The first time Chris Palmer went to his new office building in Cleveland it was down to the studs.
The wood framing and sheetrock that surrounded him were symbolic of a new era, as well as Palmer’s place in the reborn Browns’ history. He was, as their inaugural head coach, allowed input on how this place would be laid out—where the secretaries’ desks would go and how big the offices would be—and he had a firsthand look at how quickly this was all being pieced together. Jacksonville and Carolina had a long runway from proposed franchise to expansion team before they were finally welcomed into the NFL in 1995.