It has been brought to my attention that this is a pretty big weekend for Miami football, with the Hurricanes trying to stay undefeated Saturday at Virginia Tech and plant a national championship contender flag, and with the winless Dolphins in San Diego on Sunday afternoon trying to keep their season from falling off a cliff.

Nevertheless, how about a little love for the right-around-the-corner Heat and Panthers? C'mon!

The Panthers open their regular season Friday with two games in Helsinki, Finland, which, considering the Cats' nine-year playoff drought, is about as close as we want them.

The Heat opens preseason training camp Monday, and the big story is the return of Michael Beasley after a month in rehab. Beasley, 20, said he has no drug or depression issues and blames his past problems on immaturity.

``It's like if somebody tells you a stove is hot,'' he said. ``You understand that, but you don't really know until you touch the stove. And I finally touched the stove and came to realize that everything everyone told me was true.''

The Heat has stood behind Beasley throughout his personal trial by offering full support and quietly removing every stove from the team's practice facility.

• Speaking of the Heat, congratulations to Alonzo Mourning for his front-office position. Zo is the club's new vice president of Scowling and Biceps Flexing Development.

• Congrats to Zo, as well, on the birth of his third child, a boy, nine days ago. The baby is now 6-3.

• Let's play Jeopardy. Answer: Popular song by the group Green Day, and my feeling about the drama-less end to a baseball season in which every playoff spot has been all but locked up. Question: What is Wake Me When September Ends.

• The International Olympic Committee meets Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark, to name the site of the 2016 Summer Games. An appearance by the president or First Lady would boost Chicago's chances. Otherwise, the city's best hope is for Oprah to purchase the IOC.

• Heartbreaking loss to the Colts here Monday, but a good game by Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter. Made three field goals. Although the attempt he missed was so far right, it almost hit Fox News' Glenn Beck.

• An annual survey found the Dolphins ranked 24th -- cheaper than most -- among all NFL stadiums in average cost for a family of four to attend a game. It would have been even cheaper, but they raised prices to help pay for all that orange carpet.

• Caught the season's first episode of CSI: Miami the other night. Good stuff. Topical. Lt. Horatio Caine was trying to solve the mystery of the Dolphins' missing pass defense.

• Dolphins rookie cornerback Sean Smith greeted his Twitter followers the morning after Monday night's loss with a cheery message that ended with ``lol.'' Dear Sean: Until your team wins or locates its pass defense, suggest you shelve the ``laugh out loud'' part.

• Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith are the sure first-ballot guys among latest nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As always, inductees will be announced during Super Bowl eve, live from the Bob Kuechenberg Disappointment Room.

• Still can't get over Florida State shocking Brigham Young last week. I imagine Bobby Bowden was so happy about that victory when they woke him with the news.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@