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.
APThe city of Louisville has gotten into the act by stretching out the Derby Festival it started in 1935 into a three-week extravaganza that features everything from fireworks and steamboat races to a marathon and a wine festival.
Despite the seemingly endless appetite of the marketplace for all things Derby, the underpinnings of the historic race are not entirely solid. Because the race depends on other tracks around the country to offer opportunities for horses to earn their way to Louisville, it is only as healthy as the overall horse racing industry. And most analysts see horse racing as in decline, noting that it attracts a declining share of U.S. gambling dollars amid increased competition from lotteries, casino gambling and Internet wagering.
The Derby also is facing a challenge to its historic continuity from within the sport. Numerous tracks around the country have installed artificial racing surfaces in the last several years in an effort to lessen the number of serious injuries to racehorses. While preliminary data suggest that they have had the desired effect, they also have created a situation where several of the contenders in this year’s Derby have never raced on real dirt, as they must on Saturday.
That has drawn loud complaints from horseplayers, who say that the artificial surfaces produce inconsistent times and results that defy prediction, and make it impossible to predict how a horse will run on the dirt. And some are forecasting that betting will decline as horse gamblers vote with their wallets.
Churchill Downs has so far indicated it has no intention of replacing its storied dirt track – where War Admiral, Seattle Slew, Secretariat and many other equine greats raced – with an artificial surface. But if the artificial surfaces are proved safer, can tradition withstand the sort of public outcry that followed Barbaro’s ultimately fatal injury in the 2006 Preakness Stakes?
Sexton said that the company is continuing to monitor the performance of the synthetic surfaces, but at this point sees no reason to switch.
“We’re not opposed to change,” he said,” … but so far the injury rates we’ve seen from synthetic surfaces are not better than our own.”
While most racing purists grudgingly accept the increasingly corporate culture of the Derby, the basic structure of the race is considered sacrosanct. Consider how baseball fans would react if Major League Baseball suddenly decided to switch to aluminum bats.
But neither is it clear whether the Derby can continue to be run on the dirt if more tracks switch to synthetic surfaces. If horseplayers can’t figure out how a horse is likely to run in a given race, they are certain to lose interest. And as much as television broadcasts emphasize the pageantry and history of the Derby, gambling is the engine that drives the bus.
Sexton said that if, as additional information comes in, it becomes apparent that synthetic surfaces are reducing injuries, management would have to consider switching.
“We’re all about safety,” he said.
That possibility worries many who make their living racing horses. Such an important change could affect the Derby’s unique spot in the American sporting landscape and undermine an event that is critical for a sport that has problems attracting new fans.
“There’s nothing like this anywhere in the world,” said Eoin Harty, an Irish-born trainer who has his first Derby starter this year.
The first of three pools of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager begins its three-day run on Friday and the bet's opening scenario is very similar to each of its opening pools since the wager was created in 1999.
It's first time that Classic will be broadcast in primetime on Nov. 3.
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Matty Blake makes Mint Juleps May 1: Matty mingles with locals in Kentucky and stirs up a drink in preparation for the Derby. |
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 | Derby celebs Plenty of stars from the entertainment and sports world attend the 136th Kentucky Derby. more photos |
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 | Triple Crown winners The horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in the same year. |
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.
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