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.
Getty ImagesA lot at stake for Blake
Federer more-than-likely awaits Blake if the American makes it to the semifinals. Blake's summer on the hardcourts has produced a winning record, but among his loses are ones that raise questions over how long he'll be able to stay around in Flushing. In the final at Los Angeles Blake lost in three sets to Radek Stepanek, ranked No. 101. At Indianapolis it was a loss to fellow American Sam Querrey, he of the No. 90 ranking at the time.
Blake's gotten to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open the past two years, but he has yet to win a five-set match in his career. That's something he may have to change with the possible hurdles of Tommy Haas, Marcos Baghdatis, and Nikolay Davydenko presenting themselves before Blake can take a crack at Federer in the semifinals.
There's no question Blake is a very good player, but maybe he’s not a champion. That's what I’m starting to feel. Blake's come close to winning in a lot of important matches, but he doesn’t seem to get the job done. It raises the question of whether he will be able to remain a solid top-10 player. He still has time to prove that he is, but there are many young and extremely talented players making their way up the pro ladder, and they will only make it tougher on Blake to remain one of the top players on tour.
A tough top half of the draw
Federer, Roddick, and Blake are in an overloaded top half of the draw with more than a few dangerous players lurking. The list includes the stylish Richard Gasquet (Wimbledon ambusher of Roddick), Tomas Berdych (still cherishing his Olympic win over Federer), Willie Canas (with his two hardcourt wins over Federer this year), 2003 runner-up Juan Carlos Ferrero, Baghdatis, and Haas.
Three troublemakers loom in the huge-serving persons longer-armed-than-most: the Leaning Tower of Zagreb, 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic, and two promising young Americans, 6-foot-9 John Isner and the 6-foot-6 Querrey. Wild card Isner phenomenally went all the way to the Washington final by blasting 144 aces and winning five straight third-set tie-breakers before Roddick cooled him down. Donald Young, the overpublicized and underachieving American junior, may be settling down, and has a shot against Aussie Chris Guccione.
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The bottom-half-of-the-draw feeders aren't as impressive, but 16th-seeded Lleyton Hewitt, the 2001 U.S. champion, seems to be pulling himself together, and looks a likely quarterfinalist against Djokovic.
I've always liked the smooth game of Mikhail Youzhny, who dumped Nadal last year. Fernando Gonzalez, Australian Open finalist along with Federer, also winner there over Nadal, is having problems, but should be watched. So should 2000 champ Marat Safin -- the delightful moaner capable of anything good or bad. Tommy Robredo is down there, too, with David Ferrer and Dmitri Tursunov, guys who can make messes of favorites -- not to overlook David Nalbandian, the last guy to mug Federer in New York, in the 2003 quarterfinals.
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.
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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.
