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 three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
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.
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.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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.
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Just look at the standings. If the playoffs started today, the New Jersey Nets would be in the playoffs with a .441 winning percentage, and the Denver Nuggets would be out with a .593 winning percentage.
Also out would be the Portland Trail Blazers with a .517 winning percentage, while going to the dance would be the Philadelphia 76ers, who are blazing along at a .450 clip. In the East, the Wizards, who are one game under .500, are just about a lock for the playoffs.
This is a double whammy for the league and the teams involved. While teams like the Nets may benefit from two home games at playoff prices by making the playoffs, they don’t make the NBA draft lottery. But the Nuggets, who are one of the league’s better teams, do. The lottery and the draft are designed to make bad teams better. In this case, it makes a good team better and bad teams worse.
Better to just ditch the whole East-West thing and simply take the six division champions and then the next 10 best teams on winning percentage. That, at least, is fair, which is more than can be said of the current system.
At a minimum, adopt a rule that no team that can’t win at least as many games as it loses can get into the playoffs until all teams that can meet that simple test of mediocrity are in first. If there are any slots left, then let them go to the conference that has the fewest teams in the playoffs.
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