Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:
84. Cleveland Browns
Why? From a storied franchise in the 1950’s & 60’s to a “oh so close” period in the 1980’s to controversial suspension of operations in the 1990’s to the total abortion that is the relaunching of the team in the 21st Century. Easily considered the worst team in the NFL currently, maybe the worst in sports.
The Good. 4 NFL Championships, with the last one being in 1964. The Browns won the NFL Championship in its first season in 1950. Prior to that they were part of the AAFC, winning all the championships in all four years of the leagues existence. In the Super Bowl Era, they reached the AFC Title Game 3 times between 1986-1989, don’t ask about “The Drive” or “The Fumble”.
The Bad. Currently, 29 consecutive losses on Sundays. Haven’t won a road game in regulation in over three years. Since operations returned in 1999, only one playoff appearance.
The Ugly. After losing the 1989 AFC Championship, things turned to the worse for the Browns, the following season they went 3-13, they went and hired Bill Belichick as Head Coach, while he got the Browns to the playoffs in 1994, 1995 would be a disaster for the Browns and their fans. Owner Art Modell, announced midway through the season that the Browns were going to move to Baltimore. Considered one of the most controversial relocation in sports history, it led to sponsors pulling billboards from the stadium and all plays being played at the opposite end of the infamous fan section “The Dawg Pound”.
The fans and the City of Cleveland’s protests were successful enough to lead allow Modell to move the team to Baltimore as an expansion team while the Cleveland Browns would return to operations by 1999 either as an expansion team or a relocated team keeping their legacy and records and uniforms (albeit very ugly).
Yes, the Browns are back but terrible play since has dragged down the legacy of a franchise famous for Jim Brown, Otto Graham and Paul Brown.
Where they play? First Energy Stadium. During the inactive period this stadium was built replacing the old Municipal Stadium (i.e. Mistake on the Lake)
Owner: Jimmy Haslem, well connected Tennessee businessman, whose brother is the governor of said state.
Coach: Hue Jackson, poor Hue Jackson has 9 wins as a NFL Coach. 8 of them are with the Raiders.
Top Current Players: Josh Gordon (when not suspended), Isaiah Crowell, and Myles Garrett will good one day.
Hall of Famers…Paul Brown, Otto Graham, Jim Brown, Marion Motley, Lou Groza, Dante Lavelli, and Ozzie Newsome*. *-Newsome’s career straddled between playing for the Browns and being an executive for the Ravens after “The Move”