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.
ASSOCIATED PRESSFinally, Miami got through the season with just 13 turnovers in 16 games. Some of that is discipline and coaching — the best teams tend to take care of the ball better than the worst teams. But 13 turnovers are an NFL record, one fewer than the previous mark. That goes beyond coaching and into luck.
When the Colts went from 3-13 in 1998 to 13-3 the following year, they had Peyton Manning at the helm in his second full season and Marvin Harrison catching the ball. The Dolphins had Chad Pennington and a collection of guys you never heard of before.
So give everyone credit. Start with Huizenga, who was smart enough to hire Parcells. Even if Parcells runs away to chase another challenge — and a bigger paycheck — next year, he made the moves and hired the people who made the turnaround possible. Then give Parcells the credit he’s due. Lay another dose of credit at Sparano’s doorstep. Congratulate Chad Pennington for staying healthy all the way through the season against all odds. Give a big round of applause to a gallant band of anonymous players who refused to accept that they weren’t supposed to be any good.
Just don’t think there’s a template here that anyone else can follow to success. Teams hire top executives every year and hire coaches all the time, and no one knows which of them will be geniuses and which will be failures. Teams also grasp desperately at anyone who might represent an upgrade at quarterback, but not many of them perform like Pennington. Everybody tries to hold onto the football, but nobody has ever done it as well as the Dolphins did.
Parcells made decisions that worked out, and so did Sparano. But what really happened is that the Dolphins caught a perfect storm and rode it into history.
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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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.
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.
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