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.
APThe data does suggest that Big Brown’s fellow 3-year-olds are not world-beaters at this early stage of their careers. Of Big Brown’s opponents in the Belmont, for instance, only one other horse — Casino Drive — has ever earned a triple digit Beyer speed figure, which is often used as a benchmark for contenders in Triple Crown races. Big Brown, on the other hand, has recorded triple digit figures in four of his five career races.
Dutrow finds such criticism baffling, saying it makes no sense to diss Big Brown just because he’s that much better than his competitors.
“These horses just cannot run with Big Brown,” he said. “It’s not Big Brown’s fault and it’s not their fault.”
But for some fans, the combination of unlovable connections and suspect competition is too much to swallow. Even some of those who have publicly yearned for the exposure that a Triple Crown would bring to racing say they can’t get behind Big Brown.
And the disenchanted aren’t mere casual followers of racing. They are hard-core fans who pack their fannies into ice-cold seats at Aqueduct to take in a midwinter weekday card, who plan vacations around the Saratoga and Del Mar meets and drive hundreds of miles to see the slowest horses compete at county fairs. The same ones who can tick off from memory the roster of the 11 thoroughbreds that have captured the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes over a five-week period.
Take Terry Bjork for instance. An ardent racing fan from Illinois who spends much of his free time traveling to racetracks around the country and then chronicling his visits online, he wrote in a recent post titled “Triple Yawn” on the online racing forum the Derby list stating that he is completely indifferent to Big Brown’s bid:
For Dutrow, this is the one barb that hits the mark. His misdeeds and the shortcomings of the competition should not, he says, be held against the most remarkable horse he as ever trained.
“If anyone out there that is not rooting for Big Brown, if they were to meet the horse, I'm sure they would."
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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 | 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. |
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The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. 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.
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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.