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?
LIVE VIDEO: NBCSports.com shows Washington-New York, with alternate camera angles, HD views and more.
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.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
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.
BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) -England defender Joleon Lescott preserved Manchester City's two-point lead in the Premier League by scoring a second-half winner in a 1-0 victory at Aston Villa on Sunday.
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.
EPAThe Cubs don’t buy any of this curse stuff. Former manager Dusty Baker dismissed the curse and current manager Lou Piniella has, too.
There’s lots of evidence, though, that Cubs fans take the curse seriously, starting with Web sites with names like “reversethecurse” and “dacurse.” In 2003, some Cubs fans brought a goat to the ball park in Houston to give the Astros, who were locked in a race with the Cubs, a taste of the curse — an effort that worked, by the way.
Given that the Red Sox vanquished their own “Curse of the Bambino” in 2004 and the White Sox ended their own run of futility the next year, Cubs fans might be the most apprehensive in the country.
“Whether you are 13 years old like my son, 53 like I am or somebody’s 80-year-old grandfather, in the back of your mind you’re always thinking, ’Are they going to win the World Series before I move onto the next world?”’ said Lin Brehmer, a popular radio host and devoted Cubs fan.
Given the team’s history, who can blame them? Take 1984 when the Cubs made history when they took a 2-0 game lead to San Diego in the playoffs only to lose the next three games and the series.
Or 2003, when they took a 3-2 lead against the Florida Marlins, and were within five outs of winning the series before fate stepped in yet again.
|
All of that was in Rick Brown’s head as the Chicago firefighter watched Wednesday night’s Cubs loss to the Diamondbacks at a tavern that sits right next to Wrigley Field.
“If there is one out left and they have a 10-run lead, you still have that pessimistic attitude,” Brown said. “You have faith and yet they are the lovable Cubbies and inevitably the other shoe is going to fall.”
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
 | Free video |
 |
Piniella stays optimistic Oct. 5: Manager Lou Piniella knows the Cubs are capable of coming back to win the series. |
HardballTalk headlines |
 | Interactive |
 |
 | Slideshow |
 | Unbreakable records in baseball A look at the most unbreakable records in baseball including Nolan Ryan's seven no-hitters. |
| Slideshow |
 | The top tools of baseball You hear a lot about the tools of baseball, but who are the best hitters, fielders and pitchers? We break it down. more photos |
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.
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.
NBC Sports TV and livestream listings
