Cleveland Browns

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 moving an existing franchise or an expansion draft. While several franchises considered moving 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. Although the 1999 Browns were restocked via an expansion draft, the Browns are not considered to be an expansion franchise.

Since resuming operations in 1999, the Browns have struggled to find success, especially during the 2010s when they failed to post a winning season throughout the decade. 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 (42 different starters since 1999). From 2003 to 2019, the Browns had a 17-season playoff drought, which ended during the 2020 season. They are one of four teams to have never appeared in a Super Bowl. Their lack of recent success has been such that their decades-long rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers—a rivalry in which at one point the Browns had a 22-game lead in the all-time series—saw the Steelers overtake the Browns in the rivalry in 2007 to hold a current 17-game edge over the Browns.