Good Monday Morning!

Whoooooo Deyyyyy!

Now help me out here, Bill Belichick is a genius because......????

Travel time to Pittsburgh by car: 5 hours
Tickets to get into Sunday's game: $75.00/per
Look on Roethlisberger's face at the 0:00: Priceless

Actually, before anyone gets too carried away this morning, remember 2005. I think we'll see these guys again later this season. Just a hunch.

Charlie Weiss is dead man walking. You watch any Notre Dame game these days, that’s what you see. He’s a man who knows his fate and his fate won’t be pleasant. Maybe in a week, two, a month tops, Notre Dame will call a news conference and announce that Weiss is out, or has left to pursue other interests or wants to spend more time with his family. You know the wording. It all means the same. Charlie, here’s your hat and a version of the home game, thanks for playing.

You can say Weiss came off as an oaf. You can say that he’s just another piece of spoiled fruit from the coaching tree of Bill Belichick. You may be right. You’d also be right if you said he never had a chance. Coaches at Notre Dame never have a chance.

If Notre Dame fires Charlie Weiss, and correct me if I’m wrong, doesn’t the man have a contract through 2015, or the next six seasons after this one, at four million dollars a year? If my Ohio University math serves me correctly, that would mean Notre Dame will owe Weiss about $24 million dollars just to take a hike. Here’s a question for the Catholic church this morning, or the Notre Dame boosters who supposedly put money in the collection basket each Sunday: Isn’t there a better, more charitable way to spend $24 million than telling an under achieving football coach to walk?

We’re being honest here, aren’t we? I’m sure the school can’t cough up that cash, even with tuition and room and board at over $51 thousand for undergradutates every year. I would think the school would want to spend that kind of money on some more important things, like say, paying their professors better or cutting Mom and Dad a break on future tuition checks. What do you think, Reverend John Jenkins, school president, not a bad idea?

And if these faceless Notre Dane boosters,, whomever they are, really do have $24 million to spend on getting rid of a coach, did you learn nothing while you matriculated at that school about service to others? $24 million dollars can pay a lot of salaries for jobs that are disappearing. It’ can build parks for kids to play in, schools that are safe to learn in. While you’re working on throwing a bad football coach onto the street, how about helping some people living on the street find homes?

Look, I don’t care whether or not Charlie Weiss coaches another down of football. Notre Dame isn’t my school. I could care less if that team goes 12-0 or 0-12. But I also don’t care a lot for hypocracy. And there’s a lot of it rolling out of South Bend lately.

Let’s see, the last football coach to leave Notre Dame with an ounce of dignity was…who? Ara Parseghian? And that was when? 1974? Dan Devine lasted six year, won over 75-percent of his games but a lot of these same boosters ran him off because he wasn’t Ara….then came the parade: Faust, Holtz, Davie, Willingham and now Weiss, unless you include George O’Leary and his resume from fiction.

If you’re scoring at home, Notre Dame has had four football coaches in the last 16 seasons, not including O’Leary for about ten minutes and some poor sole named Kent Baer, who had to sweep up for a game after Willingham was bounced.. Weiss, Willingham and Davie all have about the same record.

Notre Dame football is struggling for a lot of reasons. Too many of its boosters are living in the 1950’s and not enough of the top college players today want to live in South Bend. Notre Dame used to be one of the only schools to have its games on TV. Now, just about every Division I football team has every one of it’s games on TV. To its credit, Notre Dame won’t admit student athletes who don’t meet its stringent academic requirements. But every Saturday, it seems, it’s playing against schools without the same kind of academic standards, against athletes that are simply better than theirs.

You can say all of that is the coach’s fault. But if you’re scrambling around trying to get $24 million to pay a coach to go away, what does that say about you?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are everything the Cincinnati Bengals want to be. And can't. You watched the number one franchise in the NFL, maybe all of sports, stage a methodical, spirited comeback to win Super Bowl XLIII. In your wildest dreams, do you think the Bengals could do that, even in a regular season NFL game?

The Steelers are what the Bengals aren't. They have stability at head coach, just three in the last 38 years. Since 1971, only Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin have had that job. Since, 1971, the Bengals have had nine head coaches (Paul Brown, Tiger Johnson, Homer Rice, Forrest Gregg, Sam Wyche, Dave Shula, Bruce Coslet, Dick LeBeau and Marvin Lewis). Each staff has had different assistant coaches.

The Steelers have a bona fide general manager and ten fulltime scouts. The Bengals have no general manager and five full time scouts. And it's not just all on the team.

It's on you and me. Steeler fans demand excellence from their team. Bengals fans reward medicocrity, or worse. Pittsburgh fans sell out Heinz Field because they know what their team is going to do. Bengals fans sell out Paul Brown Stadium and down deep, probably know what their team is going to do as well.

I'm not a Steeler fan, never have been. You wouldn't be able to guess what NFL team I silently root for. But I admire what Pittsburgh has done over the course of the last 38 seasons. And if you can't, or won't because of jealousy, you're missing out on the big picture: winning isn't easy. It's hard work, dedication and focus. The Bengals could use a lot more of all of that.

Couple of updates...the latest Bengals Report Podcast is now ready for downloading on my web site: www.kenbroo.com. Mark Hardin and I preview the upcoming Bengals vs Redskins game at Paul Brown Stadium this Sunday.

And here are my predictions for this Sunday. Three NFL games in my video podcast

I'm talking sports, as always, this Sunday morning on 700 WLW. Among my guests, Ivan Maisel from ESPN, the college football expert, as well as Ross Tucker from SI.com and the nationalfootballpost.com. You and I will talk, Sunday at 9am!

Couple of new things to check out on my web site: www.kenbroo.com. I have the latest Bengals Report Podcast posted. Mark Hardin and I preview the Bengals vs Steelers game Thursday night. And, the latest Broo View Podcast is up and running. I've got an indepth interview with foxsports.com's Alex Marvez.

I'm off to Pittsburgh Thursday (driving, five hours of my life I'll never get back) for the Bengals vs Steelers game. This will be a great game to see, if you're into watching natural disasters. The Bengals will start a rookie at left tackle, his first NFL start and a guard that they signed off their practice squad will line up next to Anthony Collins. This, against a defense that's ranked #1 in the NFL in rushing defense, passing defense and over all defense. It's the same Steelers defense that sacked quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick seven times last month, when the Bengals starting offensive line was playing.

And it'll probably snow.

Listen to my Bengals Group Therapy radio show after the game, approximately 1 AM Friday. It should be good for the soul. You can hear it on 1530 Homer in Cincinnati, www.1530homer.com online.

One more time, there was nothing wrong with the hit Steelers' WR Hines Ward laid on Bengals linebacker, Keith Rivers back in October. But it's a back drop for Thursday night's game. More here, from USA Today.

Another huge weekend of football is upon us. Big regular season finales in high school football in the greater Cincinnati area, including Ryle at Boone County where tonight, we make our latest stop with the now, seemingly mythical High School Playbook Tailgate Party.

Saturday, I think UC wins on the road at Connecticut and Ohio State beats Penn State in Columbus. And Sunday? Well check out my latest Broo View Video Podcast below!

I've looked at the video at least a half dozen times. No, repeat no, it was not a 'dirty hit' that the Steelers Hines Ward laid on Bengals rookie linebacker, Keith Rivers. You can make a case for whether or not Ward's block on Rivers was necessary. But it was well within the parameters of a good football hit.

Let me ask you this: with as much 'beat' as the officiating crew (led my Mr. Buff, game referee Ed Hoculi) has been under in the last month, don't you think it would have erred on the side of caution and someone on that crew would've thrown a flag, if for no other reason than to keep the wrath of the NFL office off its back. There was NO flag thrown. And while the crew may have debated later about not tossing a penalty flag, the bottom line is NONE was thrown. Again, I've just looked at the video for a seventh time: Ward hits Rivers with his shouldar and seems to throw a forearm into Rivers' helmet. There is no 'crown of the helmet' lead on the part of Ward.

Now, was it a necessary hit? Absolutely not. But even some Bengals players were admitting in the locker room at the game, they'd have done the same thing, if they were Hines Ward.

And by the way, where exactly was the Bengals retaliation for the hit on Rivers. There was ample opportunity to deck Ward as the game progressed. But like they did in January, 2006, when the Steelers knocked Carson Palmer out of that playoff game, and the quarterback suffered a knee blow out, the Bengals proceeded to play with only a wimper.

You know what that is? A complete lack of team leadership. I'm not talking about Mike Brown or Marvin Lewis. I'm speaking of a zero amount of leadership from the Bengals PLAYERS. Maybe it's because Brown has weeded out all of the potential leaders on this team. But could you imagine the Baltimore Ravens suffering something like what happened to Rivers? With Ray Lewis on the field? Somebody's head would roll. SHAME on this soul-less Bengals team.

We saw some more disturbing trends on Sunday.

The Bengals defense, better this year than last, hasn’t been able to generate enough heat to keep a closet warm this season: seven games, five sacks. But it doesn't change the fact that football talk in Cincinnati can't progess past "our team stinks" and "Mike Brown needs to hire a GM".

In other towns, except in St. Louis and Detroit, you turn on a radio station like ‘The Big One’ and ‘Homer’ and what you’ll hear all week, but particularly on game day, is how does the home team match up with the opponent. Fans race to web sites like espn.com, or si.com and look at what the experts predict what’ll happen. We don’t need to do that in Cincinnati. We’re still wondering when this team will win a game.

It’s a bummer, isn’t it? I mean, don’t you ever wonder how it is for fans in Nashville, Philly, even Pittsburgh, don’t you ever wonder what it’s like to really get into the nuts and bolts of your team? Here, losing has blocked any discussion. I know the Steelers are mentioned in the same breath as the Soviet Union is around here. But admit it, just once, you want your Cincinnati Bengals to be just like them. The 5 Super Bowl rings are one thing. The attitude and swagger, and the winning, are another.

When was the last time you remember the Steelers allowing their quarterback to get so hard his nose broke and then did nothing about it?

It’s be nice to sit here today and talk about how the Bengals, with the fourth ranked defense against the pass, should've beeen able to deal well with the Steelers, who have a pass offense ranked just 23rd in the entire league.

But then you remember, your team is 0-6 and the back up quarterback has been the team’s leading rusher in the two previous games he’s started.

Welcome to Cincinnati, the NFL's version of Siberia.

Well, just in time for this weekend, here is another Broo View Video Podcast,direct fomr the palatial estate in suburban Cincinati. My topic this time, two very intriguing match-ups inside the AFC North.

Notice the shirt, as I show the colors for my beloved Ohio Bobcats whom I believe will win their first game of 2008 Saturday, over VMI, in Peden Stadium.

More later today...

I'm continually amazed by those who believe that Marvin Lewis is on the 'hot seat'. The latest to weigh in on this is si.com columnist, Don Banks, a really good writer. Look at where he ranks Lewis in this story.

Those who've been around Cincinnati for any length of time know two things. 1: Marvin has to fix this thing to have any chance at another head coach's job in the NFL. 2: Mike Brown doesn't pay people not to work. Bottom line: Lewis isn't quitting and Brown isn't letting him go before his contract is up, after the 2010 season.

More than the status of Lewis, I'm concerned about the play of Carson Palmer. Yep, his offensive line has been pourous. But Palmer has been consistently high with his throws and his timing with TJ Houshmandzadeh and Chad Ocho Cinco has been painfully off. The wind that swirled through Cincinnati last Sunday can't be an excuse. It appeared that the Titans' Kerry Collins handled the wind just fine.

I think the Giants win Sunday, but the Bengals cover. 13.5? No thanks.

Don't rule out a 1-7 start for your Cincinnati Bengals.

More Florio! (I should be his agent). The profootballtalk.com guhru has the best game of the weekend scoped out: Eagles and Steelers.

Tough to go against the Steelers, even on the road. I'll take Pittsburgh.

One reason why Ohio State never seems to do well in 'big games': take a look at the rest of their out of conference schedule. Sure, they went to LA to play USC. But home games with Ohio University (which should have won that game), Youngstown State and now Troy? That gets you ready for a BCS title run? Really?

It would be so easy to sit here and say today, “this Bengals team is going nowhere and will be lucky to win six games this season”. Because, that’s what just about everyone in town is saying right now. Don’t lie, you’ve said it, you know you have. You’ve watched it under perform in the exhibition games. You’ve tallied up all of the injuries and you’ve looked at the schedule. Six wins, seven maybe, if the snow falls enough when the Chiefs come to town in late December.

The experts around the country, the guys who make their living writing for web sites and preview magazines are whistling the same tune. Just got my recent issue of Sports Illustrated last week. Bengals picked to finish dead last in the AFC North, behind the Ravens who you could quarterback right now.

I wouldn’t be so quick to join the chorus. After the next 17 weeks, we all may be singing “Hallelujah” when the seasons ends. But today, I’d at least think about a different tune.

As I’ve said, on WLW Radio, on WLWT channel 5, to the to the other interview requests I get from stations all over the country, the hardest thing about covering the NFL is predicting what teams will win from week to week. To correctly predict how a team is going to finish now, in August, is next to impossible.

Sure you know who the dogs are And you know who the power teams are. There are always five great teams, five really lousy teams and the 22-other teams in the league will finish anywhere from 10-6 to 6-10. The Bengals, I think, will be in that bunch.

Your Cincinnati Bengals are not a great football team. They’re not a ‘dog’ either. The Bengals are a pretty average football team that has to play extremely well each week to have a chance to win. The tackling on defense is chronically bad. The offensive line has gone ‘south’ in a hurry. And if TJ and Chad (or Ocho Javon Cinco or whatever he’s calling himself now), if they don’t play well, the Bengals don’t win.

We’re talking about all of this today because in less than one week, the games start to count, because the Bengals have looked inept this summer and because two veteran Bengals were among the cut down casualties Saturday.

Rudi Johnson was done last year. I think the Bengals only brought him back to hedge their bets on Chris Perry getting hurt again. Let’s face it. Perry is like crystal. He can snap, anywhere, at any moment. You knew it, I knew it every Bengals fans knew there was no way Rudi was going to get $3.2 million once Perry proved that he could stay healthy.

Willie Anderson? The man deserved better than what he got. That was no way to treat someone who gave a lot of good years, all but one of his seasons in the NFL, to some horrid Bengals teams. Anderson is the second best lineman in team history. End of discussion. Anthony Munoz got a royal on field send off. Tim Krumrie rode out of Riverfront Stadium on a Harley. Willie got thrown out of Paul Brown Stadium when he wouldn’t write the Bengals front office a check.

But honestly, who didn’t see something like this coming? This story wasn’t going to have a happy ending for Anderson, not after the Bengals dropped $7.5 million on his replacement.

More than what Anderson might have been able to contribute on the field this season, what he leaves behind is a gaping hole in Bengal morality. If you haven’t noticed, that’s not exactly in ample supply these days. Drop a two year 600-grand deal on Chris Henry. Let Willie go. Sounds like subtraction by addition.

You have any idea who the team leaders are now? Where is that in the Bengals locker room? Maybe this is a perverted twist on that old line about Ralph Kiner: we can get arrested with you Willie, we can get arrested without you. Kids, if you don’t know who Ralph Kiner is, wake up Dad and ask him.

Look, I’m not very encouraged about this season. I think the Browns will be good again. I think there’s a lot of Browns-hatin’ going on and its clouding some sensible thinking here in the ‘nati. The Steelers play the toughest schedule in the NFL this season. But you and I both know that team has the

Bengals number. Two words: Dick LeBeau. Don’t let the Cincinnati part of his resume fool you.

The Ravens appear to caught in a vortex. They’ve got an older defense and they’ve got quarterback issues. Willis Magahee may not be ready to start the season. But they’ve got a new head coach and one of the best offensive coordinators on the planet. That team will find a way….

And then, there are your Cincinnati Bengals. The haven’t been able to run block very well this summer. They allowed their quarterback to get hit in the mouth far too often Any team with an edge rusher (and name one that doesn’t have one) can beat their tackles. Their secondary has been blown up about as much as the Cincinnati sky will be along about nine tonight.

But with all of that said, the Bengals are 0-0 today, like every other team in the NFL. Everything that happened in training camp this summer was important. But none of it matters now.

There’ll be plenty of time to panic in a month. But today, keep your options open. Things aren’t always the way they appear. Despite their worst efforts, your Cincinnati Bengals might figure this thing out, inspite of themselves.

Good Morning!

Just posted on my web site, www.kenbroo.com is the latest "Broo View Podcast". I've got some takes on the Bengals situation and you'll hear comments from Rudi Johnson, Carson Palmer and TJ Houshmandzadeh. Check it out its in the "Podcasts & More" section.

What a mess in Pittsburgh last night. The Steelers win it on a short field goal with :17 left, 3-0 final.

More on the day in sports later this afternoon.

What we saw in the last 36 hours in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis is the kind of football we deserve in Cincinnati.

Sunday, we saw two teams, each capable of winning a Super Bowl, performing at the highest level possible in the NFL. Indianapolis and New England played terrific defense and fundamentally solid offense in a game that was in contention until the final couple of minutes. There was no showboating, no grousing among team mates on the sideline and there were no massive breakdowns in execution (in other words, you didn't see three separate penalties called on the same team on the same play).

Monday night in Pittsburgh, a team just slightly below the Colts and Patriots on the NFL food chain put on a show. The Steelers may not have the firepower to stay with either of the NFL's two marquee teams. But this is another team fully capable of winning the Super Bowl this season, if things break the right way for them. Ben Roethlisberger, everything Carson Palmer wants to be, found open receivers, threaded the ball to receivers who weren't completely open and ran an offense that drilled a proud Baltimore defense.

Ray Lewis was interviewed on ESPN at the conclusion of the game. In addition to throwing his offense 'under the bus' by pointing out several times that 'you can't turn the ball over four times and expect to win' and 'I don't play offense...', Lewis also said that half the season is done and they've played all three AFC North division opponents on the road. Now, those teams have to go to Baltimore. One of those teams, of course, would be our Bengals, who beat the Ravens on opening night for one of their two wins. Do you think the Bengals were watching last night and saw what the Steelers did to the Ravens? Do you think the Bengals heard what Lewis had to say? Or do you think our Bengals have packed it in, now 2-6 and going nowhere this year?

I'm hoping the answers to those questions are yes, yes and no. What do you think?

This is pretty funny. Apparently, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune, there was a stare down before last Sunday's Bengals vs Steelers game involving Carson Palmer. You think it had anything to do with the outcome? Nahhh. But you gotta love the drama.

The lastest "Broo View Podcast" is now up, running and ready for your listening or downloading. You can find it in the 'Podcasts & More' section on my web site: www.kenbroo.com.

The only way the Bengals get into the NFL playoffs starts by beating Denver this Sunday. I've done the math.

9-7 COULD get an AFC team in. But the tie breakers may not all fall the Bengals way. And certainly, if the Bengals end up 9-7, their ninth win must come against Denver, as the Broncos are pretty much in the same boat as Cincinnati.

Can the Bengals go to Denver and win this week? Sure. Honestly, with the exception of the loss to the Colts Monday night, the Bengals haven't played a team this season they couldn't have beaten. Will the Bengals beat the Broncos? I saw nothing Monday night that would lead me to believe they will. The Colts, notoriously a finesse rather than a power team, pushed the Bengals all over the RCA Dome turf. Peyton Manning systematically picked the Bengals apart, running up 394 yards of total offense. The Colts converted on 3rd down 50 percent of the time.

Worse, was what the Bengals offense did, or didn't do. It didn't run with any consistency and failed to protect Carson Palmer. He was not only sacked, he was hit on a lot of plays. Chad Johnson and T.J.Houshmandzadeh were reduced to rumors.

Remember, still lurking is Pittsburgh. And the Steelers could come into Cincinnati New Year's Eve with a mathmatical chance to make the playoffs themselves. At the very least, they could play a large hand in whether or not the Bengals play on.

But it begins with Denver. If the Bengals lose to the Broncos, the Broncos gain the tie breaker over Cincinnati. Denver finishes with a weak 49ers team, in Colorado. The Jaguars and Jets remain the other contenders for 'cards'. While the Jags have a little tougher road remaining than the Jets, both could wind up with 10-6 records.

The wiggle room for the Bengals is gone. For them, the playoffs begin Sunday, in Denver.

Ken