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.
“We do not condone any behavior that involves cruelty to animals,” the Mets said in a statement. “We understand, however, that in many other countries activities such as bullfighting and cockfighting are both legal and part of the culture.”
Except for baseball, cockfighting is widely considered the Dominican Republic’s most popular sport. Almost every small town along the Caribbean nation’s highways boasts a covered fighting ring where trainers come to test their best roosters and rich and poor alike fill the wooden stands to drink, wager and watch the bloody spectacle.
One of the best-known fighting rings is in Martinez’s hometown of Manoguayabo, made famous in 1991 as the opening setting for Michelle Wucker’s noted history of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, “Why the Cocks Fight.”
The island’s fighting Mecca is the Coliseo Gallistico de Santo Domingo, a sparkling indoor arena on the outskirts of the Dominican capital where fights are tracked on an electronic scoreboard and waitresses walk the aisles with trays of beer and empanadas. Generals, politicians and cockfighting celebrities have their names painted onto assigned parking spaces outside.
On fight days, well-heeled Dominicans and curious foreigners — almost all of them men — put on their best suits, polo shirts and chacabanas for a card with as many as 30 fights. Between bouts, bettors tour the fiberglass cages where prime roosters are examined with the same keenness of eye as a regular in the paddock at Churchill Downs.
The fight begins when two roosters are lowered into the arena. Men in blue or white coats more at home in a laboratory or butcher shop prep the fighters, taunting them into a frenzy with a third rooster. As the timed fight begins, the crowd erupts in a flurry of one-on-one betting, flashing hand signals across the room to signal fast-changing odds with the ironclad frenzy of a New York trade floor.
Roosters are generally armed with a small bone or resin spur meant to inflict maximum damage on their opponents, and the blood, feathers and poultry stench that linger afterward are a testament to their potency.
But the roosters do not always die. Matches are timed, 10-15 minutes in length, and many end in a draw with both chickens bloodied and exhausted, but alive to fight another day.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
HBT: Prince Fielder is gone and Ryan Braun will likely miss a third of the season because of a failed PED test. Can Milwaukee stay in contention until he gets back?
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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.
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.