Formation
The AFC North currently has four members: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The original four members of the AFC Central were the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans), the Browns, the Bengals and the Steelers. Dating back to the NFL Century's formation in 1967, only the Steelers have remained members for the division's entire history, due to most of the other teams either leaving for other divisions or joining later and the Browns failing to keep pace due to being out of the league for three years.
The AFC North is the only division in the AFC that does not contain a charter team from the original American Football League. However, the Bengals were an AFL expansion team in 1968 AFL season (the Steelers and Browns joined the AFC from the NFL in 1970), although the Bengals joining the AFL was contingent on the team joining the NFL after the AFL-NFL merger was finalized in 1970, as Paul Brown was not a supporter of the AFL.
Three of the teams have interlocked histories. Both the Bengals and the Ravens were founded by Paul Brown, while the Ravens and the city of Cleveland have their own unique relationship. Only the Steelers, who are older than the original Browns (who are now the Ravens), have no direct history involving Paul Brown.
In its present incarnation the Steelers lead all division members with a record of 553-503-20 and a playoff record of 33-21 (6-2 in Super Bowls). The Ravens are the only other member of the division with a Super Bowl win; their record presently is 140-115-1 with a playoff record of 11-7. When you include their years in Cleveland where they posted a 431-270-13 mark, the Ravens net overall record is 571-385-14. The Bengals hold a record of 295-379-2 with a playoff record of 5-10 including two Super Bowl losses. The Browns franchise's overall record is 68-140 since their creation as an expansion team in 1999.
There have been a total of thirteen playoff matchups between AFC Central/AFC North teams since 1970. The Steelers have played all three existing AFC North rivals at least once in the postseason, and--including three matchups against the Oilers/Titans franchise while the two were divisional opponents--have an undefeated record of 9-0. (The Steelers later lost to the Titans in the playoffs in 2002, after the two teams were realigned into separate divisions.) The Browns are 0-3 in intradivisional playoff matchups, the Ravens 1-3, and the Bengals 1-1. The Oilers/Titans franchise finished with a 2-5 record in such games before moving to the AFC South, while the Jaguars (who also later played the Steelers in the playoffs after the two teams were placed in separate divisions) finished 0-1.
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