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.
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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.
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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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
ALAMEDA, Calif. - Southern California quarterbacks coach Steve Sarkisian became the first candidate on Monday to interview for the Oakland Raiders’ head coaching vacancy.
Sarkisian, 32, was Oakland’s quarterbacks coach in 2004 in between stints at USC, where he helped tutor Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer and John David Booty.
The Raiders are hoping to complete this year’s search for Art Shell’s replacement in a shorter time frame than the more than five weeks it took to replace Norv Turner a year ago. Shell was fired last week after setting a franchise record for losses in a 2-14 season.
“I met for hours with Al Davis. I think Al Davis is great. The meeting went very well,” Sarkisian told KPIX-TV. “I’m leaving in the morning. They’ll be interviewing several more candidates, but I should know something in the next three days.”
Other potential candidates for the Raiders’ job include defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, offensive coordinator John Shoop, former Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green and former New York Giants coach Jim Fassel.
At USC, Sarkisian coached Heisman Trophy winners in Palmer and Leinart and helped develop Booty into one of the early favorites for the Heisman next season. Booty threw for 391 yards and four scores in last week’s Rose Bowl win over Michigan and will return to the Trojans for his senior season.
Sarkisian left USC for one season to become the Raiders’ quarterbacks coach in 2004. Oakland ranked eighth in the NFL in passing that season with 4,019 yards passing.
That’s a far cry from this season, when Oakland ranked second-to-last with 2,420 yards passing and posted the fifth-fewest points in a 16-game season with 168.
With much of the NFL’s third-ranked defense set to return next season, owner Al Davis will likely turn to an offensive coach. Oakland also has the No. 1 pick in April’s draft and could use it on quarterback Brady Quinn of Notre Dame or JaMarcus Russell of LSU, if he decides to turn pro as expected on Wednesday.
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While Sarkisian is young, Davis has a history of identifying sharp coaching minds. Davis gave the first professional head coaching jobs to John Madden, Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden when all three were in their 30s. Only Madden won the Super Bowl with Oakland; Shanahan did it with Denver, Gruden with Tampa Bay.
Gruden is the only coach to have a winning record with the Raiders since the team returned from Los Angeles in 1995. He was 38-26 in four seasons, taking the team to the postseason twice before leaving to take the Bucs job following the 2001 season.
Gruden left a Super Bowl team in place and his Buccaneers ended up beating Bill Callahan’s Raiders the following season for the title. Oakland has won just 15 games since, going through three coaches in the past four seasons.
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.
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.
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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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