After the 1995 season, Cleveland Browns’ owner Art Modell moved the club to Baltimore with the lure of a new stadium among other things. The Browns had been a franchise since 1946, and had captured eight league championships: four in the All-America Football Conference, and four in the National Football League (NFL).
When the Browns moved, it caused such a commotion that the NFL stepped in and decided to award the City of Cleveland with a new expansion franchise that would enter the league as announced for 1999. Over the course of the NFL’s 100 years of operation, lots of franchises have moved to another city for one reason or the other.