Sport American football | No. of teams 4 | |
Conference American Football Conference League National Football League Founded 1970 (as the AFC Central) Most recent AFC North champion(s) Pittsburgh Steelers (22nd title) | ||
The American Football Conference North Division, or AFC North, is a division of the National Football League's (NFL) American Football Conference (AFC). It was created as the AFC Central in 1970 following the completion of the AFL–NFL merger when two of the NFL teams—the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers—moved from the "old" NFL to join the former American Football League teams in the AFC, in order to give the two conferences an equal number of teams. The division adopted its current name in 2002, when the league realigned divisions after expanding to 32 teams.
Contents
Formation
The AFC North currently has four members: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers. The original four members of the AFC Central were the Browns, Bengals, Steelers and Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans).
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 Cincinnati Bengals were an AFL expansion team in the 1968 AFL season (the Steelers and Browns joined the AFC 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 Browns 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, have no direct history involving Paul Brown.
1970s
The division was formed when the Browns and Steelers moved to the AFC in 1970, joining the newly formed "AFC Central" with the Houston Oilers (from the AFL's East Division) and Cincinnati Bengals (from the AFL's West Division).
Although the Bengals won the first AFC Central Division Championship in 1970, the Steelers dominated the division for most of the 1970s. The Steelers also would win four Super Bowls in the decade.
1980s
The 1980 Cleveland Browns broke the Steelers' six-year run as division champions, but failed to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs, losing to the Oakland Raiders as a result of Red Right 88. The Bengals were the only team to represent the AFC Central in the Super Bowl during the decade, appearing in Super Bowls XVI and XXIII. Both appearances resulted in close losses to the San Francisco 49ers.
1990s
The Steelers returned as the dominant team in the division in 1992. They won five divisional titles in six years, and played in Super Bowl XXX, in which they lost to the Dallas Cowboys.
In 1992, the Oilers were involved in one of the most famous playoff games in NFL history. In a game now known as The Comeback, the Oilers surrendered a 32-point lead to the Buffalo Bills and lost in overtime, 41–38. It is the largest deficit ever overcome in the history of the NFL.
In 1995, the Jacksonville Jaguars joined the league through expansion and were placed in the AFC Central. It was the first change to the structure of the division since its inception, and added a second team to the U.S. South. In 1996, in one of the most controversial decisions in American sports history, the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and were rechristened as the Baltimore Ravens. Then in 1997, the Oilers moved to Tennessee but remained in the division (the team later was renamed the Titans in 1999). The makeup of the AFC Central changed once again in 1999 when the NFL "reactivated" the Cleveland Browns. The division had six teams for the 1999, 2000 and 2001 seasons.
Aside from Pittsburgh's appearance in Super Bowl XXX, the only other appearance in the Super Bowl for the division in the decade was the Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV, who came up one yard short of the first Super Bowl to go into overtime. Along the way, the team got revenge on the Bills seven years after the Comeback in the Wild Card round by defeating the Bills 22–16 as a result of the Music City Miracle.
2000s
The decade began with the Ravens winning Super Bowl XXXV. The team's defense, led by linebacker Ray Lewis, was arguably one of the best defenses of all time.
In 2002, the NFL realigned into eight divisions of four teams. The Jaguars and Titans—the latter winning the AFC Central title in 2000—were both moved to the new AFC South, while the rest of the AFC Central remained intact and was renamed the AFC North. The Bengals, Browns, and Steelers were guaranteed to remain in a division together in any circumstance; this was part of the NFL's settlement with the city of Cleveland in the wake of the 1995 Cleveland Browns relocation controversy. The division, geographically-speaking, thus became the shortest driving distance between each team among the NFL's eight divisions, as three of the teams are located within close proximity of Interstate 70 (with the one city that isn't, Cleveland, being two hours north of I-70), and the distance between Baltimore and Cincinnati (the two teams furthest away from each other) being only 526 miles apart. The Browns and Steelers, the two closest rivals, even ride a bus to their games instead of flying.
The division rivals also have shared media conglomerates: all of the markets except Cleveland have a station owned by Hearst Television (WBAL-TV in Baltimore, WLWT in Cincinnati, and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh), while all of the markets except Cleveland also have stations owned and/or operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group (WBFF, WNUV, & WUTB in Baltimore, WKRC-TV & WSTR-TV in Cincinnati, and WPGH-TV & WPNT in Pittsburgh), and every market except Pittsburgh has a station owned by E. W. Scripps Company (WMAR-TV in Baltimore, WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, and flagship station WEWS in Cleveland), though Scripps did own the Pittsburgh Press before selling it off to Block Communications in 1992 during a labor strike involving it and the Block-owned Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Additionally, Raycom Media has stations in Cincinnati (WXIX-TV) and Cleveland (WOIO & WUAB) while CBS Television Stations own stations in Baltimore (WJZ-TV) and Pittsburgh (KDKA-TV & WPCW). This has occasionally led to stations that have sister stations in rival markets to have friendly rivalries amongst themselves. This is especially true with WJZ-TV and KDKA-TV (both former Group W stations), who are both CBS O&O stations and thus have the majority of the broadcasting rights to their respective home team games through the network.
Since realignment, the Steelers have won the division title seven times, and the Ravens and Bengals have each won four times. The Steelers have swept all divisional opponents twice, in 2002 and 2008 (going 7 for 7 both times, winning against the Browns in a 2003 AFC Wildcard game and the Ravens in the 2009 AFC Championship), and the Ravens and Bengals have swept all three divisional opponents once each, the Bengals in 2009 and Ravens in 2011.
Since divisional realignment, the Steelers have made the playoffs ten times, the Ravens eight times, the Bengals seven times, and the Browns one time.
In 2005, although finishing second in the division to the Bengals, the Steelers became the first team in NFL history to enter the playoffs as a #6 seeded wild card team and win the Super Bowl.
In 2008, the Steelers became the first team to repeat as division champion since the divisions' creation in 2002. The team went on to win Super Bowl XLIII that season, their second Super Bowl in four years and an NFL-record sixth overall.
In 2009, the Cincinnati Bengals swept their annual six-game slate of divisional opponents. Their first three games against the AFC North came in weeks three-through-five when they beat the Steelers, Browns and Ravens, respectively, each by three points. The close finishes deemed the Bengals, "Cardiac Cats." Cincinnati clinched their first division title since '05 in a week 16 vicory over the Kansas City Chiefs, 17-10. In the playoffs, however, the Bengals fell to the New York Jets at home, 24-14.
Baltimore finished off their season by winning three of their final four games to finish 9-7 and earn the number-six seed in the AFC Playoffs. In the first round of the postseason, Baltimore defeated the New England Patriots in Foxboro, 33-14. In the divisional round of the postseason, Baltimore's season came to an end with a 20-3 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, who would defeat the Jets one-week later to win the conference.
2010s
The Ravens repeated as division champions in 2011 and 2012. The team went on to win Super Bowl XLVII over the San Francisco 49ers, on February 3, 2013, in New Orleans. It was the second franchise Super Bowl win. As of 2012, the Steelers are the AFC North's most successful team with a 599-547-21 record all time with the Browns 2nd in line with an overall record of 510-441-13 while the Ravens sit in 3rd (even though they were not an official franchise until 1996) at 164-128-1 and then the Bengals today remain the only team in the division with their all-time record below .500 as they sit in last at 310-396-2.
In 2015, the Bengals became the first team in the AFC North (Central) to ever start the year 8-0, finishing the season 12-4 and winning the division for the second time in three years. Cincinnati clinched the division title in week 16 when the Steelers were upset by the 4-10 Ravens in Baltimore, quarterbacked by Ryan Mallett. Bengals' quarterback Andy Dalton was having his best season of his five-year career until breaking his thumb on December 13 against Pittsburgh caused him to miss the rest of the season. In the playoffs, Cincinnati (quarterbacked by AJ McCarron) lost in a rematch with the Steelers, 18-16, in the final minutes of a heated battle. Pittsburgh advanced to the Divisional Round of the playoffs, only to lose to Peyton Manning and the eventual Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos.
The Steelers won the division title in 2016 after a 31-27 win over the Ravens on Christmas Day.
Division lineups
Place cursor over year for division champ or Super Bowl team.
A In 1970 the division formed in American Football Conference. B After the 1995 season, the Cleveland Browns franchise was deactivated; personnel, moved to the enfranchised Baltimore Ravens. The Cleveland Browns franchise was reactivated in 1999. The Browns, Ravens, and NFL officially consider the post-1999 Browns to be a continuation of the original team founded in 1946. C Houston moved to Memphis as Tennessee Oilers in 1997, moved to Nashville in 1998 (still known as Oilers). Team was renamed Tennessee Titans in 1999. D Jacksonville Jaguars enfranchised (1995 season). E Baltimore Ravens enfranchised (1996 season) F AFC Central renamed AFC North. Jacksonville and Tennessee moved to AFC South.Division champions
+ A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Because of the strike, the league used for its playoffs a special 16-team "Super Bowl Tournament" just for this year. Division standings were not formally acknowledged (although every division wound up sending at least one team to the playoffs); Cincinnati had the best record of the division teams.
++ Loss came against another AFC Central/AFC North team.
Wild Card qualifiers
+ A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games, so the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year.
++ Loss came against another AFC Central/AFC North team.
Total playoff berths
At the conclusion of the 2015 season