Browns at rock-bottom

Now that the Detroit Lions have finally won a game, breaking a near-record 20-game losing skein, there's an open debate over which team is the NFL's worst.

Kansas City, Carolina, Washington (which lost to the Lions) and Cleveland all are mentioned frequently for the "honor."

Things are especially nasty for the Browns. Their coach is under attack from the media. Fans are circulating a petition demanding that the owner sell the team. The starting quarterback has been benched. Winless after three games, they've been outscored by 95-29 overall and by a brutal 61-9 in the last two games.

The Browns are down and they're being kicked. Unnecessary roughness?

"Not really," Pro Bowl nose tackle Shaun Rogers said yesterday. "We're kind of bad right now."

Learn your plays. A running back confused about his assignments? Not knowing the plays and winding up on the bench?

Sure, it happens all the time in Pop Warner football, and high school ball, too. Maybe in college football if a guy is really slow on the uptake.

But an NFL back? A second-year guy? Egads!

Rashard Mendenhall managed to get Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin so mad in practice a week ago that he did not play Sunday in a loss in Cincinnati.

Ironically, a week earlier Mendenhall had ripped off a 39-yard run against Chicago that showed why the Steelers had made him a first-round draft pick in 2008.

Last Sunday, he didn't carry once against Cincinnati.

Tomlin denied him the ball, indicating that if Mendenhall played like he practiced, he didn't want to see what might happen in a game.

"It's a learning experience," Mendenhall told reporters at practice yesterday. "You learn in the NFL that the minor things are major, so you have to stay on top of everything. I just look forward to getting an opportunity to get to play and show the fans and my teammates what I can do."

Who's that? Jacksonville Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio was driving home last Friday, flipping idly through various radio stations in his car, when he heard a familiar voice.

His starting quarterback, David Garrard, was hosting a weekly radio show and Del Rio had never heard about it till he, well, heard it.

The show was canceled as fast as Del Rio could find his cell phone.

The coach's main concern, he said yesterday, was the timing of the show.

"Less than 48 hours away from the game, it's not even a question," Del Rio told reporters. "I don't even understand how anybody could ever advise a quarterback to think about doing something like that. It makes no sense."

Garrard said he chose to do the show on Friday because it's rarely an NFL travel day, and wouldn't conflict with team meetings, film study, workouts or practice.

The quarterback said Del Rio told him a show early in the week would be OK, when he could rehash the past game.

But by Friday he should be focusing totally on the next game and getting some rest.

"I totally understand where he's coming from," Garrard said.