Difference between revisions of "Cleveland Browns"

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The '''Cleveland Browns''' are a [[National Football League]] franchise team. They are part of the [[American Football Conference]] and play in the North division.  The team was formed on 1946 by owner [[Arthur McBride]]. McBride held a newspaper contest to pick out the name for the team. The wining name for the team, the "Browns", was  based off the name of popular Cleveland coach [[Paul Brown]].
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The '''Cleveland Browns''' are a [[National Football League]] ([[NFL]]) team based in [[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]]. They are members of the [[American Football Conference]] (AFC) North Division.
  
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After the 1995 season, owner [[Art Modell]] decided to move the team to [[Baltimore]] for financial reasons, even though the team had an extremely loyal following in Cleveland, demonstrated by the fact that they had sold out every home game for the previous 20 years.  Cleveland was later rewarded an expansion team that began playing in 1999. In a unique move, the new team was allowed to retain the team name, logos, and history of the Browns while the original team that relocated started fresh as the [[Baltimore Ravens]].
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==History and League Success==
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The team was formed in 1946 by owner Arthur McBride, who held a newspaper contest to pick out the name for the team. The winning name for the team, the "Browns", was based on the name of the popular [[Coach (sport)|coach]] Paul Brown, who had attained much success in Ohio, winning five state championships coaching at Massillon High School in Canton during the 1930s, and leading the Ohio State Buckeyes to their first national championship in 1942. They were members of the All-American Football Conference, winning the league's championship all four years of its existence (1946–1949). When the league folded, the Browns (along with the [[San Francisco 49ers]] and a team called the Baltimore Colts, no relation to the later franchise of the same name which is now the [[Indianapolis Colts]]) joined the NFL.
  
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== Team ==
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The Browns won the NFL title in their first year in the league, and would go on to win it three more times (1954, 1955, 1964). Upon the merger of the AFL and the NFL, the Browns (along with the [[Pittsburgh Steelers]] and the then [[Indianapolis Colts|Baltimore Colts]]) were moved to the AFC to equalize the number of teams in each conference.
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{| class="toccolours" style="text-align: left;"
 
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|-
 
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!colspan="7" style="background-color: #DE6108;"|<font color="White"> Cleveland Browns Roster</font>
 
  
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|-
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After a lull in the 1970s, the team had a renaissance of sorts in the 1980s, led by popular quarterback Bernie Kosar, winning four Central Division championships and reaching the AFC Championship Game three times ('86, '87, '89), though they lost all three years to the Denver Broncos, the first two being under heartbreaking circumstances, with those games known in Cleveland sports lore as "The Drive" and "The Fumble" respectively.
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| style="font-size: 95%;" valign="top" | '''Quarterbacks'''
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">3</span> [[Derek Anderson]]
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">9</span> [[Charlie Frye]]
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">10</span> ''[[Brady Quinn]]''
 
  
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'''Running Backs'''
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After the 1995 season, owner [[Art Modell]] decided to move the team to [[Baltimore]] for financial reasons, even though the team had an extremely loyal following in Cleveland. As a condition of the move, the team name, logos, and history of the Browns did not go with the relocated team (which started fresh as the [[Baltimore Ravens]]), but were given to an expansion Cleveland Browns team which began operations in 1999.
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">41</span> ''[[Charles Ali]]'' FB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">35</span> [[Jerome Harrison]]  
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">31</span> [[Jamal Lewis]]
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">47</span> [[Lawrence Vickers]] FB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">29</span> [[Jason Wright]]
 
  
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'''Wide Receivers'''
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Since the team resumed as an active franchise, it has been noted for its futility, having only three winning seasons (2002, 2007 and 2020), with the 2002 and 2020 teams being the only playoff seasons in the new era; the 2020 season saw the team's first playoff win since its resumption as a franchise. The lowest point occurred in 2017, when the team went 0–16, becoming only the second team to do so (after the 2008 Detroit Lions) since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule. The team has never appeared in the Super Bowl, and is one of two NFL teams existing at the time of the AFL-NFL merger never to appear (the [[Detroit Lions]] are the other).
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">86</span> [[Tim Carter]]
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">16</span> [[Josh Cribbs]]
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">17</span> [[Braylon Edwards]]
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">84</span> [[Joe Jurevicius]]
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">81</span> [[Travis Wilson]]
 
  
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'''Tight Ends'''
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==AFC North Rivals==
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">87</span> [[Darnell Dinkins]]
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* [[Baltimore Ravens]]
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">82</span> [[Steve Heiden]]
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* [[Cincinnati Bengals]]
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">80</span> ''[[Kellen Winslow]]''
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* [[Pittsburgh Steelers]]
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| style="width: 25px;" |
 
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| style="font-size: 95%;" valign="top" | '''Offensive Linemen'''
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">57</span> [[LeCharles Bentley]] C
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">71</span> [[Kelly Butler]] T
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">70</span> [[Nat Dorsey]] T
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">66</span> [[Hank Fraley]] C
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">79</span> [[Pete Lougheed]] T
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">67</span> [[Fred Matua]] G
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">68</span> [[Seth McKinney]] C
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">77</span> [[Kevin Shaffer]] T
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">50</span> [[Rob Smith]] T
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">61</span> [[Isaac Sowells]] G
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">65</span> [[Eric Steinbach]] G
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">73</span> ''[[Joe Thomas]]'' T
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">72</span> [[Ryan Tucker]] T
 
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'''Defensive Linemen'''
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">75</span> [[Simon Fraser]] DT
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">93</span> [[Orien Harris]] DT
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">78</span> [[Ethan Kelley]] DT
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">96</span> [[Babatunde Oshinowo]] DT
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">69</span> [[J'vonne Parker]] DT
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">97</span> ''[[Chase Pittman]]''  DE
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">60</span> ''[[Melila Purcell]]'' DE
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">98</span> [[Robaire Smith]] DE
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">92</span> [[Ted Washington]] DT
 
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| style="width: 25px;" |
 
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| style="font-size: 95%;" valign="top" | '''Linebackers'''
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">54</span> [[Andra Davis]] ILB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">55</span> [[Willie McGinest]] OLB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">90</span> [[David McMillan]] OLB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">44</span> ''[[Mike Alston]]'' OLB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">56</span> [[Antwan Peek]] ILB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">56</span> [[Nick Speegle]] ILB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">52</span> [[Matt Stewart]] OLB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">51</span> [[Chaun Thompson]] ILB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">53</span> [[Mason Unck]] ILB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">94</span> [[Leon Williams]] OLB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">95</span> [[Kamerion Wimbley]] OLB
 
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'''Defensive Backs'''
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">20</span> [[Mike Adams]] FS
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">24</span> [[Gary Baxter]] CB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">28</span> [[Leigh Bodden]] CB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">36</span> [[Ben Emanuel]] FS
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">37</span> [[Mike Hawkins]] CB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">25</span> [[Justin Hamilton]] SS
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">39</span> [[Daven Holly]] CB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">48</span> ''[[Brandon McDonald]]'' CB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">21</span> [[Brodney Pool]] FS
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">37</span> [[Justin Sandy]] SS
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">26</span> [[Sean Jones]] SS
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">31</span> [[Jereme Perry]] CB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">25</span> [[Kenny Wright]] CB
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">24</span> ''[[Eric Wright]]'' CB
 
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| style="width: 25px;" |
 
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| style="font-size: 95%;" valign="top" | '''Special Teams'''
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">64</span> [[Ryan Pontbriand]] LS
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">&nbsp;4</span> [[Phil Dawson]] K
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">&nbsp;2</span> ''[[Jesse Ainsworth]]'' K
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">&nbsp;13</span>[[Kyle Basler ]] P
 
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* <span style="font-family: Courier New;">&nbsp;15</span>[[Dave Zastudil]] P
 
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'''Coaches'''
 
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*[[Romeo Crennel]] Head Coach
 
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*[[Terry Robiskie]] Wide Receivers
 
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*[[Dave Atkins]] Running Backs
 
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*[[Randy Melvin]] Defensive Line
 
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*[[Ben Coates]] Tight Ends
 
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*[[Rip Scherer]] Quarterbacks
 
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*[[Jeff Davidson]]Assistant Head coach/Offensive Line
 
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*[[Mike Haluchak]] Linebackers
 
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*[[Todd Grantham]] Defensive Coordinator
 
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*[[Jerry Rosburg]] Special Teams
 
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*[[Mel Tucker]] Secondary
 
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*[[John Lott (football coach)| John Lott]] Strength and Conditioning
 
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<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/team/roster.php Roster]</span><br>
 
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<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/team/chart.php Depth Chart]</span><br>
 
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<br>
 
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<br>
 
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''Rookies in italics''
 
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|-
 
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|}
 
  
 
== Related Websites ==
 
== Related Websites ==
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*[http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/ Official Team Website]
 
*[http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/ Official Team Website]
  
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=== Source Material ===
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==Source Material ==
  
 
*[http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/clev/browns.html Browns History]
 
*[http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/clev/browns.html Browns History]
  
  
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[[category:National Football League]]
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{{NFL Teams}}
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[[Category:NFL]]
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[[Category:Ohio]]

Latest revision as of 09:02, October 14, 2026

ClevelandBrowns1.jpg

The Cleveland Browns are a National Football League (NFL) team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are members of the American Football Conference (AFC) North Division.

History and League Success

The team was formed in 1946 by owner Arthur McBride, who held a newspaper contest to pick out the name for the team. The winning name for the team, the "Browns", was based on the name of the popular coach Paul Brown, who had attained much success in Ohio, winning five state championships coaching at Massillon High School in Canton during the 1930s, and leading the Ohio State Buckeyes to their first national championship in 1942. They were members of the All-American Football Conference, winning the league's championship all four years of its existence (1946–1949). When the league folded, the Browns (along with the San Francisco 49ers and a team called the Baltimore Colts, no relation to the later franchise of the same name which is now the Indianapolis Colts) joined the NFL.

The Browns won the NFL title in their first year in the league, and would go on to win it three more times (1954, 1955, 1964). Upon the merger of the AFL and the NFL, the Browns (along with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the then Baltimore Colts) were moved to the AFC to equalize the number of teams in each conference.

After a lull in the 1970s, the team had a renaissance of sorts in the 1980s, led by popular quarterback Bernie Kosar, winning four Central Division championships and reaching the AFC Championship Game three times ('86, '87, '89), though they lost all three years to the Denver Broncos, the first two being under heartbreaking circumstances, with those games known in Cleveland sports lore as "The Drive" and "The Fumble" respectively.

After the 1995 season, owner Art Modell decided to move the team to Baltimore for financial reasons, even though the team had an extremely loyal following in Cleveland. As a condition of the move, the team name, logos, and history of the Browns did not go with the relocated team (which started fresh as the Baltimore Ravens), but were given to an expansion Cleveland Browns team which began operations in 1999.

Since the team resumed as an active franchise, it has been noted for its futility, having only three winning seasons (2002, 2007 and 2020), with the 2002 and 2020 teams being the only playoff seasons in the new era; the 2020 season saw the team's first playoff win since its resumption as a franchise. The lowest point occurred in 2017, when the team went 0–16, becoming only the second team to do so (after the 2008 Detroit Lions) since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule. The team has never appeared in the Super Bowl, and is one of two NFL teams existing at the time of the AFL-NFL merger never to appear (the Detroit Lions are the other).

AFC North Rivals

Related Websites

Source Material


NFL Teams
AFC
NFC