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.
NEW ORLEANS - Churchill Downs’ $47 million purchase of the Fair Grounds Race Course was approved Friday by a federal bankruptcy judge.
The Fair Grounds becomes the seventh race track in the stable of Louisville, Ky.-based Churchill Downs Inc. Churchill Downs said it hoped to close the deal by Oct. 15 before the traditional start of the Fair Grounds’ live racing season on Thanksgiving Day.
In a statement, Churchill Downs president Thomas Meeker called the deal “a welcome ending to a lengthy process and the advent of a new era for the Fair Grounds, CDI and the New Orleans community.”
The purchase includes the historic New Orleans race track and 10 off-track betting parlors. The track’s 82-day annual racing meet is scheduled to run from Nov. 25-March 27.
The Fair Grounds will give Churchill Downs its first major winter track — an important component of its simulcast wagering network — and an opening into expanded gambling. The track is in line for an on-track casino with several hundred slot machines.
Besides its marquee Churchill Downs track in Louisville, the company owns Arlington Park near Chicago, Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif., Calder Race Course in Miami, Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.; and Hoosier Park in Anderson, Ind. — none of which run the entire winter.
The Fair Grounds, which is currently controlled by the Krantz family of New Orleans, was forced into bankruptcy protection in August 2003 after state courts ruled the track owed horsemen more than $90 million for the underpayments of video poker proceeds to racing purses.
The horsemen and the track have agreed to settle that dispute for $25 million.
In August, Mike Pegram, an Arizona businessman who won the 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes as the owner of Real Quiet, thought he had a $40 million deal to make him majority owner of the Fair Grounds.
But the bankruptcy reorganization remained open and Churchill Downs made a counteroffer that was accepted Friday by the court.
The first of three pools of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager begins its three-day run on Friday and the bet's opening scenario is very similar to each of its opening pools since the wager was created in 1999.
It's first time that Classic will be broadcast in primetime on Nov. 3.
 | INTERACTIVE |
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 | Slideshow |
 | Derby celebs Plenty of stars from the entertainment and sports world attend the 136th Kentucky Derby. more photos |
| INTERACTIVE |
 | Triple Crown winners The horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in the same year. |
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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