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.
APHe turned 29 in January, has a career average of .335 in his ninth season with the Cardinals, helped win the 2006 World Series and has won two Most Valuable Player awards.
“Just look at what he did,” La Russa said. “He’s got great instincts, just wants to win. Every 10 times he does something, eight times it works. He’s playing to help you win. The other day he was upset because he didn’t move the runner across.”
La Russa then muttered something about Pujols being in a “middle generation” and he ended with the names Aaron and Musial. He didn’t give their first names, but it sounded like a compliment to Pujols.
Oh, and Pujols is also a hands-on philanthropist. He and his wife, Deidre, who have a daughter with Down syndrome, operate the Pujols Family Foundation, giving help to similar families. Having moved from the Dominican Republic to Independence, Mo., to live with family members when he was 16, Pujols is a fixture in the region. He is approaching the careers of Brock and Sisler, Hornsby and Gibson, among the icons honored by two-thirds-scale statues outside left field. There are currently 10 statues, with Mark McGwire’s under lock and key for the foreseeable future.
Pujols is more often compared to another icon these days. On a very nippy opening day here, he was photographed buttoning the jacket of the 88-year-old Stan Musial, who was about to be receive an ovation.
“He called me over,” Pujols recalled Thursday. “He wanted to say hello.” It is good company to be keeping. Musial came here from the Monongahela Valley south of Pittsburgh, and stayed. Pujols looks as if he has staying power, too.
“Do I want to be in St. Louis forever?” Pujols said in spring training. “Of course, because that city has opened the door to me and my family like no other city is ever going to do.”
He reserved the right to leave, but said he did not expect any baseball town to ever compare with St. Louis. The organization might want to commission at least a few rough sketches for one of those statues.
This article, "For Now, Pujols Is at Home in St. Louis," first appeared in The New York Times.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
HardballTalk headlines |
 | Interactive |
 |
 | Slideshow |
 | Unbreakable records in baseball A look at the most unbreakable records in baseball including Nolan Ryan's seven no-hitters. |
| Slideshow |
 | The top tools of baseball You hear a lot about the tools of baseball, but who are the best hitters, fielders and pitchers? We break it down. more photos |
 | Slideshow |
 |
The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
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.
NBC Sports TV and livestream listings