A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER FOR THE BROWNS? OR FOR THE WORSE?

By STEVE KING

It has been over a half-century — 52 years, to be exact — since one of the biggest moments in pro football history — some would argue the biggest, period — occurred.
It was May 15, 1969 when, following a 36-hour meeting of NFL and AFL team owners, it was decided that the Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Colts would be the three teams to leave the re-done NFL, now the NFC, and go to the AFC, which consisted of the AFL teams, to balance the conferences at 13 teams each to complete the merger of the two leagues that was scheduled for the 1970 season in the new-look NFL.
The Colts were reported to be willing to switch, but the inclusion of the Browns and Steelers was a shock. Cleveland owner Art Modell and Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney Sr. agreed to go only if the other’s team was included, wanting to keep the clubs’ strong, 20-year-old rivalry going. The Browns and Steelers had been playing each other since 1950 when Cleveland was among three teams absorbed into the NFL after the the All-America  Football Conference dissolved. The San Francisco 49ers and the original version of the Baltimore Colts, not the one that is in Indianapolis now, were the others.
The Browns were placed into a division, later named the AFC Central, with Pittsburgh and two AFL teams in the Cincinnati Bengals, a franchise that was born in 1968 and coached by Paul Brown, the Browns’ first head coach and the man for whom the team is named, obviously making for some strong rivalry-enhancing dynamics, and the Houston Oilers, now the Tennessee Titans.
The division was intact for 26 seasons, through 1995, after which the original Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens. A second Browns franchise was born in 1999 and rejoined the Central, which was renamed the AFC North in 2002.
Modell was an innovative guy who was willing to think outside the box and take some chances. He probably would have called them calculated risks in that he felt they had a good chance of succeeding. Anyway, that’s why he bolted to the then much less respected AFC. The other owners, most of whom were stodgy, stubborn and set in their ways, sure weren’t going to volunteer their teams. Breaking that stalemate was not just huge. Rather, it was absolutely necessary, or else the merger process that began in 1966 with the creation of the NFL-AFL World Championship Game, now called the Super Bowl, would have come to a screeching halt. So kudos to Modell and Rooney.
At the time, teams like the Oilers, Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers, Buffalo Bills, Boston Patriots, Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos, the 10 AFL franchises that made up almost all of the AFC, were virtual strangers to the Browns. They had never played them in the regular season and knew nothing about them. Neither did the Cleveland fans.
Over the years, though, that has certainly changed, of course, and now playing those teams, plus newer AFC clubs such as the Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans and Ravens, raises nary an eyebrow. Those are the opponents with whom two generations of Browns fans now identify. Instead, it is the NFC and those once-familiar teams that seem like strangers to fans.
We all know the Browns’ history this last half-century-plus in the AFC in that there have been some good times and not-so-good times. But what if the Browns had never bolted to the conference and had remained instead in the NFC with teams like the New York Giants, with whom, from 1950-65, they had one of the best rivalries in pro football history?
The Browns would likely still be in the same division with Pittsburgh because of that rivalry, but what division would that be? Would it be the NFC North with teams like the Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, MInnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers? Or would it be the NFC East with all the teams they used to play twice a year in the Eastern Conference of the NFL, such as the Giants, Washington Football Team, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys?
Regardless of the division, though, would the Browns have been better off being in the NFC all these years? Would their history have been different? And if so, then how, and how much?
These are all interesting questions that, of course, will never be answered. But they are sure fun to ponder, especially in an offseason that Browns fans hope is the build-up to their first trip to the Super Bowl