THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

If you haven't already noticed, the video I posted last night of Shaun Smith, the former Bengal, confirming that Chad Johnson took a swing and connected to Marvin Lewis in an up til now rumored locker room scuffle at halftime of the Bengals vs Steelers playoff game two years ago, has been removed from youtube.com. One of my favorite destinations, profootballtalk.com has the skinny.

Mike Florio also has free agent winners and losers in his videocast. Check out the teams he designated as loser, in the first week of free agency.


I've had a lot of people ask me today whether or not I think the Bengals should try to bring LB Takeo Spikes back. Spikes has just been released by the Eagles, the second team he's played for since taking a walk in 2003. Spikes never gave Lewis a chance to prove he could turn the Bengals ill fortunes around (he hasn't really done that yet, to be honest about it). But that has nothing to do with the reason why I don't think the Bengals will make a play for Spikes. For openers, Spikes appears to have little left in his tank. Secondly, which Bengals current linebacker is Spikes better than? Rashad Jeanty? Ahmad Brooks? Dhani Jones? If Odell Thurman is re-instated, it's more reason not to pursue Spikes.

The Bengals ended the week by watching LB Landon Johnson take a hike. Johnson signed with the Carolina Panthers: three years $10 million. I like Johnson. He's a good locker room quote. But I don't think he's a guy who would wind up starting on this Bengals defense, when and if it gets good.

I'm heading to spring training next week. I wonder if my interview will Bronson Arroyo will be as good as this one, conducted by something called foxxynews.com.


Speaking of our Cincinnati Reds, did you catch the pitching line of 22 year old phenom, Johnny Cueto? Cueto started against the Pirates today: 3 innings pitched, ten batters faced (one over the minimum) four strike outs, one hit, zero runs. If he strings together three or four more starts like that before the spring ends, he'll be in the Reds rotation come opening day. Guarantee!

As we gear up for another weekend of college basketball, what's been the big reason for the big turnaround the UK Wildcats are delivering? Mark Story has an interesting take in the Lexington Herald.

I don't think their loss to St. Joe's on Thursday night will hurt the Xavier Muskies all that much. Even if they were able to 'run the table' and win out through the Atlantic 10 tournament, they'd be no better than a #3 seed in the NCAA's.

Thursday night's loss to DePaul shouldn't hurt UC all that much either. The Bearcats had no shot at an NCAA tournament bid. But if they want to play in the NIT or the new CBI tournament (that one takes an additional 16 teams, meaning 103 division one teams make a post season tournament this year) they'll have to win at least two games in the upcoming Big East Tournament.

I'm talking sports again this Sunday on 700 WLW, the 50,000 watt flame thrower here in Cincinnati. Among my guests, Bengals beat writer Mark Curnutte, Xaver TV analyst, Steve Wolf and mlb.com's Mark Sheldon, direct from spring training. I'm on from 9am-12:30pm. If you live outside of this part of the Midwest, you can always catch my show on line, at http://www.700wlw.com/ or on XM Channel 173.

Sunday night, on Cincinnati's channel 5, I'll be hosting another edition of Sports Rock! Former Bengal Eric Thomas and WEBN's "Wildman" Walker join George Vogel and me. From bengals.com, Geoff Hobson stops by to talk about a wild week in "Bengal-dom".

And if you're snowed in this weekend, check out my web site: http://www.kenbroo.com/.

Have a great weekend and don't kill yourself shoveling snow.