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.
IMPDI
LAS VEGAS - It takes plenty of confidence and oodles of cash just to play in the World Series of Poker main event, but the world’s best rounders are making things even spicier by raising the stakes against one another.
Gold bracelets command respect for winners of series events, but big-time poker pros Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey added an extra $200,000 incentive for each other to win one or more of the 55 events this year, Negreanu said.
Negreanu’s limit Texas Hold ’em win earlier this month got him $204,874 in prize money, but his bet with Ivey has nearly doubled that. Ivey can even the score if he wins the main event, a no-limit Texas Hold ’em tournament that will mean millions of dollars for the winner and certain poker fame.
California psychologist Jerry Yang — who gave the famous “Shuffle up and deal” order on Friday — beat 6,357 others last year to take home the event’s top prize of $8.25 million.
An additional 1,158 players entered the tournament on Friday, bringing the total for the first two days to 2,455 entrants. A tournament official said the lower total was expected Friday because of the July Fourth holiday.
Tournament officials have reported through speaking to players that Ivey has bet millions of dollars on himself winning a bracelet in this year’s World Series of Poker. He has cashed three times, but his best finish so far is ninth in the seven card stud world championship.
“I just did it because it’s fun and silly,” said Negreanu, who said the bets are often bigger than tournament buy-ins and can be staked on just about anything.
“Last year I had a bet: Me, Phil Ivey and Erick (Lindgren), $10,000 each, first one to shuffle their chips lost. So like you couldn’t shuffle your chips for the whole month — at all,” Negreanu said. “I won that one.”
No doubt the side bets are one indicator of how easily players like Negreanu, who busted out of the main event early on Friday, are willing to wager big money on whatever they feel like.
Barry Greenstein, a three-time bracelet winner who has more than $2 million in world series earnings, said he was rooting for Lindgren late in the H.O.R.S.E. tournament earlier this week until his girlfriend reminded him that he would lose $40,000 in a side bet if Lindgren won.
“I guess I have to root against him now,” Greenstein recalled saying as he switched his loyalty.
Greenstein said side bets were the reason he played in so many of the events at this year’s world series, because he had bet on himself winning one or two bracelets.
Greenstein wouldn’t say how much he had wagered in total, but did say that his victory in a seven-card Razz tournament got him more money from friends than from the roughly $158,000 in prize money.
“I have confidence that I’m one of the best tournament players in the world and so when I make these bets I’m doing it because I think I have an advantage and I think I’ll make money off them,” he said.
Poker pros Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari have brought side betting — known as “prop bets” by poker players — to the public with a cable television show that pits them gambling thousands of dollars against each other in outlandish situations.
“We’re just degenerate gamblers. That’s what we are,” Laak said Friday. As he spoke, he and Esfandiari had $1,000 on the line over what time Esfandiari’s assistant would be back in the apartment with their lunch.
“A lot of these guys have been winning for so many years straight that $10,000 is a small entry fee to them,” Laak said. “They’re like, ’Wow, why can’t it be $100 (thousand), something where I can feel the pain.”’
Esfandiari, who won the $1,000 food bet, said he would be willing to bet on anything if he thought he had a good chance of winning money.
But for Negreanu, not everything is fair game.
“When it comes to death or marriage, it’s off limits to me,” he said.
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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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.
