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.
Getty ImagesIt's a brutal NFC East
They play in the most talented division in the NFL, so it’s a steel-cage match just to make the playoffs. Remember, this team must compete with the Cowboys — arguably the NFC's most talented crew — and an Eagles squad that has their own designs on the Super Bowl.
If Manning and the Giants don't win the Super Bowl, it shouldn’t be seen as a major comedown. That’d be like a lottery winner kicking the dog because he doesn’t hit 20 on a scratch ticket the following day. Last season was pennies from heaven, a gift from whatever god is in charge of the NFL.
When a quarterback finishes 29th in the regular season in completion percentage ahead of only Cleo Lemon, Rex Grossman and Kellen Clemens, is 25th in quarterback rating and then wins the Super Bowl? You run and hide with that result.
The best part for Eli and the Giants is … he did it. He showed that — despite his sometimes maddening unevenness — he’s not afraid of the stage. He’s not a laughable leader. He is to be taken very seriously. Not as seriously as his brother, perhaps, or the man he outdueled in the Super Bowl, Tom Brady. He has that Super Bowl pelt on his wall as evidence.
Even if people point to the celebrated last-minute completion to David Tyree in the Super Bowl — a desperate heave that came only after Manning somehow escaped the Patriots' pass rush — as proof that Manning has matured, he issues some caution.
"I don't think (one play changes you)," Manning says. "I think maybe it helps to quiet some things down. But I've always had great confidence in myself, and after a bad game I can shrug it off."
Bottom line? You don’t have to doubt and dismiss Eli Manning and the Giants in 2008. But you’d be wise not to expect anything close to what happened last season.
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.
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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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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