Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
In a sport where poor men risk their health for money and fame, the more genteel brand of pugilism now helps gyms from London to Los Angeles pay rent, utilities and insurance. New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a former Army light heavyweight boxing champion in Korea, said some gyms couldn’t survive without white-collar business.
“White collar boxing, while it’s well-intentioned, it’s fun, and it appears to be very safe because of the way it’s monitored, apparently there’s recognition you have to have some rules because it’s growing in popularity, and it could be an accident waiting to happen,” Bruno said.
The state athletic commission received a complaint in November about a white-collar show in Huntington. Chairman Ron Scott Stevens said the show wasn’t properly sanctioned, and the boxing was stopped.
State law allows professional boxing licensed by the commission, with exceptions for military and scholastic boxing programs, as well as amateur boxing and martial arts regulated by sanctioning organizations that the commission knows adhere to safety and health standards, Stevens said.
“White collar boxing falls outside of that at the present time,” he said.
“We don’t want to see anybody seriously hurt. We want to make sure that these events are surrounded by competent people,” Stevens said. “At the present time they’re not really dead in the water. They do have the ability to get their events sanctioned by USA Boxing.”
White-collar boxers say the problem with bouts sanctioned by the amateur group is that competition heats up considerably.
“I don’t really want to hit anybody or get hit hard myself,” said 48-year-old Philip Maier, who has had about 70 white-collar bouts in nine years. “A lot of people come for the sport. They’re not looking to beat each other up.”
An administrative law judge for the state Public Employment Relations Board, Maier said he hasn’t seen anybody get hurt, though in 2001 he knocked out a visitor from Texas, who was fighting dirty and trying hard to hurt him.
“In Missouri, we had a group in St. Louis that promoted ’Hoosier Weight’ titles, which was very similar,” said Tim Luckenhoff, a Missouri regulator and president of the national Association of Boxing Commissions. “We advised them that in our mind it was amateur boxing, and they decided to get licensed through the local Golden Gloves.”
Philadelphia’s Blue Horizon hosted one white-collar show last fall before the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission said it was illegal, said commission executive director Greg Sirb.
In Gleason’s first white-collar show, an insurance executive with a Ph.D. in English boxed a veterinarian who was also an attorney. Both had some ring experience. They went five rounds.
“I beat the crap out of the guy. It was delightful,” said David Lawrence, the insurance man. After several more fights, Lawrence turned pro at age 44 and ran up a 3-2 record, all KOs. Now a 58-year-old trainer, he said white-collar bouts are more of an exhibition.
“When there’s no winner or loser, people still try to hurt each other,” Lawrence said, “but not to the same degree.”
Silverglade said after two years with judging, he eliminated it to make bouts easier to control and to better protect participants and their pride. Now everybody gets a trophy — though some still get bruised.
“You get punched in the mouth,” said Bridges, the mother of four. “I’ve gone to like parent-teacher things with a mouse on my face. Swelling bruises on knuckles and things. That’s not normal, epsecially in Greenwich.”
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) - As the glow fades from the Giants' Super Bowl triumph, some New York sports fans are tuning in to basketball and hockey, with the Rangers in first place and the Knicks' overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, sparking "Lin-sanity.''
Robins: This year, six new breeds will be making their debut on the green carpet for the Westminster Dog Show, which begins Monday.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.