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A running list of the greatest botched pick announcements in NFL Draft history

Usually, these things go smoothly. Usually.

2018 NFL Draft
2018 NFL Draft
Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images

Although the NFL Draft has changed in location, venue, and overall significance throughout the years, the overall process of drafting players has stayed relatively similar for a while.

NFL teams have a set time limit to put in their pick during each round, and when the pick is in, either commissioner Roger Goodell or another person, often a special guest of some sort, announces that pick at the podium.

Luckily for us, some pick announcements haven’t gone as smoothly as the vast majority. Here are some of the less smooth ones, in no particular order.

The Browns pulled a Browns and tried drafting a dude who had already been picked.

The Browns called defensive end Cameron Jordan to select him in the fourth round, thinking they were calling tight end Jordan Cameron. But the thing was, Cameron Jordan had already been selected by the Saints in the first round. You would guess the Browns would have known a big name had already come off the board, right? Nope!

A transcript of Jordan explaining the situation to Dan Patrick:

Patrick: “Were you ever confused with Jordan Cameron?”

Jordan: “When we got drafted, I got drafted in the first round, he got drafted in the -- what round?”

Patrick: “Fourth.”

Jordan: “The Browns called me while I was chilling with my d-line coach, Bill Johnson. ... We were driving from the airport. And I got a call from the Browns. ... They were like, ‘Hey, we’re about to select you.’ I was like ‘I mean, I’m good, actually. I think I’ve already been selected. But if you wanna send that check, I’ll take that.’”

Patrick: “OK, so you’d already been taken in the first round, so this was the next day?”

Jordan: “Right. ... Sitting there, you’re just like, ‘I mean, I’ll take two signing bonuses. But I refuse to go to Cleveland.’”

Apparently the Browns still had time on the clock, because they ended up taking Jordan Cameron in the fourth round after all. Phew.

Vince Young spectacularly butchered the pronunciation of a Titans draft pick named “Harold.”

This is the butchering-est of all butchered name pronunciations. Announcing the Titans’ 2018 third-round pick, instead of pronouncing Landry’s first name like “Hair-old,” Young said something that sounded like “honor:”

Some reactions in real time:

Luckily, Young owned up and apologized to Honor — I mean Harold. Landry didn’t seem like he minded the mess-up too much:

The Bucs literally drafted the wrong guy!

Tampa Bay pulled off a costlier own version of mistake the Browns would make later.

In 1982, the Bucs accidentally drafted Penn State offensive lineman Sean Farrell in the first round, when they intended to pick Bethune-Cookman defensive end Booker Reese.

Thanks to a gap in communication on the phone, former Bucs equipment manager Pat Marcuccillo, who was representing the team at the draft, sent in a pick for Farrell instead of Reese. The team ended up having to take Reese in the second round instead.

“The communication we had then, today you would consider it archaic,’’ former Tampa Bay player personnel director Ken Herock told Sports Illustrated, and added:

We were on the phone, but it was hard to hear. I’m hearing Pat say, ‘Quiet, quiet, quiet, I can’t hear what he’s saying.’ And I can hear a lot of noise on the other end, in the background in New York. We were close to our time, but we always let it ride until the last 30 seconds or so and then we’d turn the pick in.

We thought we needed both of those players, but after we mulled it over and discussed it, the selection was to go with Booker Reese. So I told Pat, I said, ‘Listen, Pat, you’ve got two names there.’ I said ‘We’re not going with Sean Farrell, we’re going with Booker Reese. Turn it in.’ But he didn’t hear the Booker Reese part of it because of the noise. He took it that we were going with Sean Farrell and turned it in.

Former Jets fullback Tony Richardson misspelled “J-E-T-S.”

During the 2017 draft, Richardson spelled out “J-E-T-E” instead:

Maybe he was nervous.

Former Patriot Kevin Faulk confused an offensive lineman for a linebacker.

In the third round of the 2016 draft, Faulk accidentally announced NC State offensive guard Joe Thuney as a linebacker.

See, when the Patriots mess up, it’s not as embarrassing as when everyone else does.

And I still haven’t forgiven the Bucs for completely duping and bamboozling us into thinking an actual parrot would announce one of their picks.

During the 2018 draft, the Bucs claimed that a parrot named Zsa Zsa would be announcing their third-round pick. THEY SAID “ANNOUNCE.”

The parrot didn’t squawk a single syllable, depriving us of what could have been glorious. Instead, the lady with the bird on her shoulder announced the pick herself. LAME!

I was absolutely livid, as was the majority of the internet.

Still pretty upset about this, TBH.

Got any other examples of messed up picks?

This is a running list. Drop ‘em in the comments below!

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