Giants receiver Steve Smith is out for the rest of the season with an injury to his left knee. The team said Wednesday that Smith will need season-ending surgery on the knee he hurt in Monday night’s win over Minnesota. He was examined by Dr. Russell Warren at the Hospital for Special Surgery on Tuesday [...]

Cliff Lee and the Phillies have finalized a $120 million, five-year contract that brings the star pitcher back to Philadelphia. Lee spurned more lucrative offers from the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers to return to the Phillies, who traded him away a year ago after he helped them reach the 2009 World Series. Read [...]

Vikings fans are being asked to help dig out the University of Minnesota campus stadium in time for Monday night’s Vikings game with the Chicago Bears. Workers are scrambling to remove snow from bleachers, concourses and the field at TCF Bank Stadium. The university will host the NFL game because the snow-damaged Metrodome roof won’t [...]

At some point, it seems, Cliff Lee figured it wasn’t about the money anymore. Baseball’s hottest free agent could have had $150 million and a spot on the biggest stage in the game with its most successful team — the New York Yankees, winners of 27 World Series. Instead, the star pitcher got up from [...]

Brett Favre’s career isn’t quite over yet. Minnesota Vikings interim coach Leslie Frazier says the team is hoping to have Favre back this season — and possibly this week. Favre’s NFL-record streak of starting 297 straight games ended when a sprained throwing shoulder and numb hand kept him out of Monday’s game against the New [...]