Courtney Lanair Brown (born February 14, 1978) is an American former football defensive end who played for seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Cleveland Browns. He played college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions, earning consensus All-American honors in 1999. He was selected by the Browns with the first overall pick of the 2000 NFL Draft. He also played for the Denver Broncos.

Brown is often listed as a draft bust, noted among others such as Justin Gilbert, Johnny Manziel and Trent Richardson, all of them selected by Cleveland.^[1][2]

Brown was born in Charleston, South Carolina.^[3] Growing up in Alvin, South Carolina, he attended Macedonia High School and was a high school All-American linebacker his senior year. He also contributed on offense by playing tight end. Brown earned Gatorade Player-of-the-Year accolades in his senior year. He played in the Shrine Bowl. Brown was also an accomplished basketball star, playing in the North/South All-Star game. Throughout his high school career, he maintained a 4.0 grade point average. Furthermore, he never missed a day of school from K-12.

Brown attended Pennsylvania State University, where he played for coach Joe Paterno's Penn State Nittany Lions football team from 1996 to 1999. At Penn State, he was teammates with LaVar Arrington and Brandon Short. As senior in 1999, he was a first-team All-Big Ten selection, and was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American.^[4] Brown earned the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive Linemen of the Year honors in his senior year. He was also a finalist for three national awards: Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award and Lombardi Award. He finished his college football career with an NCAA record-breaking 33 quarterback sacks and 70 tackles for a loss.

He graduated from Penn State with a Bachelor of Arts degree in integrative arts in 2000.