Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: NFL’s Super final 4, Messi’s problem, Heat’s mess, Tyreek’s, too & more

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (JANUARY 28): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US LATELY: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 had been blog-only but when our blog retired it moved, re-imagined, to online-only. HB10 means what’s on our minds, locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 46th edition of your Sunday sports-potpourri notes column, the new HB10:

1. NFL: From Chiefs-Ravens and Lions-49ers today we get a Super Bowl!: Can Lamar Jackson of AFC top seed Baltimore outduel Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City? Can Cinderella Detroit stun NFC No. 1 San Francisco and get the franchise within one win of its first championship since pre-Super Bowl 1957? An intriguing final four today will mint a guaranteed-great Super Bowl matchup. Meantime some analysts think today’s games could break TV audience records for conference title games. NFC record is 57.93 million for Vikings Saints in 2010 (‘09 season). AFC high is 54.85M for Jets-Steelers in 2011 (‘10 season).

2. HEAT: Miami scores with Rozier trade but the losses keep coming: Heat scored nicely by acquiring guard Terry Rozier from Charlotte for Kyle Lowry and a draft pick, but Miami’s losing streak has grown from three games to six since his arrival, the club’s longest skid since March 2021. Miami lost by 16 at the Knicks Saturday after losing 143-110 at home to rival Boston and is now 24-22 and seventh in the East. Miami risks its first seven-game skid since 2008 on Monday vs. Phoenix.

3. PANTHERS: Cats on a hot-tin streak, looking like NHL Final threat again: Florida is 31-14-4, has won four straight with Saturday’s OT win at the Islanders, and sits second in the NHL East -- very much looking like a threat to return to the Stanley Cup Final. MVP candidate Sam Reinhart scored Saturday in a ninth straight road game, a club record, and now has 37, second most in the league entering Tuesday’s home date with Philly.

4. TENNIS: Australian Open champs rep sport’s Next Big Things: Tennis is looking for its next big wave and got in the Australian Open finals. Aging great Novak Djokovic lost in the semifinals to Sunday’s eventual champ Jannik Skinner, 22, denying the Joker a record-extending 11th Australian and 25th Grand Slam title overall. The Djokovic-Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal era is now all but officially over, with Skinner and Carlos Alcaraz fronting the new wave. On the women’s side Aryna Sabalenka won the Aussie and leads that new wave along with Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and we’d say Coco Gauff as the women’s game looks for its next Serena Williams.

5. INTER MIAMI: The Messi/Suarez dream team cannot find the net: Very early, two matches into a seven-game preseason before the February 21 MLS opener, but Miami has drawn 0-0 and lost 1-nil in its exhibitions so far entering Monday’s vs. Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia -- despite Luis Suarez joining Lionel Messi up front. Coach Tata Martino admits “concern.” Meanwhile the Herons will show a new front-of-jersey sponsor in Royal Caribbean this season. The Miami Heat’s owner owns rival Carnival. Battle of the Cruise Ships!

6. NFL: Belichick out of league in 2024? The unthinkable turns likely: As Jim Harbaugh prepares to conquer L.A. and save the Chargers and Nick Saban basks in retirement and a cushy job in broadcasting ahead, Super Bowl G.O.A.T. Bill Belichick twists in the wind. Not wanted back by the Patriots and not hired by the Falcons despite two interviews, Belichick now faces a season out of the NFL. Only the Washington and Seattle jobs remain open, and neither seems a fit for a coach demanding power and control. Turning 72 this spring, he remains 26 wins from tying Don Shula for most in the regular season and 14 wins from tying Shula for most including playoffs. Now all Belichick needs is a team to give him that chance.

7. DOLPHINS: The peculiar case of Tyreek Hill’s non-divorce: Tyreek Hill, the blur-speed superstar catching passes, continues not nearly as in-control off the field. South Florida Sun-Sentinel cited Broward County court records in reporting HIll, only married to Keeta Vaccaro since November, filed for divorce last week. But Hill quickly denied it, saying on X, “Boy no the heck we didn’t so don’t put that in the air!!! We are happily married and gone stay that way.” A day later, the couple shared Instagram photos of them at the gym and hugging. Hill has fired the attorney who filed the divorce papers, which evidently had been prepared but not been OK’d to submit. Meanwhile the Cheetah currently has two paternity suits against him and is believed to have six children by four women.

8. CANES HOOPS: Can UM men avoid the hard fall from last spring to now?: Miami’s men made their first first Final Four last spring and the Canes women their first Elite Eight. Now both teams are unranked and the men, especially, sit precariously in hopes to make the NCAA Tournament at all. UM men are 14-6 but had lost 4 of 5 before Norchad Omier dropped 33 on Notre dame this week and then a narrow win vs. They are not currently in the projected 68-team men’s NCAA bracket. The Canes women are 12-6 after an 8-0 start but ESPN Bracketology currently has them in the Big Dance as an 11th seed.

9. MARLINS: Miami’s top-prospects farm has grown barren: Few expect the Fish to repeat last year’s playoff season as spring training nears, with mighty Atlanta, really good Philly and even the Mets all ranked higher in NL East. And not much help is visible down on the farm. MLB Pipeline’s latest Top 100 prospects list show Mets and Phils with four each, Washington with three, Atlanta with two and Miami with only one: RHP Noble Meyer, 19, at No. 57 and pegged for a 2026 callup.

10. CRIME: The Jackie Robinson statue theft: Criminals as a group, as an occupation, are dumb, feckless and lacking in whatever constitutes conscience and soul. But the breed hit a new low in Wichita, in what police call “a senseless and heartless crime.” Surveillance video shows two men stealing a bronze Jackie Robinson memorial statue from a youth baseball field at a public park. They sawed the statue at the ankles; only the feet remain on the pedestal. The two men will be caught, and convicted, and serve a lifetime of richly earned embarrassment and shame.

Other most recent stuff from me: NFL Championship Round playoff picks -- with one major upset -- as Super Bowl awaits // Heat trading for Rozier, unloading Lowry a win-win for Miami // For Inter Miami, Dolphins and Canes in 2024, anything less than great will be a failure // From rubble of failed Dolphins season, here’s why QB Tua has earned big-money contract extension // Dak wins season crown in Herald NFL QB rankings; Tua 3rd but sets Dolphins marks // R.I.P. Jim Martz: A tribute to the man who gifted me my career // Previous HB10 // And my latest podcast: