12/02 — The inactives have been released for today's South Florida Showdown, and for the Jets the good news at least initially is that Laveranues Coles is active.

Coles has been bothered by an ankle injury that he suffered early vs. Pittsburgh and that KO'd him from the Dallas game. But he will be in uniform and presumably starting against Miami after limited participation all week in practice. At least in the three-quarters-speed warmups, LC looks OK. We'll see.

But Coles' WR starting mate, Jerricho Cotchery, is not active as expected, having been declared out of the game Friday with a right index finger injury.

The other inactives for the Green & White ... er, Blue & Gold are CB Andre Dyson, DL Mike DeVito, O-linemen Jacob Bender and Adrian Jones, TE Jason Pociask and DL Kareem Brown. Marques Tuiasosopo is the third QB.

With Pociask down, that means Sean Ryan will be active for the first time in four games to share the load at TE/FB/H-back with Joe Kowalewski.

For the Dolphins, the IAs are topped by MLB Zach Thomas, out for the fifth straight game with migraines. Derrick Pope starts for Zach.

The rest of the Fish list: WR Kerry Reed, safeties Jereme Perry and Tuff Harris, DT Anthony Bryant, DE Derreck Robinson, T Anthony Alabi and DE Rob Ninkovich. The 'Fins have not designated a third QB.

The Jets are wearing their Titans throwback uniforms for the second time this season. The first time they broke out the navy jerseys with gold numbers and white highlights and gold pants with navy and white stripes was for the Philadelphia game.

That resulted in a 16-9 home loss to the Eagles with no touchdowns, a fate that Kellen Clemens and the Jets offense desperately needs to avoid today if they want their best shot at extending the Dolphins' record to 0-12.

Some may wonder why the Jets would go with navy for a 1 p.m. kickoff game in South Florida. Indeed, the temperature now about a half-hour before kickoff is 80 with a heat index of 82 under mostly sunny skies.

I don't know the precise physics of the colors, but I'm pretty sure the blue tops will feel just as hot as the green tops the Jets would normally wear. They have to wear the dark jerseys for these visits to Dolphin Stadium because the 'Fins always wear their all-white unis just to force opponents into their hothouse colors.

Regardless, the large fans are sitting poised behind both benches, still at the moment but ready at the flip of a switch to give any players in need of it a cooling breeze. I'm guessing the saline IV bags are ready in both teams' locker rooms as well.

This matchup between two NFL teams down on their luck isn't far off. It is one of the five lowest combined winning percentages for two opponents, one of which is winless, since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. Here are those five matchups: