THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

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.