The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the North division of the American Football Conference (AFC). Founded in 1946, they were a charter member club of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC).
The Browns have won four NFL championships, all of which pre-date the existence of the Super Bowl. The Browns' four championships are tied for the tenth most total championships amongst all 32 NFL franchises.[1] They are one of four current teams to have never played in the Super Bowl.[2] Two of these teams, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans, are expansion teams in the AFC that began play in 1995 and 2002 respectively.[3]
In 1995, then-Browns owner Art Modell made the decision to move the team from Cleveland, Ohio to Baltimore, Maryland. An agreement between the city of Cleveland and the NFL kept the team’s history, name and colors in Cleveland, while Modell’s new team would be regarded as an expansion team. The Baltimore Ravens would begin play in 1996, and the Browns would return to the league in 1999. For record-keeping purposes, the Browns are considered to have suspended operations from 1996 to 1998, which is reflected in this list. In 2017, the Cleveland Browns became the second team in NFL history (2008 Detroit Lions) to suffer an 0–16 record. In 2020, the Browns won their first playoff game since their reactivation in 1999, defeating the division champion Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round.