There was a report the other day that Cal quarterback Jared Goff, one of the players the Browns are considering for the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft, blew his interview with the team at the recent NFL Combine.

“I don’t know where that report came from,” an astonished, puzzled and perturbed Browns head coach Hue Jackson said when asked about it.

Get used to it, Coach. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more out there, and you’ll be subjected to all of it – probably several times over. After all, it’s the “silly season,” a term that former Browns General Manager Phil Savage came up with to describe all the lies, half-truths and just crazy and ignorant stories that are brought to light as the draft approaches.

The draft, as we all know, is the NFL’s answer to espionage. It’s like Spy vs. Spy from MAD magazine.

But like it or not, it’s the way it is, the way it has been for a long time and the way it will be until the end of time.

Anything to muddy up the waters, throw up a smoke screen and throw the 31 other teams off the trail.

Not.

Nobody is fooling anybody about anything. All the teams pretty much know what the rest of the clubs are going to do. They could tell you right now if they wanted to. It’s their job to know. Their business – their livelihood, their jobs – depend on it.

And the Browns, sitting near the top of the draft, which is pretty much where they’ve been since they came back in 1999, are front and center of all the silliness.

This just in:

*The Browns are going to draft Mike Phipps’ grandson at quarterback.

*The Browns are going to use their first two picks – they also have No. 32 – to take the nephews of Mike Junkin and Clifford Charlton.

*The Browns are going to select Craig Powell’s son.

*The Browns are going to choose Rahim Abdullah’s little brother.

*The Browns want to draft Courtney Brown’s cousin and Gerard Warren’s younger brother.

*What the Browns do with their first pick will be decided by an arm wrestling match between Hue Jackson and Sashi Brown.

*The Browns will draw names out of a hat to decide who they will take with all of their picks.

*On the advice of the new director of player viability Eric Mangini, the Browns are going to trade down with every pick.

*Dee Haslam now has the final say on the 53-man roster.

*All of the Browns draft picks will be from the University of Tennsssee.

*Joe Banner has been rehired to run the draft.

*The Browns will use every pick on a quarterback.

*The Browns are going to trade all of their picks for Peyton Manning.

*The Browns have hired Butch Davis as a draft consultant.

*Mike Lombardi will join the Browns as a scout.

*Johnny Manziel will remain with the Browns to plan the team’s draft party.

Aw, just kidding.