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.
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.
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.
APThe only thing they’re sure of is it isn’t something in the water.
“That is the biggest concern of all, that there have been so many of these,” said Dr. Margaret Goodman, a neurologist and the ringside doctor who examined Johnson during the fight. “I think we need to evaluate the system from top to bottom.”
What is clear is that Johnson took a savage beating in a fight that probably shouldn’t have gone as far as it did, 38 seconds into the 11th round.
The 35-year-old fighter spent 16 years chasing a title, and finally won one on an upset in Italy in June. His reward was a $150,000 payday to defend his title on a pay-per-view card that included fighters with pedigrees such as Shane Mosley and Marco Antonio Barrera.
He fought valiantly, but was outclassed by Jesus Chavez, who rarely missed with punches that were thrown with bad intentions. Bill Johnson warned his son at one point he was going to stop the fight, but it continued until Chavez threw some two dozen unanswered punches and referee Tony Weeks finally called it.
Goodman immediately leaped into the ring to tend to the fighter. He said he was OK, didn’t have a headache and wasn’t dizzy.
“I’m just sad and disappointed,” Leavander Johnson told the doctor.
In a way, he was lucky. If another half hour had been wasted getting Johnson into the operating room, he likely would have died, just as 75 percent or more of fighters with such injuries do.
But something is surely amiss. Four brain injuries in four months in one city is four too many. It’s a wakeup call that blares at boxing regulators to try to find out why.
A good start might be brain scans before every fight, though promoters argue the cost would be exorbitant. As it is, no one knows if Johnson came into the fight with a brain problem, just as no one knows whether he was injured by a punch in the first round or the punches that finally ended the fight.
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“Maybe we can’t find the answer, but it’s something that has to be done and done very quickly,” Goodman said.
It’s too late for Johnson. All anyone can hope is that his brain responds when doctors eventually wean him off the drugs that induced his coma.
But it’s not too late for those who come after him.
Even in a hurt business, they deserve a little help.
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.
