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.
Getty Images fileMike Vick is semi-free, dumb, and still probably physically gifted enough to play professional football in the NFL.
Still stupid, he leaves Leavenworth today, having thrown away millions on worthless childhood friends and a peculiar blindness to the implicit evil of watching animals kill each other for sport.
He will take various forms of transport to his big, stupid house in Hampton, Virginia, and then work a $10-per-hour job as a construction worker in his own dumb, not-so-bright way until he leaves Federal custody on July 20.
At that point, the Atlanta Falcons will say, "Roger Goodell, please reinstate the idiot we foolishly threw millions upon millions of dollars at, so we can take his stupid self and release him, thus allowing some other team to take a chance on making this complete and total idiot an NFL quarterback."
Roger Goodell will probably then agree, signing a few papers and publicly announcing that the moron known as Mike Vick can play football, if only because he's done his time and because perhaps the moron can do some good as an NFL QB.
Then the obtuse twit known as Mike Vick can attempt to rejoin a franchise. It would help if the franchise was an especially stupid one, since the real essence of the Mike Vick party comes to someone with absolutely zero intelligence attempting to deal with being astonishingly wealthy.
Wax romantic about the possible convoluted complexities of his psyche, of the excuses of his hard upbringing, of the intricacies of dogfighting culture. Ultimately this comes down to the condition of being a very talented idiot, a fortunate condition Vick has squandered magnificently.
What's making me squeamish isn't dubbing his a life lived in the key of dumbass, since there is abundant evidence to point out that Mike Vick isn't that bright, and hasn't been for a while. (Just read the bankruptcy settlement and its listing of unaccounted for millions for evidence of this.)
My squeamishness comes in the hope that he'll somehow become something in the public eye other than what he is: a brilliant idiot currently caught in the downcycle of fate's wheel. He could be just as dazzling on the field of play again as a player, and even then the mind will want to project greater, grander things on him as an athlete, the oldest kind of lie for a sports fan: that Mike Vick's on-field bursts of genius have something to do with anything else he does as a person.
Laugh now, but the redemption script awaits, and all he needs to do is read along with the help of agents, handlers, and ESPN. Everyone else knows their parts down pat, and will happily play along. He may even mean it, though you'll never know.
The point is not to dismiss this possibility, but to remember that the actor in question suffers from an incurable condition for which there is no cure: stupidity. It may flare up at any point without warning, and its side effects are endless. Take your chances with him at your own risk.
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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Falling star Take a look back at Michael Vick's rise to NFL superstardom, his fall following his involvement in dogfighting and his comeback attempt. more photos |
Eagles sign Michael Vick |
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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 |
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.
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.
