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?
LIVE VIDEO: NBCSports.com shows Washington-New York, with alternate camera angles, HD views and more.
PBT: Jeremy Lin wasn't his hot self on Saturday, but he still led the Knicks to victory.
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.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
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.
BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) -England defender Joleon Lescott preserved Manchester City's two-point lead in the Premier League by scoring a second-half winner in a 1-0 victory at Aston Villa on Sunday.
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.
Reuters fileLost in much of the pre-Classic storyline was a lack of respect for the accomplishments of Invasor. Only after the race did it finally resonate that the young Southern Hemisphere 4-year-old was undefeated in American Grade 1 company, twice overcoming trouble and once surviving the most strenuous stretch duel of the handicap season after first enduring multiple challengers. Which brings us to Bernardini.
Bernardini is a genuine star. His Preakness victory, largely under-appreciated in the wake of Barbaro’s tragic breakdown, hinted as much. What followed was a series of rocking chair victories as he won the Jim Dandy by 9 lengths “under wraps,” the Travers by 7-½ “in control,” and the Jockey Club Gold Cup by 6-3/4s, again “under wraps.” The nature of these triumphs combined with considerable charisma and classy carriage wowed even the most cynically astute horsemen and handicappers.
Unfortunately, these stylish victories left him ill-prepared for the challenge to come from a horse that has now won nine of 10 lifetime starts, seven in Grade or Group 1 company, and now a champion on two continents. In three victories since the Preakness, Bernardini’s youthful jockey Javier Castellano appeared more interested in styling and index-finger pointing than preparing his mount for the tougher challenges to come this fall. The colt was learning bad habits. No one can blame him for not being mentally prepared when Invasor surprised him in deep stretch, the first time Bernardini was challenged from behind after having made the lead.
Observers talked about the strong wide run Bernardini made from fifth to first on that famed final bend at Churchill Downs. But to sophisticated horsemen it wasn’t the same brilliance he showed in any of his earlier victories. He had to work to gain the lead, moving a tad prematurely in the bargain. Indeed he labored just to hold his position approaching the far turn when it appeared he was having some difficulty negotiating the cuppy ground breaking away with every stride.
If it weren’t Bernardini under the microscope, his would have been an effort worthy of accolades for the courage shown in the face of some adversity against the deepest field of handicap runners assembled all year. But this is Bernardini, a colt who will stand at stud for $100,000 next year instead of proving that he belongs in the same pantheon with Secretariat and Seattle Slew.
As the racetrackers say, “they all get beat,” just like Secretariat and Seattle Slew, and there’s no disgrace in that. But the pity is that Bernardini is still potentially a great champion, maybe one for the ages, which never will get an opportunity to show it as a mature 4-year-old.
Because the breeding industry is the tail that wags the dog, thoroughbred racing is more business than sport. If Bernardini were mine and is as sound as he appears to everyone to be, I would sell a big enough minority piece to a friend with bucks to cover the insurance premiums and secure my family’s future then demonstrate my faith in his greatness. But that’s just me. Of course, Sheikh Mohammed is unencumbered by such real world constraints. Sportsmen, even those in name only, usually don’t need to resort to such measures.
The first of three pools of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager begins its three-day run on Friday and the bet's opening scenario is very similar to each of its opening pools since the wager was created in 1999.
It's first time that Classic will be broadcast in primetime on Nov. 3.
 | INTERACTIVE |
 |
 | Slideshow |
 | Derby celebs Plenty of stars from the entertainment and sports world attend the 136th Kentucky Derby. more photos |
| INTERACTIVE |
 | Triple Crown winners The horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in the same year. |
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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.
NBC Sports TV and livestream listings