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.
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.
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.
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.
APThe training regimen for both is serious. Kobayashi lifts weights to add muscle and increase metabolism, and exercises to make sure no fat is around his stomach to impede expansion. Chestnut consumes only water, milk and protein supplements for three days, then chomps down as many hot dogs as he can in 10 minutes on day four. He even listens to "Rocky" music, though he doesn’t follow his engorgement by running up the steps of anything.
So the stage is set for an epic showdown. Except this rivalry has one more bit of intrigue – reports that Kobayashi might be too hurt to compete.
On his Japanese-language blog, Kobayashi reported he has developed jaw problems, including arthritis. "I feel ashamed that I couldn't notice the alarm bells set off by my own body," he wrote. "But with the goal to win another title with a new record, I couldn’t stop my training so close to the competition. I was continuing my training and bearing with the pain but finally I destroyed my jaw."
Chestnut responded by saying he wondered if Kobayashi was sandbagging now that he had actual competition for his hot-dog title, which Kobayashi denied, though the talk of injury appears to be setting up another kind of rivalry moment – the Leonard-Duran "no mas" fight, in which Roberto Duran quit midfight when Sugar Ray Leonard was beating him up too much.
It would be a shame if Chestnut — ranked No. 2 to No. 1 Kobayashi in the International Federation of Competitive Eating rankings — ascended to the top spot without having a chance to beat a healthy Kobayashi one-on-one. If Kobayashi’s jaw problems are as serious as he says — for example, he can’t open his jaw enough to put more than one finger in it — then the epic rivalry will fizzle in a hurry, and take the "sport" of competitive eating with it. A great rivalry ends with a epic bang, not a, ahem, reversal of fortune.
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.
NEW YORK (AP) - As the glow fades from the Giants' Super Bowl triumph, some New York sports fans are tuning in to basketball and hockey, with the Rangers in first place and the Knicks' overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, sparking "Lin-sanity.''
Robins: This year, six new breeds will be making their debut on the green carpet for the Westminster Dog Show, which begins Monday.
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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.
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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.