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.
AP file
BEIJING - Efforts to link China to the Darfur crisis are “irresponsible and unfair,” a government spokesman said in comments published Thursday, following director Steven Spielberg’s decision to drop out as a Beijing Olympics adviser on human rights grounds.
The Hollywood heavyweight had been brought in as an artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies of Games, but said he will not participate because he felt China wasn’t doing enough to pressure Sudan into ending the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region.
“The Darfur issue is not China’s internal affair and was not started by China. Linking the two is nonsense; it is also irresponsible and unfair,” an unidentified spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. was quoted as saying in the state-run Global Times newspaper.
“Many people think the Olympics are a sports event but the West wants to bind sports and politics, this is a clumsy trick,” said the highly nationalistic daily, published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
Chinese officials have consistently said they opposed any attempt to “politicize” the highly anticipated Olympics, which begin Aug. 8. But neither the Foreign Ministry or the Beijing organizing committee have responded specifically to Spielberg’s decision.
Spielberg had indicated as early as August that he might not take part in the ceremonies. The director said he had given up hope that China would take a more aggressive approach toward Sudan.
China is believed to have special influence with the Islamic regime because it buys two-thirds of the country’s oil exports while selling it weapons and defending Khartoum in the U.N. Security Council.
Fighting between government-backed militia and rebels in Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and left an estimated 2.5 million displaced since 2003.
“While China’s representatives have conveyed to me that they are working to end the terrible tragedy in Darfur, the grim realities of the suffering continue unabated,” Spielberg said in a statement.
Beijing has invested billions of dollars and its national prestige into what it hopes will be a glorious showcase of China’s rapid development from impoverished agrarian nation to rising industrial power.
|
Yet it has been unable to turn back a rising tide of negative global opinion that joins concerns over the city’s notorious pollution, snarled traffic and displacement of people for the construction of Olympic venues.
In recent days, the U.S. Congress and a coalition of Nobel Peace Prize winners, politicians and elite athletes have also lobbied Beijing over Darfur.
Actress Mia Farrow and other activists delivered an open letter addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Chinese Mission to the United Nations in New York on Tuesday.
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.
 | Slide show |
 | The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
| Slideshow |
 | Who's hot on Twitter? Check out which of your favorite athletes have the best pages and most followers! NBCSports.com |
 | Special feature |
 | NBCSports.com |
| Slideshow |
 | Presidential candidates and sports How do President Obama and his Republican rivals stack up when it comes to their sports backgrounds? |
Inside NBCSports.com |
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
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.
