The tenor of sports coverage these days lends itself to less and less fun being had when consuming it. Everything is life-or-death, do-or-die, important to extremes. As sports consumers, it’s easy to fall into the trap of taking sports news seriously, because the emotional and psychological weight that we’re compelled to lend to sports news often demands it.

Thank goodness the Cleveland Browns are around to inject some humor into the proceedings.

It was a monumental Tuesday in the NFL, as the Browns made history by becoming the first-ever post-merger team to trade their starting quarterback before Week 2. Yes, Charlie Frye, the Browns’ 3rd-round pick in 2005 and the “week-to-week” starter at the beginning of the season, was dealt to the Seahawks for an undisclosed draft pick, clearing the way for a completely unprepared Brady Quinn to battle a completely ineffective Derek Anderson for the starting job.

Putting aside the extreme silliness of the situation, one must consider that Charlie Frye made out like a bandit in this deal. He managed to start an NFL game, suck tremendously, get pulled at halftime, and then get traded from a trainwreck-in-progress to a team that could very well make the Super Bowl. One has to wonder if Josh McCown isn’t praying for a similar deal tonight. Meanwhile, the Browns appear to have gladly taken up the mantle of “Most Disorganized NFL Front Office” from the Raiders…at least for this week.

It was also a monumental day at NFL headquarters, where news continues to leak regarding this “Patriot Act” sign-stealing enterprise that Captain Mumbles and his cronies were caught in during this past week’s Jets-Pats game. They’re all over the story at the ProFootballTalk.com Rumor Mill - sadly, there isn’t a direct link to their coverage, but just scan through the recent posts and you’ll see it.

I don’t think anyone outside the Boston area needed another reason to loathe the Patriots and their football operations — we already had plenty. That said, the sheer hubris of the Patriots in this enterprise is remarkable. They had to know that the league was watching out for this kind of crap, what with the allegations of sign-stealing last year in their matchup versus the Packers, and the subsequent Bill Polian-led banning of cameras for the AFC Title Game. Yet they went ahead and did it again. Furthermore, as noted in the PFT link above, there are also allegations that the Patriots were deliberately misusing the radio system which sends plays into the quarterback.

I’ve heard a variety of suggestions for punishment on this topic. Mark Schlereth of ESPN was calling for a forfeiture of the Jets game from this weekend. PFT was calling for a suspension of Belichick. Unfortunately, I doubt that either of those will happen, mostly due to the power that New England owner Bob Kraft yields within the league.

No, the most fitting punishment for the Patriots might very well be a return to “stone-age” football — have the league confiscate all their sideline-to-QB transmission equipment, all their press box-to-sideline equipment, and all of their in-game film equipment, including those big 5 X 7 pictures that players use to examine defenses. Take all of those things away for the entire season, and see how well they do. Short of a suspension or a forfeit, I can think of no better penance for New England to serve than having to compete with a decided technological disadvantage.

Ultimately, though, I doubt we see anything done — and that’s really a shame, because it damages the credibility of the league to have such brazen cheating being utilized by one of its elite teams. I’m really looking forward to reading the Patriots apologists try and explain this one away. In fact, I’m certain that both Peter King and Bill Simmons are feverishly typing separate 5,000-word treatises proclaiming that “Everyone does it!” and that “We have to wait for all the facts to come in first!” The defenses for these actions will be loud, varied, and constant — and they have to be, because the appearance of these types of improprieties calls the whole “dynasty” thing into question.