To be sure, it’s an odd combination – a really odd combination.

But that’s the way the news breaks sometimes, with two very different but important stories – stories that happened at about the same time over the weekend and thus need to be discussed right away.

So we’ll throw them together, these polar opposites with ties to the Browns..

This, then, is a combined story about senseless and sensational.

Sad and super.

Horrific and happy.

Idiotic and iconic.

The senseless, sad, horrific and idiotic part of today’s tale is the shooting death late Saturday night in an apparent road-rage incident of former Ohio State star defensive end Will Smith, a member of the school’s 2002 national championship team who went on to a great career with the New Orleans Saints. He was just 34.

 

Things like that defy explanation or understanding. What a tremendous tragedy. It just leaves you numb. And sick to your stomach.

That’s exactly what people were saying nearly 30 years ago when promising Browns safety Don Rogers died June 27, 1986 of a cocaine overdose at a bachelor party on the night before he was to have been married. He was just 23.

We’ll talk more in this space about Rogers’ passing as the anniversary of it nears, but I began thinking about it as Smith’s death kept being mentioned in the news.

We sometimes get the idea that these big-time athletes are infallible. But of course, they’re not. They’re exposed to the same perils of life that the rest of us face. And they bleed, too, just like the rest of us. Fate doesn’t discriminate when it chooses its victims.

Now let’s switch gears totally to the other end of the spectrum – the sensational and happy story about the super, iconic Golden State Warriors. They tied the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ NBA record of 72 wins in the regular season when they defeated the San Antonio Spurs 92-86 on Sunday night. The Warriors will try to set a new mark of 73 victories when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night in their regular-season finale.

All of that, of course, is hard to swallow in Cleveland, for the Bulls of 20 years ago wiped out the Cavaliers in all four of their regular-season meetings. Last year’s Warriors came back from a 2-1 deficit in their best-of-seven NBA Finals series with the Cavaliers to win 4-2 and claim the championship.

Even with all that, though, you have to tip your hat to the Warriors, both last season and this season, really, just as you had to do to that Michael Jordan-led Bulls club two decades ago.

Greatness is greatness, no matter who does it and who they do it against. And because it doesn’t come around often in pro sports, you have to take notice. You just have to.

The NBA regular season is 82 games long, so no one is ever going to go through it undefeated. As such, getting over 70 wins is the equivalent of a perfect season in football.

It was 68 years ago, back in 1948, that the Browns had their own perfect season, going 15-0 to win their third consecutive All-America Football Conference title. Ironically, they beat San Francisco’s entry in the league, the then arch-rival 49ers, twice that year, 14-7 and 31-28, and they topped Chicago’s entry, the Rockets, twice as well, 28-7 and 21-10. All that was part of a 29-game unbeaten string (27-0-2) the Browns put together from midway through the 1947 season to halfway through ’49.

That was also greatness, but unfortunately, it came at a time that was too early in history for people to really appreciate it.

Still, looking back on that long-ago sensational feat by the Browns, while at the same time acknowledging what the Warriors are now doing, helps keep us sane while at the same time dealing with the senseless loss of Will Smith and Don Rogers.