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.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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.
AFP/Getty Images
MELBOURNE, Australia - Top-ranked Rafael Nadal will be the No. 1 seed at the Australian Open starting Monday, ending Roger Federer’s four-year run atop the Melbourne Park draw.
Jelena Jankovic, one of six women to hold the No. 1 ranking last season, also received a top seed for the year’s first major, with three-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams seeded second.
Federer is the No. 2 seed on the men’s side.
Nadal beat Federer in the French Open and Wimbledon finals last season. After winning the Olympic gold medal at Beijing in August, the 22-year-old Spaniard snapped Federer’s record 237 consecutive weeks at No. 1.
He withdrew from the Masters Series event in Paris with tendinitis in his right knee and didn’t play in the season-ending Masters Cup or Spain’s Davis Cup final win over Argentina.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic was given the No. 3 seed and Scottish player Andy Murray, who comes into the tournament off wins at an Abu Dhabi exhibition and at the Qatar Open, is No. 4.
With Nikolay Davydenko withdrawing because of a heel injury, Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga — who beat Nadal in the semifinals here last year and then lost the final — received the No. 5 seed, with Gilles Simon at No. 6.
American Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion and a three-time semifinalist at the Australian Open, was seeded seventh.
Russia’s Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva, the Olympic finalists, were seeded third and fourth, respectively, behind Jankovic and Williams.
Last year’s Australian Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic was the fifth seed and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams was sixth.
Defending champion Maria Sharapova has been sidelined since just after Wimbledon with an injured right shoulder and is not defending her title in Australia.
The draw for the Australian Open will be held Friday.
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.
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Australian Open men's champions From Rod Laver to Novak Djokovic, take a look at the Open era champions Down Under. more photos |
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The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
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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.
