NEW YORK, NY - In a moment that would make philosophers or Alanis Morisette proud, the Cleveland Browns in an incredibly ironic moment, sure to be discussed in coffee houses for weeks, selected with the first pick in the 200 NFL Draft, Courtney Brown.
The irony of the moment was quickly seized upon by journalists hoping to create the catchy headline for the next day.
"It's a tremendous opportunity," an excited Jeremy Bertholtz of the Detroit Free Press noted. "I mean the Browns select Brown, it is ripe for humor and wit at the headline level, not to mention within the story itself."
Among the headlines indicated are "Brown-Out At the NFL Draft", "Cleveland's Brown" and "Cleveland and Courtney Browns Rule the Draft" although at the time this was written nothing had been finalized.
Never before in football, or even in all of sports, has anything dripped with some much ironic overtones as this does. Or is it? Although most agree that this is a textbook case of irony, others are not so sure.
"So the Cleveland Browns draft a guy named Brown, is that really ironic?" asked Ethicist with the Brookings Institute, Mickey Porteus. "It would seem to me that irony would require some sort of moral backstory to create a dramatic tension leading up to the ironic incident. Otherwise it seems to me to just be a coincidence."
But the NFL's official ethicist, Barry Thoms disagreed, "Of course this is ironic. I mean c'mon, the Cleveland Browns draft a guy named Courtney Brown. If that isn't ironic, I don't know what is."
Porteus, however, was quick to question the whole concept, asking, "The NFL has an Ethicist?"
To the many assembled journalists, however, the issue of irony was already settled.
Bertholz, "Hell yeah, I'm playing up the irony angle. What else have I got?"
©2000 Copyright David Oliver
DISCLAIMER: These stories are not true. No really. It's all just a joke, you know for fun.
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