Cleveland Browns

Cleveland Browns
Current season
Logo Wordmark
Established June 4, 1944; 80 years ago (June 4, 1944)[1] First season: 1946 Play in Huntington Bank Field Cleveland, Ohio Headquartered in the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus Berea, Ohio[2]
League / conference affiliations
All-America Football Conference (1946–1949) Western Division (1946–1948) National Football League (1950–present) American Conference (1950–1952) Eastern Conference (1953–1969) Century Division (1967–1969) American Football Conference (1970–1995; 1999–present) AFC Central (1970–1995; 1999–2001) AFC North (2002–present)
Uniforms
Team colors	Brown, orange, white[3][4]
Mascot	Chomps, SJ, Brownie the Elf
Website	clevelandbrowns.com
Personnel
Owner(s)	Jimmy Haslam Dee Haslam[5][6]
General manager	Andrew Berry[7][8]
President	David Jenkins[a]
Head coach	Kevin Stefanski
Team history
Cleveland Browns (1946–1995, 1999–present) Suspended operations (1996–1998)
Team nicknames
The Brownies
Championships
League championships (8) AAFC championships (4) 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 NFL championships (pre-1970 AFL–NFL merger) (4) 1950, 1954, 1955, 1964
Conference championships (11) NFL American: 1950, 1951, 1952 NFL Eastern: 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969
Division championships (12) AAFC Western: 1946, 1947, 1948 NFL Century: 1967, 1968, 1969 AFC Central: 1971, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989
Playoff appearances (30)
AAFC: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 NFL: 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1994, 2002, 2020, 2023
Home fields
Cleveland Stadium (1946–1995) Huntington Bank Field (1999–present)
Team owner(s)
Arthur B. McBride (1944–1953) Dave Jones (1953–1961) Art Modell (1961–1995) Al Lerner (1998–2002) Randy Lerner (2002–2012) Jimmy & Dee Haslam (2012–present)

The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team is named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown. They play their home games at Huntington Bank Field, which opened in 1999,^[9][10] with administrative offices and training facilities in Berea, Ohio. The franchise's official club colors are brown, orange, and white.^[11] They are unique among the 32 member clubs of the NFL in that they do not have a logo on their helmets.^[12][13]

The franchise was founded in 1944 by Brown and businessman Arthur B. McBride as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), and began play in 1946. The Browns dominated the AAFC, compiling a 47–4–3 record in the league's four seasons and winning its championship in each.^[14] When the AAFC folded after the 1949 season, the Browns joined the NFL along with the San Francisco 49ers and the original Baltimore Colts. The Browns won a championship in their inaugural NFL season, as well as in the 1954, 1955, and 1964 seasons, and in a feat unequaled in any of the North American major professional sports, played in their league championship game in each of their first 10 years of existence, winning seven of those games. From 1965 to 1995, they qualified to play in the NFL playoffs 14 times, but did not win another championship or play in the Super Bowl during that period.^[15]

In 1995, owner Art Modell, who had purchased the Browns in 1961, announced plans to move the team to Baltimore. After threats of legal action from the city of Cleveland and fans, a compromise was reached in early 1996 that allowed Modell to establish the Baltimore Ravens as a new franchise while retaining the contracts of all Browns personnel. The Browns' intellectual property, including team name, logos, training facility, and history, were kept in trust and the franchise was regarded by the NFL as suspended, guaranteed to return no later than the 1999 season, either by relocation of an existing franchise or an expansion draft. While several of the existing franchises at the time considered relocating to Cleveland, in 1998 it was confirmed that the NFL would hold an expansion draft and field 31 teams when the Browns resumed play in 1999. And although the 1999 Browns were restocked via an expansion draft, the Browns are not considered to be an expansion franchise.^[16]

Since resuming operations in 1999, the Browns have struggled to find success, especially during the 2010s when they did not post one winning season throughout that decade.^[17] They have had only four winning seasons (2002, 2007, 2020, and 2023), three playoff appearances (2002, 2020, and 2023), and one playoff win (2020), winning less than one third of their games in total, and in 2017 were only the second team in NFL history to have a 0–16 season after the 2008 Detroit Lions. The franchise has also been noted for a lack of stability with head coaches (10 full time - including two who were fired after only one season - and two interim since 1999) and quarterbacks (39 different starters since 1999). From 2003 to 2019, the Browns had a 17-season playoff drought, which ended during the 2020 season.^[18][19] They are one of four teams to have never appeared in a Super Bowl.

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