CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Browns’ struggles to find a franchise quarterback have become the stuff of legends, including a now infamous jersey with the name of every starter since their return to the National Football League in 1999.
The insults have reached a new level, as a bride found a way to take a jab at the futility of her husband’s favorite team with a comedic twist on the name plate of a jersey-style groom’s cake, as tweeted by ESPN Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell.
The Browns have started 28 different quarterbacks in the 19 years since their return to the NFL, and that number will grow by at least one in 2018, as Tyrod Taylor was named the starter shortly after being acquired in a trade with the Buffalo Bills last month.
Additionally, the Browns hold the Nos. 1 and 4 overall picks in the 2018 NFL Draft and are expected to select a quarterback to develop for the future behind Taylor and veteran backup Drew Stanton.
With a 28-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field on New Year’s Eve, the Browns went winless in a 16-game season for the first time in franchise history, and their 17th consecutive loss overall dropped the organization to a league-worst 1-31 since the opening game of 2016.
The Browns have not won on a Sunday afternoon since December 13, 2015. The 33 straight Sunday losses are an NFL record, and their 4-49 mark in the last 53 outings is the worst in the league in that four-year span.
Additionally, this season, the Browns set the record for the worst 28-game stretch in NFL history, as they bested the previous mark of 2-26 set by the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 1976-1977 seasons with a 1-27 mark that got four losses worse after Week 13.
Over the last four-plus years, the Browns have gone 4-49, and the record has not been much better since Dee and Jimmy Haslam officially purchased the team in October of 2012.
In five seasons under Haslam’s majority ownership, the Browns have posted an NFL-worst 15-65 record. Factoring in the remaining games of the 2012 season after the sale was approved at an NFL Owners Meeting in Chicago, the Browns have gone 19-70.
Also, with Buffalo clinching a wildcard berth in the AFC last season, the Browns have the longest-standing playoff drought in the NFL.
