THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

Good Morning! And if you choose to celebrate Christmas, let me join in the choir of wishing your a very Merry Christmas.

It won't be for the Cleveland Browns. Talk about 'spitting the bit'. Cleveland is now on the ropes, no longer a sure lock to make the NFL playoffs, thanks largely to some stupid play calling and execution in the final two minutes of the first half of the Browns vs Bengals game in Cincinnati Sunday. Twice inside the final two minutes, quarterback Derek Anderson tossed interceptions that led directly to Bengals touchdowns. In all, Anderson tossed four interceptions and single handidly delivered a win to the Bengals. Needing only to 'win to get in', the Browns are now in hot soup.

Check out what they're saying about this game in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Here's the bottom line for that final Wild Card in the AFC. If Cleveland and Tennessee both win next win, Tennessee is in. If they both lose, Cleveland is in. If Cleveland wins and Tennessee loses, Cleveland is in. If Cleveland loses and Tennessee wins, Tennessee is in.

The Browns get the easier draw: at home against the 49ers. The Titans have to play at Indianapolis, Sunday night.

The Bengals? Don't get caught up in the hoopla of beating Cleveland. Any win is a good win. But this team has major, major decisions to make on coaches and players after this season is over. I look for some major changes. After Marvin Lewis, no assistant coach is safe, including both coordinators. I'll have more on this as the week progresses, but the Bengals need to make a statement in free agency this winter. No more bottom feeding, the Bengals must bring in impact players. They passed last winter on Adalius Thomas and instead signed three marginal players (Ed Hartwell, Kendrick Allen and Michael Myers). Only Myers remains and is, at best, a role player.

Roger Clemens is trying to repair his image, speaking out on youtube.com and denying any use of HGH or steroids. You can watch it, here.
I suppose I'd deny it too. And that's the trouble with all of this fall out from the Mitchell Report: nobody will ever really know who's telling the truth. Major League Baseball's reluctance to embrace any kind of drug testing until three years ago lends itselfs to skepticism.