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.
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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.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had 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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
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Mr. Iditarod Lance Mackey beat 71 other mushers in 2010 to win 1,100-mile race for fourth straight time. more photos |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Reigning three-time champion Lance Mackey and four-time champion Jeff King are turning the 2010 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race into their own two-man contest.
Mackey reached Shaktoolik, the second stop on the run up the western coast of Alaska, at 4:08 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time. King, trying to match Rick Swenson's record of five victories in the 1,100-mile race, reached the village 37 minutes later.
Their next leg will be offshore across Norton Sound, where winds can blow up whiteout conditions in ground storms without a flake of new snow falling.
Veteran long-distance mushers Hugh Neff and Hans Gatt remained in the hunt, but with 224 miles to go in the 1,100 mile race, the contest appeared to come down which former champion's team could outlast the other.
Mackey, 39, of Fairbanks, was the first to reach Alaska's west coast Sunday morning and was awarded $2,500 in Nome gold nuggets for the feat. He pulled into Unalakleet, an Eskimo village of 750, at 3:32 a.m. and was greeted by camera flashes and applause.
"Thanks you guys for interrupting your sleep time," Mackey said as he pulled up in the dark.
The temperature Sunday morning reached 34 below zero. Only Mackey's eyes were visible under the hood of his thick white parka. A neck gaiter covered his most and mouth and a headlamp shone from his forehead. Like their driver, Mackey's dogs were protected against the cold, sporting royal blue coats and booties to protect their feet.
King, 54, of Denali Park, reached Unalakleet three hours later at 6:29 a.m.
Mackey rested more than six hours, pulling out just after the sun, still pink in the sky, came over the horizon in clear, cold skies.
To keep pace, King could rest only about three hours and 47 minutes. He took off north for the 40-mile run to Shaktoolik at 10:16 a.m., 28 minutes after Mackey.
King would dearly love to catch him. His fifth championship was in sight two years ago but Mackey sneaked out of a checkpoint 123 miles from the finish and took an insurmountable lead while King napped.
Neff of Tok, Alaska, and Gatt of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, were running third and fourth. Gatt defeated Mackey last month in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest between Fairbanks and Whitehorse. Neff finished third in the race.
Neff reached Unalakleet at 7:17 a.m. He rested nearly 4½ hours and departed at 11:38 a.m., about two hours after Mackey. Gatt reached Unalakleet at 7:42 a.m. and stayed nearly five hours. He departed at 12:27 p.m., 49 minutes after Neff.
The trail out of Unalakleet and for the rest of the race is a landscape of white. Most vegetation consists of stunted spruce and willow, with little to slow the winds that can howl from the water.
The 40-mile trail to Shaktoolik runs parallel to the coast on shore, sometimes dropping behind low hills. From Shaktoolik, mushers take off for a 58-mile leg to Koyuk. The first nine miles are on land. Mushers then start across the frozen saltwater of Norton Sound.
After five miles, the trail crosses what looks like a rock rising from the sea ice but is really the end of a small peninsula. The desolate trail usually is marked by laths with reflective tape alternating with spruce boughs.
The temperature in Nome on Sunday climbed to 17 below zero.
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.
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Robins: This year, six new breeds will be making their debut on the green carpet for the Westminster Dog Show, which begins Monday.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.