Bio: Courtney Brown

He really is a soft-spoken person. That's what they say about Courtney Brown, the giant defensive end from Penn State.

Talk to those who know him and they'll say he's mild-mannered, shy and even reclusive. In high school, he had a 4.0 grade-point average. In college, he studied Web design.

"He's like two people," Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington said. "One side of him plays football and he's like the meanest SOB you'd ever want to meet. And the other side is just a normal, everyday person."

Those who know Brown also say he's the second coming of Bruce Smith and probably the most athletic player in next weekend's NFL draft. If the Cleveland Browns don't take him with the first pick, he will fall to Washington, which has the second and third selections.

Brown is 6 feet 4, with a 7-foot-2 wingspan, weighs 270 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.56 seconds, a tenth of a second slower than Florida State receiver Peter Warrick.

At the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis last month, Brown stood for 20 minutes and answered a barrage of questions with simple "No, sir," and "Yes, ma'am" answers.

Inquisitors walked away with more questions than answers.

"That's Courtney," Arrington said, laughing. "He can't be everything to everybody. He's a good football player. Ain't that enough?"

If not for Cleveland, then certainly for Washington.