When it comes to NFL football fandom there are two midwestern cities that have a lot in common. Both cities have had their most success prior to the 1970 NFL / AFL merger. Both cities once were thriving industrial metropolises and now are struggling to reinvent themselves. Putting aside the infamous college football rivalry of Ohio State / Michigan. Cleveland and Detroit have a lot in common when it comes to football.
In the 1950’s the NFL World Championship Game was played for by the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions four times. Detroit won three of those games. Detroit won their last championship defeating the Cleveland Browns in 1957 by the score of 59-14 at Detroit’s Tiger Stadium. Cleveland’s last championship was in 1964 when they beat the Baltimore Colts 27-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The two teams were once considered rivals in the NFL. But over time that changed along with the NFL landscape.
In 1970 the National Football League merged with the American Football League forming the NFL we know today. When this merger was being negotiated there was an alignment issue. The AFL had 10 teams and the NFL had 16 teams. To balance the conferences three NFL teams moved to the American Football Conference. Those teams were the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Baltimore Colts. This would give both conferences 13 teams respectively. With the Browns moving to the AFC, they wouldn’t play the Lions as often. With that new alignment, the rivalry was gone. But the history and both teams’ trajectory would not go unnoticed.
Both the Browns and the Lions have yet to reach a Super Bowl, the Lions have won one playoff game since 1957. That was in 1991 when they went on to lose the NFC Championship Game to the Washington Redskins. The Cleveland Browns have only two playoff wins since 1989. This was their last AFC Championship Game appearance losing to the Denver Broncos. Both fan bases have endured winless seasons, Detroit was in 2008 and Cleveland was in 2017. Today Detroit is in first place in the NFC North with a 6-2 record. Their head coach Dan Campbell has done an excellent job of changing the team’s culture. The Cleveland Browns are 4-3 with the seventh seed in the AFC playoffs. They have exhibited organizational stability for the first time since 1999. Head coach Kevin Stefanski is in his fourth season as head coach of the Browns. He is the first Browns head coach to be tenured this long with a winning record since the late Marty Schottenheimer 1984-1988. The once rivaled fan bases now have a mutual respect and kinship with each other.
Both teams’ fans have endured futility and have preseason hope lead to end-of-season disappointment. Both teams’ fans have gone through constant front office and coaching turnover which leads to instability and inconsistency. Also, both teams’ fans deal with a lack of respect from the National Sports Media. We both feel as if we endure the NFL Season together. In 2016 the Cleveland Indians played the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. That was at one time a completely unheard-of World Series matchup. Could we someday see a Browns versus Lions Super Bowl? Why not? Stranger things have happened!
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