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 for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
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.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
Wolfe, who is 21-1 with 15 knockouts, says the fight wasn’t exactly her idea either. She wants desperately to make some big money by fighting Laila Ali, who is perhaps the only woman boxer who can sell tickets. But she claims Ali has been running from her, so she’s taking the money where she can get it.
And money means a lot to a fighter who says she sometimes got only one dollar for her bouts.
“I didn’t really want to fight boys; I didn’t want to fight a man,” Wolfe said. “But what else am I supposed to do?”
OK, here’s where Skipper is supposed to insert the line about women belonging in the kitchen. But that would make this too funny, and there’s nothing funny about either this fight or the way Wolfe approaches boxing.
The sport saved her from a life that was going nowhere, helped her channel her aggression and, she says, made her a better person. Her family was so poor as a child they had no running water or indoor toilet, and she’s proud she has made something of herself with only a sixth-grade education.
“Now people want to put me under the microscope, but I had to fight to eat, to sleep, to live, and nobody said nothing,” Wolfe said. “In the streets they’d say, ‘Ann is tough as hell, one tough son of a gun.’ I’ve been fighting all my life.”
Fighting is one thing. Being part of a circus act is another.
The fight at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum is billed as “Ann versus Man,” and will take place at 165 pounds. The purists may hate it, but it will likely sell to two kinds of people — those who want to see a woman put in her place and those who want to laugh at a man who can’t do it.
“This ain’t about fighting, it’s about living,” Wolfe said. “Some people don’t agree with it. But, after they speak to me they still may not agree, but they understand what is going on.”
They should, because it’s really not that hard to understand.
It’s just tough to stomach.
————
Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlbergap.org
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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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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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.