The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland, Ohio.

They play in the Northern division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL).

The Cleveland Browns began play in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and joined the NFL in 1950 after the AAFC folded.

Cleveland returned to the NFL in 1999 with high hopes and expectations, featuring deep-pocketed ownership in Al Lerner.

The team's football operations appeared to be in solid hands in the form of president and CEO Carmen Policy and general manager Dwight Clark, both of whom had come from the San Francisco 49ers.

Chris Palmer, former offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars, was hired as head coach.

It was to be expected that the resurrected Browns would struggle at first, as for all practical purposes they were an expansion team.

Though the Ravens were considered a "new franchise", the team still had players such as Matt Stover and Rob Burnett who had played for the Browns before the Modell move.

Under Davis the Browns became more competitive, finishing 7--9 in 2001, three games out of the playoffs.

With the team apparently close to being a contender again, Clark was forced to resign after the season, and Davis was named general manager as well as coach.

In 2002, the Browns finished 9--7, and thanks to multiple tiebreakers they made the playoffs for the first time since 1994.

Offensive Coordinator Terry Robiskie, was named interim head coach of the Cleveland Browns for the remainder of the 2004 season.

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