Year Of Reckoning, And Impatience, For Slow-Starting Dolphins & Canes / Hope And Hype Are Sky-High. Time For Florida Panthers To Finally Deliver / Miami Herald's 2021 NFL Team Rankings: You Won't Believe Where Dolphins are / Why Dolphins, Canes Should Be Taking Lead In Requiring Fans To Be COVID-Vaccinated / An Appreciation of Udonis Haslem As He Re-Ups For 19th Heat Season / Unraveled: The Story Behind Who Aubrey Huff Became / College Football and FSU Lose a Treasure In Passing Of Bobby Bowden / Biggest Victory Of Hall Of Famer Jimmy Johnson's Life Was Getting His Son Back / Biles' Withdrawal For Mental-Health Reasons Merits Empathy, Not Scorn / Where Dolphins Rank Among Teams With Longest Championship Droughts / Dolphins Owner Ross Unveils New $135 Million Training Site As Another Reason Team Must Win Now / Hot Seat Scale: Ranking Miami's Biggest Coaches By Most to Least Job Security / May Sha'Carri Richardson Be Last Victim Of Olympics' Archaic Marijuana Rules / 'I'm D'Eriq King For College Hunks Hauling Junk!' It's Strange New World in College Sports / Nassib Coming Out As Gay NFL Player A Milestone In Sports History / Fate Snatched Basketball From Chris Bosh. His new Book Is Part of His Journey Of Healing / Where's Tua? Ranking Our Top 15 South Florida Pro Athletes 25 And Younger / Pythons, Peppers, Pirate Flag Raised. Inside Le Batard's 24-Hour Triumph / Le Batard Bet On Himself And His Audience -- And Won Big / Justice For George Floyd Helps Heal Our Shaken Faith, But Fight For Equality Goes On / In History And In Hearts, Howard Schnellenberger Will Matter For All Time / Women Keep Accusing Deshaun Watson of Sexual Misconduct. But Will It Matter to NFL Teams? / Reality, Loss, Comeback: How Sports Has Been Guiding Light In America's Awful Past Year / Beckham's Resolve Tested By Tumult As Inter Miami Nears 2nd MLS Season / Time-Travelling To 1960s And Childhood, When The Baseball Card Was King / Doesn't Matter If Tiger Woods Never Wins Again. We Are Lucky He's Alive / Final Herald NFL 2020 QB Rankings / Marlins Hit History-Making Home Run With Kim NG Hire As GM / In a Pandemic-Battered Season For FIU, Butch Davis' Love Of Coaching Survives / Don Shula, 1930-2020, R.I.P. / What Shula Meant to a Father & Son. The Boy Was Me.
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.
Finding Greg: Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Columns. Podcast. Podcast on Twitter. Podcast on Instagram. LeBatard Show. Book: Fins At 50. Songs: Letting Go (audio only) and The Ballad Of 1440 (with video).
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