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.
AP file
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham dismissed comments by former Heisman Trophy winner Paul Hornung that the school needs to lower its academic standards to admit more black athletes.
“I believe the things that were said really have no merit, so therefore they deserve no real comment from me,” Willingham said after spring practice Thursday. “Let’s move forward.”
In a radio interview Tuesday, Hornung said that Notre Dame needs to lower its academic standards to “get the black athlete.” The next day, Hornung said he was wrong and should have said the university needs to lower its standards to get better athletes in general.
Notre Dame spokesman Matthew Storin said in a statement Wednesday that the 1956 Heisman winner was an illustrious alumnus, but that his comments were “generally insensitive and specifically insulting to our past and current African-American student-athletes.”
Willingham, Notre Dame’s first black head coach in any sport, on Thursday declined to answer further questions about Hornung or whether Notre Dame needs to change its academic standards. In the past he has said there is no need for the school to change its academic standards.
Linebacker Brandon Hoyte, who is black, said he was surprised by Hornung’s comments.
“I think regardless of who says it, whenever you hear a comment like that you’re always overtaken and you’re always shocked,” he said.
It took a while for the light bulb to go on, but when it did, Jonas Gray finally showed the talent many had expected from the blue-chip prospect from Detroit. In a recent interview, Gray, who is rehabbing an ACL injury to get ready for the NFL Scouting Combine, expressed the confidence and support he has for head coach Brian Kelly.
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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.
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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