Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
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.
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Ignore that Ryan Hollweg somehow survived Simon's brutal stick attack with only some stitches in his chin. Never mind Simon's claims that he has a concussion from Hollweg's hit from behind and didn't know what he was doing when he hunted Hollweg and swung his stick at his head. Concussions are an injury of convenience in this league -- most often ignored at the player's peril and sometimes diagnosed and discussed when it could benefit the player or his team.
Simon is responsible for his actions. Others have played with concussions and not done what he did. And the lack of a serious injury to Hollweg doesn't lessen the offense, either.
If Hollweg were lying in a hospital right now in a coma, would the league's punishment have been more severe? There is no doubt in my mind.
That is a mistake. It is part of the problem with the sliding scales of justice in the NHL, the unwillingness to have a blanket punishment for hits to the head or assaults with the stick. It's nice to judge things on a case-by-case basis, in theory. In practicality, it just keeps the incidents coming.
But the league will defend itself and call this decision harsh. In numbers, Simon's minimum 25-game suspension will look bigger than the one Marty McSorley received more than seven years ago when he hit Donald Brashear in the head with his stick. But that's a technicality. McSorley's punishment was much more severe. He missed the final 23 games of the regular season, but commissioner Gary Bettman extended the suspension to a calendar year. McSorley was 36 years old at the time of the incident and never got back to the NHL.
Simon's suspension for his two-handed swing at Hollweg's head nets him this minimum 25-game suspension. It includes the Islanders' final 15 games of the regular season and any playoff games they may play. If they play fewer than 10 playoff games, the suspension would continue over into next season until he has missed 25 NHL games. The maximum the suspension could be is 43 games -- if the Islanders were to play four, seven-game series in the playoffs.
In the offseason, Simon will be free to sign with whoever is willing to take him. At 35, maybe he won't get another offer, but chances are he will. It's a good bet Chris Simon will be in an NHL game next October and for that, the league should be ashamed.
This is not about Chris Simon, the man. This is about Chris Simon's actions. Those actions say he shouldn't step on the ice as an NHL player the rest of this season and all of next season. The league's decision says he can. It's too bad.
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
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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.
The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.
On their last trip to Atlanta, the Miami Heat were missing two-thirds of their Big Three.
