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.
Check back with them in about 19 days or so and see if they still feel that way. That’s how long the Red Sox are going to be on the road, and you’ve got to wonder if the same geniuses in charge of handing out extra money were in charge of planning this brutal trip.
The players were reluctant to open the season in Japan to begin with, and who could blame them? By the time they open at home April 8, they will have played 12 games in three countries, seven of which count in the real standings. Almost as bad, they’ll be in Los Angeles playing exhibition games — including one on a field with a giant net just 195 feet away in left field — after already playing two regular-season games.
All of this because Major League Baseball hopes to sell a few more subscriptions to mlb.com, and maybe a few more Dice-K jerseys in Japan. Baseball is so enamored of the idea of branding itself in Japan that for the third time, two teams are traveling halfway around the world to start the season early.
That should make Boston fans nervous, considering the Yankees did the same thing in 2004 and played the first month of the season as though they were still jet lagged. Several players, including pitchers Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown, complained the trip hurt their early season.
As for the rest of us, we’re just trying to figure out when opening day is anymore. It used to be a Monday in Cincinnati, then became a Sunday night wherever ESPN could get the best ratings.
|
It’s bad enough that baseball doesn’t care about the youth of America by putting on postseason games when they are already in bed. But now they’re opening the season before they get up in the morning.
It’s all part of a chase for every last dollar, one that has stripped the game of almost any tradition once held dear. Greedy players and even greedier owners can’t seem to control themselves.
Maybe it’s only right that the coaches get their share.
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.
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
