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.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has 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.
APWe tend to remember the flaming crashes in life, which probably has something to do with the success of NASCAR. Since they stand out so starkly, we tend to look at a guy like Clarett and think of all the other ne’er-do-wells we’ve seen, concluding that the world is going to perdition in a fanny pack.
Reading the gory details of the arrest makes the brain flash up images of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, of Roy Tarpley and Shawn Kemp. (Right before I wrote that sentence, I had a mental block on Kemp’s name, so I Googled “center nba marijuana fat.” Kemp was the first reference that came up. Are search engines cool, or what?) That made me think of drugs and Mark McGwire, another guy who’s moved near the top of the list, and Floyd Landis and Tim Montgomery and Rafael Palmiero.
Thinking of Rose brought up Hornung and Denny McLain, who went from 31 games won in one season to the slammer, another gambling casualty. Thinking of which of them deserved to be named the king of the losers brought Tyson to mind. If I spent another hour or so thinking about it, I’d be thinking of singers choking on their own vomit and comics dying of overdoses and writers falling into the bottle and priests molesting the altar boys until I’d be ready to slash my wrists, convinced that the human race is beyond redemption.
But we have to realize that guys like Clarett are as rare as guys like Tiger Woods and Walter Payton and Tiki Barber and Michael Jordan and Mattingly who do just about everything right. It makes sense. Great talent, after all, doesn’t help you if you don’t have at least a halfway decent head to go along with it.
And since it’s all a genetic craps shoot, most of us are going to end up somewhere in the middle, and a few are going to end up at the extremes. It’s only when someone is at the extreme high end in both talent and character that he or she becomes a shining beacon of everything that’s right.
Both ends of the spectrum are probably about even. For every knucklehead, there’s a sterling person, just as for every klutz who can’t walk and chew gum there’s a physical genius.
So go ahead and have fun cursing Clarett and all the bad apples if that’s what winds your clock. But you’d better spend your time realizing how special it is to have a Jason Varitek or Derek Jeter or David Ortiz to both wonder at and admire.
They’re different ends of the spectrum, both necessary for life and our appreciation of what we have. If we don’t get spectacular crashes, we can’t appreciate spectacular success.
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.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
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Clarett arrested Aug. 9: Former college football standout Maurice Clarett was arrested early Wednesday after a police chase, and police later found four loaded guns in his SUV. |
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 Memphis fulfills BCS dream Tigers officials thrilled to announce that school has been accepted to join the Big East Conference in 2013. |
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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.
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.
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