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.
AP
ELMONT, N.Y. - All Rick Dutrow Jr. could do now was lean on a wood railing at the test barn at Belmont Park and stare into the distance. He was looking for an answer that wasn't coming anytime soon, if ever.
Nearly an hour after Big Brown's Triple Crown bid ended with a shocking last-place finish in Saturday's Belmont Stakes, the trainer tried to explain how his seemingly invincible colt had failed so badly.
"I got no idea," he said. "I was looking for a problem, and so far I can't see a problem."
Dutrow walked alongside Big Brown in silence as the colt was led off the track and back to the barn area, with some racing fans shouting derisively, `Yeah, Dutrow!"
The trainer watched intently as Big Brown was led around the inside the barn. Each time he came around, the colt stopped suddenly and stared at Dutrow. It wasn't until the fourth go-around that Dutrow finally uttered two words.
"Hi buddy," he said to Big Brown, who then turned and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, Dutrow's 13-year-old daughter Molly walked up and gave Dad a smile.
"I'd hug you, but you're too sweaty. Any other time."
Dutrow smiled for an instant, then he hugged her — and turned and stared back into the barn.
It was perhaps his only good moment of the day.
As the race unfolded, Dutrow figured for sure Big Brown would grab the lead early, bide his time along the backstretch and then bury the opposition as he did in winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.
He exuded confidence every day leading up to Big Brown's bid to become the first Triple Crown champion in 30 years. He would say over and over that Big Brown keeps telling him he's ready for a big race.
But Big Brown was bumped in the first turn, never found his powerful stride along the backstretch and had nothing left with five-eighths of a mile to go in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont.
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"The horse kind of looks like he's fine to me, so the only thing I know is to wait and see how things go," Dutrow said, adding that Big Brown will be scoped to see if there were any health issues. "Right now, I don't see him being off; he may be off tomorrow."
Dutrow said he didn't believe the cracked front left hoof that kept Big Brown from training for three days was a factor in the loss. He also said jockey Kent Desormeaux made the right move in pulling up Big Brown in the stretch.
"It certainly seems like Kent did the right thing," he said. "When they turned for home, something wasn't right."
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"We did really good with him," the trainer said. "It was a very disappointing race. Right now, it looks like he'll live a good life if he never races again. He didn't get the Triple Crown, but we got the Derby and the Preakness, and that was great."
In the next 48 hours, a decision could be made to retire Big Brown, whose breeding rights were purchased recently for more than $50 million by Three Chimneys Farm.
"We'll see if he's OK, and if we're sure he is 100 percent getting back into training, we'll go forward with him," Dutrow said. "If not, I'm sure we'll do the next thing, which is to retire him. We're very, very proud of him."
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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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.
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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.