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.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had 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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
AP fileThis time it wasn't really about the money.
This time it was about the student wanting to challenge the teacher.
It was about the long-compliant aide wanting to flex his muscles at the expense of his mentor. It was the son needing to step out of the shadow of his father.
From the first moment Theo Epstein entered the real world of baseball he owed it all to Larry Lucchino. That continued right up to the moment the Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. Right then all debts were paid. Epstein was no longer the youngest general manager in baseball, something Lucchino made him two years earlier at 28.
He wasn't the young acolyte serving at the feet of his king any more. Now he was the guy who did what nine general managers before him over a span of nearly 90 years could not do. He was the general manager who signed Curt Schilling and Kevin Foulke. He had the cajones to trade franchise fixture Nomar Garciaparra in the middle of the season and came out on top. He was what Billy Beane was supposed to be when Beane turned down Lucchino's $2.5 million a year offer to run the Red Sox after first accepting it, a shocking reversal that propelled the little known Epstein into a seat he seemed unready for.
He was the architect of a World Series champion. Period. No Lucchino included.
Now there have always been whispers around Boston that Epstein was a puppet, his strings pulled by Lucchino. At the time Beane reversed his field, some in baseball felt it was in part because of Lucchino's hands-on nature. Whatever the reason, Beane stayed in Oakland and Lucchino elevated Epstein. Now the Red Sox club president is reaping what he sowed.
When Lucchino first came to Boston from San Diego, he brought an unknown kid named Epstein with him to serve as assistant general manager. At the time he said of him, "This is a gifted person with a real opportunity to have a profound impact on this franchise.''
Lucchino had no idea at the time how right he was. Now, Epstein, after turning down a three-year contract offer worth an estimated $1.2 million a season that would have more than tripled his pay, is leaving.
What is obvious is that the "kid'' who started as a media relations intern in the Baltimore Orioles' front office and then served in much the same capacity in San Diego when he first got there, no longer wants to answer to the man who made it all possible. Originally the Sox tried to lowball Epstein. They wanted of him what he kept demanding at their insistence from some of their best players. They wanted a hometown discount from the kid who grew up a short walk from Fenway Park.
They didn't get it.
First he spurned a three-year deal that averaged $850,000 a season, which he could rightfully argue was well below his market value. Then he turned his back on a deal that wouldn't be that far below the one the Yankees gave Brian Cashman. Cashman's deal is for three years at $5 million for a guy who's been in the job for eight years. Epstein is still on his rookie deal, but in those three years he went from wonder boy to Wonder Boy. Now Lucchino is wondering what happened to the kid.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.