The team was founded in the 1940s as a charter franchise in the All-America Football Conference ( AAFC ), with Paul Brown, the team's namesake and a pioneering figure in professional football, as its first coach.

Under his watch, the Browns won the AAFC championship in all four years of its existence, including the AAFC's only perfect season in 1948, and continued to succeed after moving to the NFL in 1950.

These factors – combined with a war for players between the two leagues that raised salaries and ate into owners ' profits – ultimately led to the dissolution of the AAFC and the merger of three of its teams, including the Browns, into the NFL in 1949.

The AAFC proposed match-ups with NFL teams numerous times during its four-year existence, but no inter-league game ever materialized.

The first professional football team in Miami, and in the state of Florida, were the Miami Seahawks, who played in the All-America Football Conference ( AAFC ) during its inaugural 1946 season.

The AAFC was the second American professional sports league ( the first being the third American Football League ) to have its teams play in a double round robin format in the regular season: each team had a home game and an away game with each of its AAFC " brethren.

On November 21, 1944, the AAFC chose Jim Crowley, one of the " Four Horsemen of Notre Dame ", as its commissioner.

In 1945, Layden remarked that the AAFC, still a year from its first game, should “ first get a ball, then make a schedule, and then play a game .” This insult, often paraphrased as " Tell them to get a ball first ," would be long remembered.

Unlike the AFL statistics which are treated as NFL statistics, records of the AAFC and its teams ( most of which folded ) are not recognized.

The Federation of International Trade Associations publishes studies and reports by FAS and AAFC, as well as other non-governmental organizations on its website.

The franchise, which by that time had accrued $ 350, 000 in debt, was confiscated by the AAFC after the end of the season, and its assets were purchased by a group of entrepreneurs who reorganized it as the original incarnation of the Baltimore Colts.

The Browns ' debut in the NFL in 1950 was closely watched ; while the team dominated the AAFC in its short existence, many people considered the league inferior.

League commissioner Jim Crowley expropriated the franchise, and the AAFC covered its overdue travel and payroll costs.

Sensing a crisis the AAFC supplied the Colts and the league's two other weakest teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Chicago Rockets, with superior players ; the team found new ownership, but its financial crisis was not resolved.

DeGroot had served as head coach of the NFL's Washington Redskins in 1944 and 1945 before jumping over to the rival AAFC for its debut 1946 season.

The All-America Football Conference ( AAFC ) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League ( NFL ) from 1946 to 1949.

For 1946, the AAFC began play with 8 teams playing a record 14 games ( a double round-robin ).

The AAFC, which formed in 1946, was more proactive in signing black players ; in 1946, the Cleveland Browns signed Marion Motley and Bill Willis, and by the time the AAFC merged with the NFL in 1950, six of the league's eight teams had signed black players, most by the league's second season in 1947.

But Morabito soon began to focus on starting a pro football franchise and Ruffo was enlisted to set up the legal framework for what was to become Morabito's San Francisco 49ers, who began play in the All-America Football Conference ( AAFC ) in 1946.

The Yankees would lose the AAFC Championship in 1946 and 1947 to the Cleveland Browns.

It hosted various athletic competitions and became the home stadium of the San Francisco 49ers of the AAFC and NFL from 1946 to 1970, also hosting the Oakland Raiders of the AFL for one season in 1960.

* 1946 ( AAFC )-Cleveland Browns 14 New York Yankees 9

Before 1960, the most important rival was the All-America Football Conference ( AAFC ), which began play in 1946.

With the formation of the All-America Football Conference ( AAFC ) in 1946, NFL owners instituted a rule which banned a player for five years from NFL-associated employment if he left the league to join the AAFC.

The stadium was the site of the AAFC Championship game in 1946, 1948 and 1949, and of the NFL Championship Game in 1945 ( Washington Redskins v. Cleveland Rams ), 1950 ( L. A. Rams vs Browns ), 1952 ( Detroit vs. Browns ), 1954 ( Detroit vs. Browns ), 1964 ( Baltimore Colts vs. Browns ) and 1968 ( Baltimore Colts vs. Browns ).

The stadium hosted the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League, and later the National Football League from 1960 – 1972, the unrelated Buffalo Bills of the AAFC from 1946 – 1949, the Buffalo Indians and Chiefs of the third American Football League in 1940 and 1941, Canisius College's baseball and football teams, and baseball's Buffalo Bisons of the International League during the 1960s and again from 1979-1987 ( as part of the Eastern League and American Association ).

With Willis as a defensive anchor, the Browns won all four AAFC championships between 1946 and 1949, when the league dissolved.

| 1946 || 3 || 11 || 0 || 4th AAFC East || --

Helped by Groza's kicking and play at offensive tackle, the Browns won the AAFC championship every year between 1946 and 1949, when the league disbanded and the Browns were absorbed by the more established NFL.

He was a force to be reckoned with in the AAFC, and helped the team win every championship in the league's four years of existence between 1946 and 1949.

* New York Yankees v Brooklyn Dodgers ( AAFC, 1946 – 1948 )

*: Category: Buffalo Bisons ( AAFC ) players ( 1946 )

*: Category: San Francisco 49ers ( AAFC ) players ( 1946 – 1949 )

*: Category: Cleveland Browns ( AAFC ) players ( 1946 – 1949 )

Cleveland's total undefeated streak stretched to 18 wins and included the 1947 and 1948 AAFC championship games.

However, individual AAFC player statistics are included in Pro Football Hall of Fame records, and the defunct conference is memorialized in the Hall.

This league, the All-American Football Conference ( AAFC ), included eight teams — an Eastern Division with three teams based in the state of New York and another in Miami, and a Western Division with teams in Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

With two teams planned for California, the AAFC had national aspirations.

The team won each of the league's four championship games before the AAFC folded and the Browns, along with two other teams, were absorbed by the National Football League ( NFL ) following the 1949 season.

Overall, the Browns won all four AAFC championship games and were accepted into the NFL when the two leagues merged after the 1949 season.

: For a list of AAFC Championship Games and winners, see List of AAFC champions