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.
INDIANAPOLIS - Michael Waltrip will miss a Nextel Cup race for the first time since 1998 after failing to qualify for Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
The top 35 cars in team owner points are guaranteed a starting spot at each Cup race, but Waltrip is currently 38th and has to qualify each week on speed. The two-time Daytona 500 winner needed to finish in the top eight Saturday among those who didn’t automatically qualify, and his lap of 178.091 mph was 10th.
Jeff Burton won the pole at 182.778.
Waltrip, who declined to be interviewed, currently drives the No. 55 Dodge for Bill Davis Racing. He also has formed Michael Waltrip Racing, which will field three cars next season when Toyota enters the Cup series.
Chris Goodnight, a spokesman for Waltrip, said the driver told him the car wasn’t quite right Saturday.
“He said the car was pushing a tad bit,” Goodnight said. “We picked up nearly half a second from our best lap at practice yesterday, but it wasn’t good enough.”
Waltrip missed the Daytona 500 at the start of the 1986 season, then started every race until he failed to qualify at Phoenix late in 1998, a streak of 387 consecutive races. The next week at Rockingham, he began a streak of 270 straight starts that ends Sunday.
Waltrip didn’t qualify for the Coca Cola 600 in May, but bought a car that had qualified to get into the race and keep his streak alive.
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Goodnight said Waltrip spoke with team officials after practice Friday and they agreed that they are “no longer in the business of buying someone else’s car.”
“They pretty much said we give ourselves one mulligan this year, and that’s it,” Goodnight said.
Waltrip’s last win was at the EA Sports 500 on Sept. 28, 2003. His last top 10 finish was at the Batman Begins 400 on June 19, 2005. He was driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. at both events.
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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.
