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Landscape never changes in Cincy
Week 10 Awards | Factoid
... Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. CINCINNATI -- Just before 8 a.m. Sunday, a man walked into the Starbucks coffee store just off Fountain Square, a five-minute walk from beautiful new Paul Brown Stadium. He ordered a latte, then said: "Why is there no parking on the street today?" Out on Vine Street, signs prohibiting parking hung on posts. The three baristas looked puzzled, though purple-and-black Ravens fans had been filtering through the place in its first hour of the day. "No idea," one barista said.
"Maybe there's a game today," another said. "Don't know about that," the third said. Six blocks away, there was a game. Fairly big one, too. Ravens-Bengals. The Bengals had a two-game winning streak. Arguably, this was the last meaningful game of their season; if they were to make anything of their first season in the new palace, it would have to be by stunning the playoff-contending Ravens. But it was hard to find much fervor in town. For the fifth game ever in PBS, there were wide swaths of empty seats in each end zone and in the east upper deck, 11,000 empty seats in all. A relatively big game (for the Bengals anyway), a new stadium, and 11,000 vacancies! For the season, the Bengals have sold out one game -- the opener with Cleveland -- and the prevailing attitude in town is: Just because you built it, we won't necessarily come. There is ire here, and it is directed at Mike Brown, the Bengals' president and majority owner, who, over the past decade, has presided over a 49-108 team, the losingest record in the NFL during that time. Brown runs everything here, which is the problem. Every fan and media member has suggested -- venomously, stridently or both -- that Brown should cede football control of the team to a professional scout or general manager type. Though FOX reported last week Brown was considering doing just that, that report apparently is bunk. Brown refused to speak to me before Sunday's matchup -- he likes his box to be a media-free zone before games -- but he has told those within the organization that he has no intention of hiring a football man such as Tom Donohoe to run the football side of things. Brown, the son of the late Paul Brown, enjoys running the team, wants to leave it to his daughter Katie and son Paul, and remains unconvinced that hiring a so-called "football man" would improve the team's performance. It would, of course. The NFL is in part an image game. It is against the conservative Brown's nature to woo agents and players by a gesture such as hiring a football man to run the show. This would be more than a p.r. ploy, though even one of those is desperately needed here. As the Bengals' only star, running back Corey Dillon, told me Saturday: "I've heard from other players they'd never come here. There's a stigma against the place because of the last 10 years. It's almost like the forbidden spot where no one wants to go." The Bengals need to show the football universe they're serious about winning, which no agent or player will believe until a Donohoe/ John Butler type -- or even someone much farther down the personnel food chain -- is imported. Mike Brown is one of the most intelligent men I've met in 17 years covering the NFL, and it boggles my mind he doesn't see what the rest of the world sees. He needs help. I covered this team for the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1984. The stadium has changed. Paul Brown is gone. But it is a franchise frozen in time. And in opportunity. A man named Dave Young in Los Angeles is trying to spur Brown into making some changes. Young, an e-commerce consultant who moved from northern Kentucky (which you can see from the press box here) to L.A. five years ago, founded MikeBrownSucks.com, the Cincinnati Bengals Enraged Fan Site, earlier this year. Its mission statement: "The ownership of this organization has actively pursued a course which has materially indebted itself to the people of Cincinnati yet have [sic] failed to deliver a competitive product through what we feel is gross incompetence at the highest levels of management ... Commissioner Paul Tagliabue must suspend Mike Brown from the day-to-day operations of the Cincinnati Bengals and elect an acting general manager in order to preserve the integrity of the game." The site calls on Bengals fans to boycott the Dec. 3 game against Arizona. "I want to raise awareness about the Bengals," Young told me from the coast Sunday over the phone. "And I want Mike Brown to know Bengals fans do not accept the conduct of this organization. We are fed up. The way he runs the franchise is unacceptable. Through everything that's happened in the past 10 years -- different coaches, different players, different stadiums -- there have been two constants: losing and Mike Brown. This is my little way of voicing my dissatisfaction and pushing for change." Nice effort, Dave. But Mike Brown has his heels firmly dug in, and I think you have a better chance of e-campaigning for an Art Modell statue in downtown Cleveland than you have of saddling Brown with an authoritative general manager. A shame. This is a nice place. There's no better lunch than a Skyline four-way with a cheese coney. The suburbs are plush and liveable. The downtown is user-friendly. The Reds are competitive. The college basketball is first rate. But the Bengals are the Chattanooga Lookouts of the NFL, a team that most Sundays doesn't belong on the same field with even average pro football clubs. Quarterback Akili Smith needs about a decade of seasoning. Wideout Peter Warrick wants the ball. Dillon wants out. I spent the postgame in Baltimore's locker room, mining for stuff about the end of the their touchdown drought. I asked tackle Jon Ogden how vital it was for the Ravens to win. "Cincinnati is ... Cincinnati is an NFL team, but come on," he said. "If we can't come here and win, we don't belong in playoff contention." Week 10 AwardsOFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Baltimore QB Trent Dilfer. I never thought I'd see Dilfer, in a game his team absolutely had to have, thread three touchdown passes, throw no picks, and complete 68 percent (23 of 34) of his passes for 244 yards. But he did that in Baltimore's rout of the Bengals, ending the Ravens' 21-quarter touchdown-less streak. And trust me on this one: Dilfer's a different guy from the flighty one who always had a good excuse when he failed with the Bucs. I think he has a chance to play well, though he'll have to do it a few times against big-league teams before anyone's convinced. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Pittsburgh LB Earl Holmes, whose 15 tackles and stout defense against Eddie George helped key the Steelers' strong defensive day in their 9-7 loss at Tennessee. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Carolina K Joe Nedney, not just because his 46-yard field goal beat the Super Bowl champs 27-24 in their house Sunday night, and not just because he had another great night kicking (four-of-four). After 10 weeks, arguably, Nedney has been the NFL's best kicker. He's 24-of-27 in field goals and a great kickoff man. COACH OF THE WEEK: Pittsburgh's head coach Bill Cowher. Refocused and rededicated after a mail-it-in 1999 season, Cowher is doing just what he vowed to club owner Dan Rooney he'd do: put everything he has into building a good team. Cowher was one Del Greco shank away from upsetting the best team in football at their house yesterday. And if he can just get his offense to squeeze out 17 points a game the rest of the way, they'll be 10-6 with a home wild-card game on New Year's weekend. Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only MeAsked last week who he was voting for in Tuesday's election, Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe said: "Gore. I always vote Republican." Thirty seconds later, he corrected himself. But I couldn't resist. The 10 Things I Think I Think1. I think my quote of the week belongs to Bengals.com beat man Geoff Hobson, who, after watching the woefully ineffective Akili Smith line up wide while Warrick took the snap from center four yards for the Bengals only score of the day, hollered in the press box: "Quarterback controversy!" 2. I think the Steelers are now front and center in the AFC playoff picture, regardless of the 9-7 loss at Tennessee that left them 5-4. They've allowed 3, 0, 0, 6 and 9 points the last five weeks -- 3.6 per game. Looming are Philly and Jacksonville at home, then Cincinnati on the road. That sounds an awful lot like 8-4 to me, with Oakland coming to Three Rivers for a classic old Raiders-Steelers rumble Dec. 3, with playoff hopes on the line. 3. I think I was quite surprised to pick up the phone Wednesday morning and hear Bill Parcells' voice. "Peter," he said, "I just wanted to tell you I read that column you wrote on your Web site about Steve Schoenfeld, and I really appreciated it. That one hurts a lot. I knew Steve, and he was one of the guys I really, really respected in your business. He really cared." I know you weren't expecting me to quote you, Bill, but I'm hoping you won't mind. [The top of MMQB last week was devoted to Schoenfeld, 45, the past president of the Pro Football Writers of America and my friend. He was mowed down and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Tempe, Ariz., 13 days ago.] 4. I think the game I'd most like to see in the NFL right now is St. Louis at Oakland. 5. I think I never thought I'd see the day when Elvis Grbac threw for 504. 6. I think Doug Flutie is more than a little bit right when he says: "Since I've come to the NFL it feels like I'm always on a tryout. Every day, every practice, every mini-camp. If I was 6-foot-3, I would not feel that way. I've had scar tissue build up over the last 16 years from every situation I've had in the NFL. That goes back to helping the Patriots win seven of 10 games and then having a decision made to put Tony Eason in for the playoffs. Sometimes you feel like saying, 'I'm out of here,' but the bottom line is nothing is better than to prove them wrong again. I think I've played very well this year. That's what answers it. All the stuff I've been through, year after year, makes you tougher. But I wouldn't recommend it." 7. I think when I think of the Heisman Trophy this year, I wonder if it's really fair that Chris Weinke, a man the same age as eight-year NFL veteran Drew Bledsoe, a man four years older than Peyton Manning, a man three years older than Brian Griese, is going to win. 8. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week: a. Field Hockey Note of the Week: The Mounties rule. The object of my fall fandom, the Montclair (N.J.) High Mountie field hockey team, ran its record to 15-2-1 with a 5-0 win against Wayne Valley in the New Jersey Group IV Section I quarterfinals Friday in Montclair. We advance to Monday's 2 p.m. semis against Livingston, again at home. Wayne Valley was valiant, and had three scoring chances early knocked away by fine pad saves by goalie Kaitlyn Robinson. In the 26th minute (halves are 30 minutes long), right wing Laura King (we are related, as faithful readers know), took a breakout pass from New Jersey field hockey's version of Bennie Thompson, our own Energizer Bunny, Perri Hillsberg, and broke past midfield in a two-on-one. She drew the goalie out, then passed across the crease to sharpshooter Allison Farley. Farley shot wide, and the ball appeared to be sliding over the end line. Laura (I swear I never taught her this) took a full-body dive toward the ball and slapped it back across the crease to Allison, who fired it home. Inflation for us. Deflation for Wayne Valley. We scored three times in the next 14 minutes. Five different Mounties scored. What a selfless group of kids. b. Insider's Field Hockey Note of the Week: Bill Kuharich, make sure your girls get into field hockey there in Kansas City. c. Coffeenerdness: Ran into Baltimore Ravens president David Modell at the Starbucks across from the Cincinnati Westin at 7:12 a.m. Sunday. He beat me there from the hotel. In fact, he unlocked the door for me. "Gotta get my eight shots in the morning," he said. He's dead serious. He was holding a tall cup with eight shots of espresso. For the record, he also had a bottle of Odwalla orange juice and a $4 New York Times. d. Neophyte, Know-Nothing U2 Review of the Week: "All That You Can't Leave Behind" is a great CD. Remember when a U2 album was filled with unpretentious great song after great song? Then a bunch of "Lemons" started creeping in, though I've liked every album the group has ever produced. This will go down as one of the great works of a great band. I keep hitting the repeat button on the ninth track, "When I Look At The World." 9. I think I think I love the Edge NFL Matchup show. Great job, Suzy Kolber, Ron Jaworski, Merril Hoge. Thanks for weeding through all that film for me. I learn something every week from that show. 10. I think I don't remember an NFL season in Week 10 when so many teams are legitimate Super Bowl hopefuls. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview. Click here to send a
question to his NFL Mailbag.
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