Greg Cote: Prime picks Mario’s pocket, Marlins make boom-boom noise in debut of new Hot Button Top 10
GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (JANUARY 22): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US LATELY: Our every-Sunday Hot Button Top 10 feature had been blog-only but with our blog newly retired it moves, re-imagined, to online-only starting today. HB10 means what’s on our minds (or should be), locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s offbeat, damnable, funny or worth needling, as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Or, think of it as 10 one-inch micro-mini columns! Welcome to the debut of the re-imagined HB10:
1. HURRICANES: Coach Prime snatches 5-Star Cormani from Canes, Cristobal: Cormani McClain, No. 1 cornerback recruit in the country and a former Miami Hurricanes commit, is now a Colorado Buffalo thanks to Coach Prime -- the lure of new boss Deion Sanders. McClain will be in Boulder until he realizes where he is and sprints to the transfer portal. Meantime ace recruiter Mario Cristobal, off a 5-7 debut season, is reminded sometimes even swallowing your pride to grovel isn’t enough.
2. DOLPHINS: Fins can Boyer, clean house on defensive staff to convey action: Teams one-and-done in the playoffs -- especially those that last won a postseason game in 2000 -- must convey dissatisfaction, and do ... something. So Miami fired defensive coordinator Josh Boyer and three of his assistants after the unit regressed to allow 23.5 points per game, up from 21.9 the year before. If Tua plays the Fins beat the Bills and Boyer is likely still employed, but nobody said life was fair. Especially nobody in the coaching profession.
3. MARLINS: Arraez’s bat, Cueto’s ambulance revive dead Fish offseason: The Marlins fly economy while the NL East rival Mets, Phillies and Braves spend big, but Miami struck big in acquiring AL batting champion Luis Arraez from the Twins for Pablo Lopez and two prospects. Fish also boast the only pitcher in MLB history to buy an ambulance and customize it with 54 speakers to make it loud enough to wake the dead. That became true when Miami signed B-list free agent but A-list quirky fella Johnny Cueto, who was really good ‘til about 2016 and now is about to turn 37.
4. GOLF: Saudi-funded LIV tour lands TV deal ... sort of: The LIV Golf tour battling the PGA Tour with Saudi money is set to begin its second season with a TV deal, sort of. It has partnered with The CW, a low-watt network whose two letters don’t but could stand for Can’t Watch. In order to televise the handful of stars worth watching who defected to Greg Norman’s carnival to bury their reputations under an avalanche of Saudi blood money, The CW will have to preempt iconic current Sunday programming such as Highway Thru Hell and Women Of Wrestling.
5. SOCCER: Messi-Ronaldo rivalry ends under circus tent: A Saudi businessman whose name we won’t mention to protect him from ridicule paid $2.6 million (U.S.) in an auction for a “golden ticket” to watch Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo likely on a pitch together for the last time, albeit in a circus-y exhibition in Riyadh. Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain won 5-4 over a team of players from Saudi clubs Al Hilal and Al Nassr, which just signed Ronaldo. Ronaldo scored twice and Messi once and they brawled in a slap fight after the match. (OK I made up that last part.)
6. NFL: Dungy’s ‘values’ make a flimsy, transparent shield: NBC Sports NFL analyst Tony Dungy, hiding behind his “Christian values,” tweeted a since-deleted analogy likening school bathrooms for transgender children to litter boxes for kids who identify as cats. Is Tony aware and does he care that LGBTQ youth besieged by bigotry and bullying are four times likelier than other students to attempt suicide? Anything to say, NBC Sports?
7. HEAT: Team has gone average, but still better at ball than at arena names: Injury-wracked Heat is a just-beyond-middling 25-22 with zero title-hunt buzz this NBA season. But that isn’t as bad as being bamboozled by previous home name sponsor FTX, the disgraced bitcoin venture. Pending a new sponsor they’d like us to call it “Miami-Dade Arena.” How about ... no. I’ll call it the Heat Arena, The Barn By The Bay, The House That Pat Built or Jimmy’s Joint before I’ll say “Miami-Dade Arena.”
8. NFL: Amid playoffs, King Sport’s world domination continues: NFL was down to its final eight teams, the AFC and NFC semifinals, in this weekend’s Divisional Round playoffs. Meantime the sport’s global reach continued anew as league announced five international games for next season. There will be three regular-season games in the U.K. and two in Germany, a record for Europe in one year. Foreign cities in the bidding for future Super Bowls? (You heard it here first.)
9. BOXING: Don King (!) fight card hits Miami: Don King’s “Clash of the Champions,” an underwhelming fight card led by WBA/NABA heavyweight champ Jonathan Guidry, played Casino Miami Jai-Alai this weekend, to answer the question, “Whatever happened to Don King?” (Don is now 91 and still fighting to stay relevant in the fight game. I wrote this column on King when he swung through Miami last June.)
10. UFC: Where’s Dana White? Check under the rug: As The Independent in the U.K. validly asked in a column this week, “Dana White hit his wife. Why is he still the face of UFC?” Short answer: He runs UFC and choosing not to fire himself because him and his wife traded slaps in a boozy New Year’s Eve fight. TV partner ESPN -- that’s Disney! -- could exercise some power but is fine to see the matter swept under the rug and go away. Fabulously pathetic irony: White’s offshoot gimmick, Power Slap (“the world’s premiere slap fighting organization,” debuted this week.
Other stuff from me this past week: NFL Divisional Round playoff picks / 2023 State of Miami sports: Grading all our big teams / If Dolphins trust in Tua’s health & future, give him long-term deal / And my latest podcast:
