THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

Finally....finally Carson Palmer has spoken out. I say finally because Palmer rarely says anything that close to noteworthy. He's a direct disciple of Marvin Lewis, the king of non informational comments. In this day of 'gotcha' journalism, I'm not sure I blame him. But it was refreshing to hear what Palmer said today regarding the latest Bengal to spend time behind bars, Johnathan Joseph. The rookie cornerback was arrested Monday night and charged with posession of marijuana.

Palmer said, "It has to stop. If it doesn't stop, we're not going to have any fans left." The Bengals quarterback went onto say about nine of his teammates being arrested in the past nine months, "It's ridiculous. We can't get through a month without getting a guy arrested."

The mere fact that Palmer is talking this way publicly may be the best indication that things will be getting better. For years, almost a decade, the Bengals have had no vocal leader in their locker room. Team management did a terrific job of extracting that from the equation, not wanting to be publicly embarrassed by something one of their employees said to the media. They traded that, I suppose, for being embarrassed by DUI's, drugs and resisting arrest charges.

A great way for the Bengals make the jump from pretender to contender is what Palmer finally did today: stand up and assume the responsibility of his position. Like it or not, the quarterback position is one of leadership. It goes with the turf. Look at the Indianapolis Colts, or New England Patriots, the Eagles. All have vocal leaders at quarterback. Let me ask you this: do you think for a minute any of this garbage that's been going on around the Bengals would be tolerated for a moment by Peyton Manning or Tom Brady? They may not have been able to stop it completely. But they'd be vocal enough to prevent some of it.

Palmer took a giant step today. He needs to take another. Next time something blows up on the Bengals, like their playoff hopes did this year against the Broncos and the Steelers, Palmer needs to name names. Nothing drastic mind you, just a gentle 'calling out'.

I could be wrong on this. But I think that may be as big to the general health of the Cincinnati Bengals, as any touchdown pass he'll throw.

Just posted on my web site, www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo v. Broo. It's the hottest sports opinion show in cyber space. We're talking NFL playoffs, NCAA hoops and whether or not the NHL will ever be on the same level as Major League Baseball, the NFL or NBA.

When you get to www.kenbroo.com, check out some of my other interviews. Go to the menu bar on the left hand side and click "Podcasts & More"