Random Thanksgiving Day Thoughts

If the NFL gives NBC the right to 'flex' games out its last six weeks of the season (for better or more attractive games) why then does the NFL saddle viewers with the Cowboys and Lions every Thanksgiving. Let's face it, the Lions are years removed (and at least a few more away) from being a significant team. Dallas has only been interesting in recent years as a 'train wreck'. Seems to me, the three Thanksgiving Day games should be rotated among all 32 teams, so no team has a consistent advantage (or disadvantage such as the teams traveling this week) and the viewers have more attractive match ups.

Vince Young goes Corey Dillon? Remember when Dillon tossed his shoulder pads and helmet into the stands at Paul Brown Stadium on the final day of the 2003 season, when a loss to the Browns ended any playoff hopes and Dillon's Bengals career? Now Young does the same thing in Tennessee? The only thing worse than what Young did was what his team's owner did. He publicly chided both Young and head coach Jeff Fisher, saying they both have to find a way to co-exist. If I'm Fisher, I'm telling Bud Adams to stick it where the sun don't shine. Jeff Fisher is not only the longest tenured coach in the NFL, he's also one of the best. On the open market, he could have his pick of jobs, most of them better than working for the clown that owns the Titans.

Giants' quarterback, Eli Manning hasn't learnesd to do the quarterback slide yet? That effort against the Eagles last Sunday night was not only pathetic, it might have cost his team a shot a playoff berth.....

If a game is on the line and you absolutely need a score to win, who would you take ahead of Tom Brady? Answer: no one.

Carson Palmer may yet be an elite quarterback. But I'm afraid he's 'damaged goods' in Cincinnati. It's not that he's done anything wrong. It's the cast of characters he's been surrounded with in his Bengals career. TO, Ochocinco, Lavernius Coles, to name just a few. Mix in an awful offensive line and players who've simply never lived up to their potential (Chris Perry would come to mind) and whatever career Palmer has left may best be salvaged by an exit from Cincinnati to another team. Don't count on that happening. He's under contract for four years and players don't leave the Bengals until Mike Brown is done with them. I feel badly for Palmer. He seems like a genuinely nice guy....

Dontrelle Willis signs with the Reds? What, Todd Van Poppel wasn't available? Not a bad flyer for the Reds to take. But honestly, what are the Reds going to salavage from Willis that the Marlins and Tigers couldn't? And if you saw him pitch with the Diamondbacks this season, you probably came to the conclusion that you had better stuff than Willis. But, in this holiday season, we wish him well in his comeback....

I admire the 10,000 or so who will wake up Thanksgiving morning and run in the 101st annual Thanksgiving Day Race through downtown Cincinnati. But honestly, at 9am when the race begins, there's no place I'd rather be than in bed. Hope you set a personal best....

Third straight loss for the Miami Heat, losing Wednesday night 104-94 to Orlando. Must be Juwan Howard's faul they're just 8-7. Memo to Pat Riley: this is not fantasy basketball.

Hope you get enough to eat Thursday. And if you do, remember how lucky you are. Millions in our country alone go hungry every day. Support your local Freestore Foodbank. We need to take better care of each other.

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At some point, the Reds will have their Opening Day 25 man roster together again. When? The latest to go on the shelf, of course, is Joey Votto and Edinson Volquez. Now, Willy Tavares is out of the line up tonight in St. Louis, nursing a sore hamstring that apparently caused him to misplay a fly ball at the worst time Tuesday night. There's only so long you can juggle a line up and expect to win. I sense that time is quickly approaching for your Cincinnati Reds.

Just posted, the latest Broo View Podcast. It's on the front page of www.kenbroo.com. I've got some comments from Carson Palmer, about how he believes the offense will be better, and different, in 2009. And I also have an in depth interview with Josh Peter, of yahoo.com on the NFL's inordinate number of DUI arrests since 2000. The number will astound you. If you're on the fly, you can download Broo View Episode 209 here. It's worth the listen.

I told Bengals safety, Chinedum Ndukwe that I'm following him on twitter. He told me he's selling his restaurant, or at least his stake in it, in Mt. Adams. Bummer. I hope the food continues to be as good as its been with Chinedum's money in it.

I don't believe for a minute that the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to win the Stanley Cup this year. They'd have to win twice in Detroit to do that (in games 5 and 7 no less) and that's not happening. But I'm glad it's not a sweep. These are the two best teams in the NHL, but the Red Wings are light years ahead of everyone else.

Good Cincinnati story line in the Cup finals. Mike Babcock coached the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks (where there was such an animal) and one of his players was current Pens Coach Dan Bylsma. They teamed up in Anaheim a few years ago to win a Stanley Cup. Now their on opposite benches. Just goes to prove, if you follow minor league sports, you never know who might do what, later in life.

NBA? Lakers in six. It can't go seven, because I don't think there's anyway the Lakers lose a game 7 on their home court. But Dwight Howard is amazing. I just saw a pregame interview with him a few minutes ago. Howard's shoulders are so wide, I think a small plane could lane on them.

Good Thursday Morning!

A new Broo View Podcast is up and running and ready for you to download. It's on the front page of www.kenbroo.com. Or, you can download it here. My guest this time is former Baltimore Ravens head coach, Brian Billick. We talk about the HBO show, "Hard Knocks", which featured the Ravens back in 2001 and will follow the Bengals this summer during training camp.

Watch for a new Broo View Vidcast, which I'll post to www.kenbroo.com this weekend.

Why are the Reds so inconsistent? I'm asked that a lot these days. Simple answer is that they're young and not very deep. Good, deep teams, like the Phillies, have solid veterans who can consistenly put the ball in play. The Reds don't, at least not yet. That's why you'll see them win a couple in a row, then lose three or four. They're above .500 now, overachieving in a way. But to keep above break even and have a chance to contend late in the season, they'll have to as a team, develope more plate discipline. And Reds' GM Walt Jocketty will need to find better 'bats' off the bench.

Let's face it: the best bat off the Reds' bench is a pitcher, Micah Owings. When he's your first option, you've got trouble.

I'm going to get into this in greater detail this weekend on 700 WLW. But has the lustre of inter-league play worn off? Is it really that special when the Cleveland Indians roll into town? Is anyone looking forward to the White Sox? Would you rather see those teams once a year? Or would you rather see an extra series or two against some of the better teams in the National League. Personally, I'd rather see the Dodgers at GABP twice a season, than see any team from the American League, unless it's the Yankees or Red Sox.

We can talk more about that, Saturday from 3p-6:30p and again Sunday from 9am-Noon.

Not surprised at all that the Magic beat the Cavs in game one Wednesday night. If you've been watching the Orlando team throughout these playoffs, you know they have a tremendous amount of talent on offense. Defensively, the Magic have some holes. I believe the Cavs will win game #2 and I think this series will go the full seven games. But don't be surprised if Orlando wins this series. I know the Celtics won't be.

More later....and some 'tweets' as we get rolling later in the day.

Would you trade Bronson Arroyo if you're Reds owner Bob Castellini? His salary this season is manageable. But next year it will go through the roof. The New York Daily News has this story on a possible Arroyo to the Yankees scenario. I don't see it happening....



Clark Judge, the fine national football writer for cbsports.com was one of my guests Sunday on 700 WLW's Sunday Morning Sports Talk. He doesn't care much for Chad Johnson and says Rudi Johnson holds the key to whether or not the Bengals have a successful 2008 season. He told me he likes the Bengals young cornerbacks. But apparently they're not in the NFL's Top5, as Clark writes in this latest article.


For my two cents, I think Jonathan Joseph and Leon Hall have a ways to go, before being mentioned with the NFL's elite. Hall got schooled by several big time receivers last season, most notably Hines Ward. Joseph has dropped too many interception chances.


My buddy Mike Florio, from profootballtalk.com, also moonlights for The Sporting News and has a strong 'take' on the NFL's code of conduct policy in this send up.

The latest "Broo View Podcast" is up and running. You can download it on my web site: http://www.kenbroo.com/. It's on the front page. If you go into "Podcasts & More", you'll be able to download past "Broo View Podcasts". This latest one deals with the Bengals release of Odell Thurman and how Rudi Johnson wants to make 2008 his 'comeback' season.

When you're in the media and you have a problem, it's hard to avoid the glare of the spotlight. Charles Barkley has a problem. He's incurred gambling debts at a casino in Las Vegas. Wisely, Barkley chose a venue he's comfortable with to discuss his problem.

This is a particularly dicey (no pun intended) problem for the NBA, which is watching the trial of former official, Tim Donaghy get under way. espn.com has this 'bombshell' that the disgraced ref dropped on Tuesday.

I dealt with this topic on News 5 last night, but here it is from the Baltimore Sun today. The Bengals lost draft of 2005. You simply can not have a draft this bad and expect to win. Compounding this is the fact that the Bengals have lost the back end of their 2006 draft, Picks in rounds 5-7 are gone. And from the draft in 2004, only Chris Perry (the often injured one), Robert Geathers and Stacy Andrews remain. Add it up, from 2004-2006, three draft classes, only ten picks, ten of a total of 26 remain with the team. Now factor in how frugal the Bengals are on the free agent market and it's no secret why this team continues to play losing football.

I'm not sure what it means, but Chad Johnson said today he's playing horribly this season. It's a bit of an over statement. Johnson is among the league leaders in catches, on pace for an 1,800 yard season. Maybe he's talking about touchdowns. Through four games, Johnson has only three TD catches, which means only three TD celebrations. Maybe that's what the self marketing Johnson is talking about.

Carson Palmer's take on the underachieving Bengals is that he's disappointed, not depressed. Most of the fans of this team would ask, can you be both? Most of them are. Here's the deal: the Bengals are a team with a great quarterback, a handful of outstanding players and a whole lot of headaches after that. The headaches would be either injuries or suspensions. But this is anything but a championship calibre team.

We should have seen this coming. Since 2003, the Bengals have lost an inordinate number of top draft picks to injury, suspension or ineffectiveness. Their inability to run consistently has led to defenses playing 'cover two', or two deep safeties. The Bengals inability to find an effective third wide receiver, while Chris Henry sits out his suspension, has led to a struggling offense. Defenses have let TJ Houshmandzadeh and Johnson to run up their personal stats, without affecting the outcome of a game. Think I'm wrong? Check third down efficiency and time of possession stats. The Bengals are converting only 33% of the time on third down. And in time of possession, they've lost the battle in three of their first five games.

Their schedule gets easier now. But at 1-4, who of their opponents is looking at their game against the Bengals and are saying 'We can't win this one". My guess, not many.

The lastest "Bengals Report Podcast" is posted and ready for your downloading or listening on line pleasure. It's on the front page of my web site: http://www.kenbroo.com/.

Now, some quick hits. I love the Rockies story this season. Winning 21 of 22 in a row and making it to the World Series on a $35 million budget. But can they consistently win with that low a payroll. In a word, no. So enjoy it now Denver.....Why am I afraid that a talented, promising career in the person of golfer Michelle Wie has been ruined?......The longer it goes on, the more it looks like Joe Torre stays with the Yankees....The NBA is playing exhibition games in China this week. For what? Do you honestly believe there are 18,000 people in China who could afford an average NBA ticket price of $100.00 per game? So if expansion to Beijing is out of the question, what are you doing there? Promote you wheezing game in the USA, in markets that can't see live games....like, oh...Cincinnati? Don't tell me this is to pump the Olympics. Please....Speaking of the Olympics, will we ever watch those games again without wondering which athlete is on the 'juice'? .....Here's what the UFC will allow local television stations to photograph at their event in Cincinnati Saturday night: video of what goes on between the fights, but not the actual fights....like what, guys burping in between swigs of beer? Or maybe the line to get into the mens' room.....But they'll beg you for pre fight coverage....If that's the way "Vegas type events" operate, please stay in Nevada.

On the eve of reporting to training camp, the Bengals still don't know if they'll have Odell Thuram this season. He's still waiting to hear whether or not commissioner Roger Goodell will reinstate him from a year long suspension. The betting here is, Thurman will hear soon. And the betting is it'll be good news. But it's my feeling that the Michael Vick fiasco is holding up a lot of business at the NFL office these days. And Goodell is going to go the extra mile with Thurman and anyone else who's sitting out to take sure there are no 'bad news bombs' waiting to drop on his league.

Meantime, the Bengals are chipper about their chances this season. At their annual pre training camp luncheon this week, Marvin Lewis told me he expects his team to be better this season than last. What else can he say, right? I see nothing yet that will make me believe the Bengals defense is any better this year than last. They still have a lot of questions in their secondary. And the defensive lineman they've brought in seem pedestrian. But it's not always great talent that wins championships. It's usually good talent playing together.

Offensively, this team is 'as billed'. There should be no drop off from last year. And honestly, with Chris Henry suspended for the first eight games, it may give rookie Kenny Irons a real opportunity to show his stuff.

It's too early for a prediction. I'll save that, for down the road.

We're six days from the MLB trading deadline and the Reds have yet to make a move. They may be in line for one after tonight. Kyle Lohse tossed a pretty fair game against the Brewers: 5.2 IP, 5 Hits and 2 Runs. Statistically, despite being 6-11, Lohse is one of the top pitchers available. I wouldn't be surprised to see him go by the end of the week.

And why Scott Hatteberg isn't in a Yankees uniform yet is amazing to me. Even if Jason Giambi is now playing his way back into shape, Hatteberg is one of the best left handed bats on the market. But internet buzz persists the Yankees may be more interested in the ageless Jeff Conine.

If you watched any of David Stern's one hour news conference Tuesday, you saw a man trying desperately to hide abject agony. He's trying to put a good spin on one of his referees who's been accused of point shaving and dealing inside information. But even Stern knows that if another ref or a player is caught being a part of this, he has a conspiracy to deal with. And if that happens, the NBA will be looked at as the WWE with a baskebtall. Stern says that Tim Donaghty is nothing more than a 'rogue'. For Stern's sake, he better hope that's all this is.

Check out my web site: http://www.kenbroo.com/. There's a new Broo View Podcast to check out and a fresh Bengals Report on the horizon.