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.
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.
This is it, everybody. In the next two weeks, the NHL and NHL Players' Association either will get a deal done, or the season will be canceled. A self-fulfilling prophecy if there ever was one.
So here we sit. What has become most aggravating about this frustrating situation is the arrogance -- on both sides -- and their assumption that the fans are ignorant.
Commissioner Gary Bettman makes the rounds and talks about saving "the game." Commissioner, you don't own the game, and you are not its keeper or caretaker. The game is alive and well and being played at all levels around the world. What you are trying to "save" is your league, your owners and, in all likelihood, your job. In a situation that has become all semantics, please make this change. The game goes on, sir; your league is dying.
And that brings to light the next most galling issue: The league seems to believe it doesn't matter how long the lockout goes. It won't be worth solving quickly, league officials say, if they don't get their way. But it does matter. It matters a great deal. While on paper it might make the most sense to hold out as long as possible to get the deal the league wants, in reality it doesn't work at all. In reality, more fans are lost every day. In reality, more media outlets permanently pull NHL travel money, making NHL beat writing a part-time position. And, just to be clear, this is not just in small, Southern cities. This is at major metropolitan papers covering Original Six teams. If this destruction is repairable over time, and that's a big if, it'll be measured in five- and 10-year increments.
After spending months talking about how the fans will benefit in the end -- Bettman said outright that ticket prices will go down and many other plans are in place for the fans when this is over -- Bill Daly, the NHL's No. 2 man, told me in a recent interview on Sporting News Radio he couldn't go into details about what will be done, but ticket prices will go down or "stabilize." Stabilize? Is that a joke? Suddenly stabilizing these ridiculously overpriced tickets is doing the fans a favor? How stupid do they think the paying public is?
OK, let's move on to the players. To be fair, they offered concessions, including an across-the-board salary cut, and appear to be ready to offer another proposal, but the players need to be more realistic. They must realize they might need to accept a connection between revenue and player costs to get their league going again. They need to realize that if only 5,000, 6,000 or 7,000 fans show up for games and fewer people are buying their jerseys and bobbleheads, their income will go down. They need to know the fan base will take a hit, and the longer this goes, the bigger that hit will be.
The league and the union need to get this done in the next couple of weeks -- or it's game over for the NHL in ways their galling arrogance won't even acknowledge.
Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
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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.
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.
