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 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.
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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
Kurt Busch, who a year ago placed a very close second to Ricky Craven at Darlington Raceway, won't come up short again as he is my favorite to win the Nextel Cup race at the 1.366-mile South Carolina oval on Sunday.
WORKING IN
BUSCH'S FAVOR
Busch, who has a pair of top-10s in six career starts at DR, is sixth in the championship standings. He has two top-10 finishes (Las Vegas and Rockingham) in four races and more importantly he has his focus back -- something I think he lost last season after the incident with Jimmy Spencer.
He has to be motivated to win at DR after coming home runner-up to Craven in one of the closest finishes in the history of Cup racing. Craven's margin of victory was just two-thousandths of a second.
I don't think Busch and crew chief Jimmy Fennig have yet hit on the best setup to deal with NASCAR's move this season to shortened rear spoilers and and softer tires, but they are working hard at it.
The No. 97 team has made some changes as it seeks to develop more horsepower and more consistency. Busch won four races last season and four in 2002.
It's time for him to seriously challenge for a victory in 2004.
DRIVERS TO WATCH
Dale Earnhardt. Jr. comes off a win last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway and though he has never won at DR, he did lead the most laps (91) in the race last March at the South Carolina track.
Earnhardt finished sixth that day, one of his two career top-10 results at DR, the other being a fourth-place finish in 2002.
I am impressed with how Junior's team bounced back last week from a very disappointing 35th-place finish at Las Vegas two weeks ago. Junior is keenly focused on winning his first Cup championship and that has carried over to his team.
No active Cup driver has more wins (6) or has won more money ($1,765,491) at DR than has Jeff Gordon, who uncharacteristically struggled to a 33rd-place finish last March in this event.
Gordon has started 22 Cup races at DR, posting 11 top-fives and 14 top-10s. The four-time Cup champion's best finish this season is an eighth-place result at Daytona. Gordon has three top-10s in four races, good enough for fifth place in the championship standings.
Given his past success at DR, this is a good spot for Gordon to get to Victory Lane for the first time this year.
In the Southern 500 at DR last September, Greg Biffle had by far the fastest car, but he bottomed out and that may have cost him a win. Biffle finished 10th in what was a very good run, one he'll have the opportunity to build on come Sunday.
Also in the Labor Day weekend race last year at DR, Ryan Newman had the lead on five different occasions and he led a whopping 120 laps before his chances at winning ended when a kill switch malfunctioned.
Newman qualifies very well at DR, where he took the pole last September and where he has two top-five finishes in four Cup starts.
Last season when Newman won a Cup-high eight races his first victory did not come until the seventh race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway, so if he wins at DR on Sunday, he will be ahead of last year's pace.
Tony Stewart has six top-10s in ten Cup races at DR, with his best finish being fourth on two occasions, 2001 and 2000.
Stewart and the No. 20 team know it takes a lot to get around DR on a consistently fast basis and this may be the race where they accomplish that to a degree that brings them their first win of the season.
My darkhorse pick is Jeff Burton, who over the last six seasons has the best average finish at DR (9.5) of any active Cup driver. In need of a sponsor after May, Burton needs to start climbing in the championship standings (he's 30th) and he needs to start getting talked about in a positive sense.
A win or a real strong finish at DR would certainly help him in trying to achieve both those goals.
KEYS TO SUCCESS AT DARLINGTON
Patience as DR's racing groove, which historically has been real narrow, is now even narrower with the installation of the new SAFER barriers for this race.
This move should benefit the more experienced competitors and it could hurt the younger and less experienced drivers.
A key is a driver knowing he can't take anything at DR -- he has to wait for the track known as "The Lady in Black" to give it to him.
It's also said DR is too tough to tame, but any driver hoping to do so must have solid tire management and car control. The race surface is rough and the layout tight, making DR an extremely demanding track.
Qualifying takes on an added importance since no driver wants to start in the back because of the likelihood of getting caught up in a wreck.
At DR, drivers must focus on the track and not on each other.
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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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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.