Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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 ImagesThe '07 Cowboys said they were over their December woes.
New year. Wade Phillips had them fresh. A better roster.
Blah, blah, blah.
It wasn't pretty. The Cowboys fidgeted to squeeze out wins against Carolina and Detroit, a pair of 7-9 teams, and got blasted by the Eagles and Redskins, playing nowhere near the level they had for the first three months of the '07 season.
So no matter what they say this year -- in the wake of so many blown chances to beat Pittsburgh on Sunday -- it's hard to believe that members of the Cowboys' loaded roster aren't thinking about yet another December swoon.
"I think we'll compete, and compete hard," owner/GM Jerry Jones said in the immediate aftermath of the Heimlich at Heinz. "It was unrealistic to think we could win the last four, with our schedule. We saw the Giants could be had today, and we've got a home game [against them on Sunday]. In terms of having the incentive and having the players, we're relatively healthy, relative to the way we came in.
"I'm sick. I'm sick for these players. But it'll have no bearing on how we play against the Giants (on Sunday at Texas Stadium), other than having our backs to the wall more."
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So there's that.
But there's also the fact the December curse traces well beyond the last 12 months.
It takes a mentally tough team to overcome that kind of history. Sunday's loss at Pittsburgh hardly indicates the Cowboys have that.
Given the chance to step on a contender's throat in a brutal place to play and in terrible conditions, Dallas let the Steelers slide. The idea, of course, was to exhibit a killer instinct and not let that happen.
"That was the attitude," Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears said. "But they get paid, too. They just made some plays, and we weren't able to stop them. I don't think that we had in our mind that we could let up and allow them to do things. They made plays, and we weren't able to like we had all game."
The fact the Steelers' defense made plays -- to be expected -- isn't the problem. The Cowboys made their share of plays, too.
It's the jarring problem with the details that killed Dallas last year and could do the same again in '08.
Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
Rotoworld: Texas A&M QB Ryan Tannehill among the 10 players who will slip down draft boards, but probably shouldn't.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
