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.
HONOLULU - About 300 American soldiers in Afghanistan on Sunday will run past palm trees and up Diamond Head in their very own Honolulu Marathon.
Granted, the trees will be wooden and “Diamond Head” is a small hill renamed, but the soldiers will still be doing 26.2 miles on the same day as more than 26,000 runners in Hawaii.
Nine hours before the race’s 5 a.m. local start — Afghanistan is 13½ hours ahead of Hawaii — the servicemen and women will make nearly six laps around a dusty airstrip at Firebase Ripley just outside Tarin Kowt in the central province of Uruzgan, a former Taliban stronghold and a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden. The aid stations are guard towers doing double duty.
Going in circles is the upshot of putting on a road race in a war zone. Runners need a foxhole here and there for cover in case of a rocket or mortar attack. Fellow soldiers in full gear will be standing by with armored Humvees.
Much of organizing the run fell to Capt. Ivan Hurlburt, who has run the Honolulu Marathon four times. He set about the task after a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, expressed the wish of going back to Honolulu for the race. The regiment is based at Schofield Barracks near Honolulu, and 16 members of the battalion, including Hurlburt, are Honolulu Marathon veterans.
The runners have been motivated and inspired by Patti Dillon, a four-time Honolulu Marathon winner who now coaches young runners in New London, Conn., where she lives.
Dillon sent to Hurlburt a banner featuring her quote from a media interview: “If they’re going to beat you, make ’em spit blood.”
“The soldiers here have been inspired by her and we have seemed to inspire the young runners she teaches,” Hurlburt said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. Hurlburt has posted Dillon’s e-mails, which include marathon training tips.
“It has been a great inspiration for us to have an American distance runner world record holder have a genuine interest in a marathon that is being held for and ran by soldiers,” he said.
The results of the race at Tarin Kowt will be listed separately in the marathon book and on the Web site, said Mike Burns, president of the computer services company in Ann Arbor, Mich., that has recorded finish times in Honolulu for 18 years.
The top three finishers will receive wooden bowls carved from koa, a Hawaiian tree. All runners will receive medals and official Honolulu Marathon T-shirts.
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 YORK (AP) - As the glow fades from the Giants' Super Bowl triumph, some New York sports fans are tuning in to basketball and hockey, with the Rangers in first place and the Knicks' overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, sparking "Lin-sanity.''
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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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.
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.