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 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.
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.
APThe Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup format allows just 26 races to determine a driver's fate, so teams can't afford to wallow near the bottom of the standings. But as much as everyone wants to stay high in the standings, it's still way too early, after six races, to conclude any team might be out of it.
Which is why I found it ironic that before qualifying last weekend at Martinsville reporters asked Jeff Gordon whether he was concerned about being 12th in points.
Excuse me. Have you people lost your minds?
Those questions seemed especially silly after Gordon won on Sunday, overcoming a bad qualifying effort and battling back from three laps down.
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Gordon is the first non-legacy Cup driver who was raised to race. His stats are proof: 71 wins in 407 career starts. That's one win for every 5.7 starts. He has won at every track on the circuit except Texas, Phoenix and Chicago.
"We've won a race and led laps, and those things are more important to me than where we are in the points right now," Gordon said. Now he can say he has won twice, the other victory being the Daytona 500.
"I have a strong team and good cars, and those are the things that are going to move you up in the points," Gordon says.
Sunday's victory moved him from 12th to sixth. Gordon was 12th after six races last year, and by the end of the season, he would have won the title under the old points system. Under the Chase format, he finished third, 16 points behind champion Kurt Busch.
The bottom line: Gordon has to be in the top 10 after September's Richmond race, 20 races from now. Over the same period of races last year, he climbed to first.
Considering the strength of Hendrick Motorsports and the solidarity of the No. 24 team, you would have to be crazy to bet against Gordon. Especially after Martinsville.
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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.
