Friday signals the end of the normal week, but way back in the day, in their early years, it signaled the start of the regular season for the Browns.

The Browns played their first three openers on Friday night, all from 1946-48, and then on a Monday night in 1949, in the four-year existence of the All-America Football Conference. In fact, they played a good number of Friday night games — and games on days other than Sunday —during that time.

All this becomes a topic with the possibility the Browns may open their 2024 regular season against the Philadelphia Eagles on a Friday night in Brazil. That Sept. 6 date would be the 78th anniversary of the Browns’ first game, a 44-0 home victory over the Miami Seahawks on Friday night, Sept. 6, 1946.

Here is a quick look at those first Browns seasons:

1946 —The Browns played their first two games on Friday night. In addition to the opener, they beat the host Chicago Rockrts 20-6 a week after that, on Sept. 13. Later, they played on a Saturday night, Oct. 12, and beat the host New York Yankees 7-0. They even played on a Tuesday night, Dec. 3, in their next-to-last game, winning at Miami 34-0, meaning they defeated the Seahawks by a combined 78-0 in the two games that year.

1947 — It was an even heavier dose of Friday night games right out of the gate this season, with three in the first four weeks. The Browns opened on Sept. 5 at home with a 30-14 win over the Buffalo Bills, then went to Brooklyn on Sept. 12 and crushed the Dodgers 55-7. Two weeks after that, on Sept. 26, they whipped the host Chicago Rockets 41-21. Their next-to-last game was on Thursday, Thanksgiving, Nov. 27at Los Angeles, where they defeated the Dons 27-17.

1948 — This perfect 15-0 season, with a third consecutive AAFC championship, started on Friday night, Sept. 3, with a 19-14 win over the Dons at Cleveland. Two Friday nights later, on Sept. 17, the Browns topped the host Chicago Rockets 28-7, and 2 1/2 weeks after that, on Tuesday, Oct. 5, they went to Baltimore and had their second-closest call of the season, turning back the Colts 14-10. Finally, on Thursday, Nov. 25, Thanksgiving, they beat the host Dons 31-14.

1949 — The Browns, in this final AAFC season before the league was disbanded and three teams, including Cleveland, were absorbed by the NFL, met the host Buffalo Bills on Sept. 5 in the opener and played to a 28-28 tie. They walloped the Dons at Los Angeles 61-14 on Friday, Oct. 14. Their final regular-season game ever in the league was a 14-6 road win over the Chicago Hornets on Thursday, Nov. 24, Thanksgiving.

All told, the Browns never lost any of their 16 non-Sunday games in the AAFC, going 15-0-1.

Steve King