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 for NASCARWell, sure, I guess anything is possible but ...
If Jimmie Johnson finishes this weekend's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 25th place or better, he'll win his fourth straight championship.
In his career, Johnson has finished worse than 25th a total of 39 times. That's only 16 percent of his starts.
He averages 5.57 finishes lower than 25th per season. His worst season in this regard was his rookie year (2002), in which he finished 26th or worse seven times. His best was 2006, in which he had just three finishes below 25th. So far this season, he has six finishes below that mark.
Currently, Johnson's lead over second-place Mark Martin is 108 points. Martin has gained more than 108 points over Johnson in a single race nine times. In five of those instances, Johnson crashed. In two of them, the No. 48 had some sort of mechanical failure. One was a rain-shortened race. That means Martin has gained more than 108 points on Johnson in a single race only once without some sort of outside force exerted on the No. 48. That was in the second Rockingham race of Johnson's rookie season.
Johnson has raced at Homestead-Miami eight times. His first start was in 2001, before he had a full-time Cup ride. In that race he finished -- you guessed it -- 25th. Only once has he finished worse than that at Homestead: 2005. He entered that race second in the standings, 52 points behind Tony Stewart. Johnson crashed and fell to fifth in the final standings, 127 points out.
The other two times Johnson entered the final race at this track second in the standings, he recorded his best Miami finishes: third in 2003 -- when Matt Kenseth ran away with the pre-Chase championship -- and second in 2004, when he used the race to cut Kurt Busch's points lead from 18 to 8.
Martin's average finish at Homestead-Miami is 12th. If he finishes 12th this weekend, then all Johnson has to do is start the race in order to win the championship. If Martin manages to finish fifth, then Johnson needs to finish 38th -- matching his abysmal Texas result from a couple of weeks ago -- to win the Championship.
These statistical nuggets just reinforce what we've known for weeks: Johnson will be your 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion. Congratulations to him, Chad Knaus, Rick Hendrick and the entire No. 48 crew.
Buzz Cutler is a co-host of Rowdy.com. For the best NASCAR community on the internet go to Rowdy.com.
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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.
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.
