1995 Cleveland Browns season

The 1995 Cleveland Browns season was the team's 50th season overall and 46th in the National Football League. After finishing 11-5 in 1994 under head coach Bill Belichick and winning a playoff game for the first time since 1989, the Browns were favored by many to reach Cleveland's first ever Super Bowl.^[1] The Browns started by winning three of their first four games, but lost three straight in the middle of the season and finished the first half of the season at 4-4.

The day after the Browns recorded their fifth loss, a 37-10 blowout to the Oilers, owner Art Modell announced that he was moving the franchise to Baltimore. Stunned by this news, the team collapsed and only won one of their remaining seven games and Belichick was fired. As part of the agreement to allow Modell to move, the city of Cleveland was allowed to keep the Browns name, the team's history from 1946 onward, and everything else associated with the Browns while Modell would receive a new the franchise, which would become known as the Ravens. The Browns' roster would be transferred to Baltimore but the club would otherwise start from scratch as an expansion team would. The NFL also agreed that Cleveland would receive a new franchise once a stadium was built for it, and in 1999 the Browns franchise was reactivated under new ownership. The 1999 Browns were stocked by an expansion draft, but were otherwise a continuation of the original 1946 franchise.

The team was documented in NFL Network's A Football Life.^[2]

Offseason

NFL draft

^[3]

Draft Trades Made

• Traded Eric Metcalf and 1x26 to Atlanta Falcons for pick 1x10^[4]
• Traded 1x10 to San Francisco 49ers for 1x30, 3x94, 4x119, and 1996 1st Rounder.^[5]
• Traded 4th Round pick to Jacksonville Jaguars for 5x136 and 1996 6th Rounder.
• Traded 4x119 to Philadelphia Eagles for 5x147 and 1996 5th Rounder.
• Traded 7th Round pick to New England Patriots for 7x231.

Personnel

Staff

^[6]

Regular season

Schedule

The Browns' record was 4–5 on November 6, the day that owner Art Modell announced the team would be moving to Baltimore, Maryland for the 1996 season. Cleveland ended the season losing six of their final seven games.

The Browns became the first NFL team to be swept by an expansion team, losing twice to the Jacksonville Jaguars.^[7]

Standings

Roster

Relocation to Baltimore

Modell announced on November 6, 1995, that he had signed a deal to relocate the Browns to Baltimore in 1996—a move which would return the NFL to Baltimore for the first time since the Colts relocated to Indianapolis after the 1983 season. The very next day, on November 7, 1995, Cleveland voters overwhelmingly approved an issue that had been placed on the ballot at Modell's request, before he made his decision to move the franchise, which provided $175 million in tax dollars to refurbish the outmoded and declining Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Modell's plan was later scrapped and taxpayers ultimately paid close to $300 million to demolish the old stadium and construct a new stadium for the 1999 Expansion Browns on the site of Municipal Stadium.

References