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.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
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.
APMeanwhile, Rodriguez, who lived with his mother even after joining the Mariners, continued to work through his feelings of isolation. It had been his father, Victor, a onetime pro ballplayer in the Dominican Republic, who had introduced Rodriguez to baseball. In 1984, after having moved his family three times in four years, Victor abandoned his family in Miami and moved back to New York, where Rodriguez had been born on July 27, 1975. "I kept thinking my father would come back," he said in 1996. "But he never did." (Rodriguez's father contacted him the week he was drafted. The two have been in intermittent contact since then.)
To support Alex (along with his brother, Joe, and his sister, Susy), his mother, Lourdes, took two jobs, answering phones as a secretary during the day and waiting tables at night. Alex spent his time at the Miami Boys & Girls Club, where he met Eddie Rodriguez (no relation), who ran both the club and its baseball team. There were days, Rodriguez wrote, when Eddie would stay with him until 11:00 at night, when his mother got off work. Rodriguez lapped up the affection of the older man, and to this day, he doesn't make a major decision in his life without conferring with his one-time coach. Eddie, who still coaches at the Boys & Girls Club, is humble about the influence he had on the future superstar's life: "I've been blessed with the ability to help kids of all kinds," he says.
At Westminster Christian, a parochial high school in the Miami suburb of Palmetto Bay, Rodriguez was both an honors student and a once-in-a-generation athletic talent. Despite being recruited to play college football — as quarterback, he almost led the team to a state championship — he chose to focus on baseball in his senior year. On a team that featured two other future major leaguers, he was the star. Along with the dozens of scouts who regularly showed up at practices was Boras, a 40-year-old former minor-league outfielder who had established himself as one of the toughest negotiators in the game. By the time Rodriguez graduated in 1993, Boras had become an unofficial "adviser" (once a player signs with an agent, he loses his college eligibility), and after Rodriguez was drafted, Boras helped the teenager's family in their discussions with the Mariners.
The negotiations were contentious, and it wasn't until hours before Rodriguez was due to show up at his first class at the University of Miami that he agreed to a three-year deal worth $2.3 million. On the cusp of leaving home, the teen phenom had found someone else in whom to put his faith. It was the beginning of a business arrangement that would make both Boras and Rodriguez rich men.
Three years later, during his breakout season, Rodriguez began a decade-long relationship with Jim Fannin, who became yet another male authority figure he could lean on. A self-styled inspirational life coach, Fannin told me that Rodriguez wanted help accomplishing his primary goals — winning the World Series and making it into the Hall of Fame. Before every single game for the next 10 years, Fannin either spoke with Rodriguez or left him a message, giving him the same mantra: "I hit solid with an accelerated bat head."
By the end of 2000, the 25-year-old Rodriguez's accelerated bat head had collected more than 175 home runs and 550 RBIs. A-Rod had been a big leaguer for the better part of six seasons — the amount of time baseball players need in order to declare free agency. It was an opportunity that Boras would make the most of.
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 |
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.
