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 three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
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.
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.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
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 file
MIAMI - Ricky Williams says he was briefly tempted to smoke marijuana during the Miami Dolphins’ bye weekend, an act that could have ended his roller-coaster NFL career.
Williams has been in the league’s substance-abuse program since 2002 and has tested positive for marijuana.
Williams told The Miami Herald for Tuesday’s editions that when players were given Friday off, “automatically your mind, which is so constrained since training camp began ... says, ‘I’m free, what can I do?”’
“So there was definitely an urge,” he said. “But I just thought about what I have to lose, and it was easy. The urge didn’t last very long.”
Since 2004, the Dolphins running back has played only 16 NFL games, including three this year. If Williams were to smoke marijuana again, he would likely be out of the NFL for good because he has already violated the league drug policy four times.
“There’s no space, no wiggle room for me,” Williams said.
He said that doesn’t scare him, because he feels he’s in control and on the right path. He said he successfully combated the latest urge to smoke by meditating instead, which gives him the same “feeling of being free” as marijuana.
“A lot of times when people have some kind of addiction, what happens is they make a mistake and trip up and afterward say, ‘I don’t know what I was thinking,”’ he said. “If you always try to be aware of what is going on in your mind, you won’t ever get to that point where it’s too late.”
The 1998 Heisman Trophy winner and 2002 NFL rushing champion said it’s normal to have an urge to smoke. Williams is tested nine times per month on a random basis. The man who administers the urinalysis for the NFL sometimes shows up at Williams’ home before dawn.
Williams said he will not smoke marijuana again while he’s in the NFL, but he’s uncertain whether he’ll abstain when his career ends.
“I’d be lying if I said I’m never going to do it again after I’m done,” he said. “I don’t know. I don’t spend much time thinking about it.”
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.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
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.