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 three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
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.
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.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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.
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Even in defeat, there was no better way this Michigan squad could have honored Bo Schembechler’s memory and proved it learned his lessons than the way it fought back time after time against Ohio State.
The stubbornness the Wolverines displayed by run, run, running themselves back into the game in the second half; the way they didn’t quit until the clock made them; the fierceness they showed skeptics who said a rematch in the national title game wouldn’t be the best outcome to this madcap season — those were all things that the old man would have loved.
For all that, Lloyd Carr wanted to be sure everyone knew that his mentor’s death a day earlier had nothing to do with the outcome of The Game.
“I want to be clear,” Carr began his postgame news conference, choking back tears after the Buckeyes claimed a 42-39 win over the Wolverines for an automatic berth in the national title game. “It would not be fair to Bo.
“I’m a little mad at him because he didn’t stay around for this game. But it wouldn’t be fair to use that in any way, and we don’t. And all I could say about him,” Carr paused, his voice cracking one more time, “is I loved that man.”
Everybody who ever looked in on this most storied of rivalries feels that way.
Schembechler and his mentor, Ohio State legend Woody Hayes, turned it into the best game on the college football calendar most every year, something even the kids who were born after both coaches were gone from the sideline knew. Just before kickoff, one of them hoisted a sign that read, “Bo and Woody in Heaven: Play Nice.”
Back on the slippery turf of Ohio Stadium, though, their successors played it any way but that. What was supposed to be a tractor pull between two of the country’s toughest defenses played out like the 24 Hours of Daytona instead — an endurance race in which the Buckeyes zoomed out ahead with one big play after another, yet still struggled to get Michigan out of its rearview mirror.
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“He just said if we want to win, we’ve got to come out and win the line of scrimmage,” running back Mike Hart recalled. “That’s Bo — offensive and defensive lines win games.”
But while he didn’t get the specifics right during his talk, Schembechler’s example — even in death — steeled the Wolverines for what was to come.
“It’s sad to see him go,” said quarterback Chad Henne, who like Hart posted very respectable numbers in his third consecutive loss to the Buckeyes.
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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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.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
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.
