NFL Profiles: Cleveland Browns

Who are the Cleveland Browns? 

The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are named after coach and co-founder Paul Brown. They compete in the NFL as a member of the AFC in the North Division. 

They are unique in the 32 franchises of the NFL in that they do not have a logo on their helmets. The franchise was founded in 1945 by Brown and Arthur B. McBride as a member of the AAFC. As a team, they dominated the AAFC, compiling a 47-4-3 record in the league’s four seasons, and winning its championship each time. When the AAFC folded after the 1949 season, they joined the NFL alongside the 49ers and original Baltimore Volts. They won a championship in their inaugural NFL season, as well as in 1954, 1955, and 1964 too. 

To understand the potential for the odds of a Cleveland Browns win, it is worthwhile to look at their history stats. 

The Cleveland Browns have 4 AAFC championships, 4 NFL championships pre NFL-AFL merger. They also have 11 conference championships, 3 in the NFL American, and 8 in the NFL Eastern. They also have 12 division championships too, 3 in the AAFC Western, 3 in the NFL Century, and 6 in the AFC Central. They appeared in 29 Playoffs, with 5 of those 29 being in the AAFC and the other 24 being in the NFL, with the most recent being 2020. 

The Browns have potential to become a major winning team sometime in the near future, don’t you think? 

History of the Browns. 

The Browns were founded in 1946 and as the result of a fan petition to choose their moniker, they were named after their first head coach, Paul Brown, who was already a popular figure in Ohio at the time, since he had coached Ohio State Universe to a national collegiate football championship. 

The Browns were originally members of the AAFC, and they won the league title in each of their four years during the AAFC’s existence. The most notable of these title-winning teams was the 1948 squad, who went 15-0 to become the first ever undefeated team in organized professional football history. 

They were integrated into the NFL along with two other former AAFC teams in 1950, and despite the prevailing expectations, they continued to have success in their new league. 

Their first game in the NFL was a symbolic 35-10 victory over the current defending champions of the time- the Philadelphia Eagles. 

Their first years were defined by the exquisite play of the quarterback Otto Graham, and the innovative coaching of Brown, both of whom are not Hall of Famers. They guided the team to 10 divisional titles in its first 10 years, as well as seven championships between the two leagues. 

Then in 1957, they drafted Syracuse University’s running back- Jim Brown, who set every major NFL record during his nine-year career, and gained the status of probably being the greatest football player of all time. 

Brown helped the team to reach four league championship games, one of which they won in 1964. They advanced to the NFL conference championship game twice in five seasons after he retired in 1966, but they entered their first prolonged period of mediocrity in the 70s, from which they emerged in the 80s briefly due to some last minute heroics.

Since 1999, they have struggled to find success. They only had 3 winning seasons; 2002, 2007, and 2020. With two playoff appearances in 2002, and 2020, with one playoff win in 2020, thus winning less than one third of their games in total. They have been noted for a lack of stability in coaches, they may have started with a legend like Brown, but how can you top that! 

Cleveland Browns 2021 Stats. 

Let’s take a look at their current 2021 regular season play stats, so you can see if you think the Browns are worth betting on for the end of the season, or if you think they’ll make it to the Super Bowl.