The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They play in the AFC North 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 (AAFC) and joined the NFL in 1950 after the AAFC folded.

Cleveland has won a total of eight league championships; they won all four AAFC titles (including a 15-0 undefeated season in 1948), and after joining the NFL won four additional championships prior to the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. The Browns were one of three teams which joined ten former AFL teams to form the American Football Conference. Despite the Browns' historical successes the club has not played in a league championship game since the merger; however, they have competed for the AFC Championship three times. Having lost all three games, along with two NFL Championship Games of the Super Bowl era prior to the merger (in 1968 and 1969), Cleveland is one of the five NFL teams that has yet to qualify for the Super Bowl. Additionally, Cleveland has not hosted a Super Bowl, making it the only NFL city to have neither hosted nor sent a team to the Super Bowl.^[1]