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- AFC North
The American Football Conference North Division, or AFC North, is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference. It was created prior to the 2002 season when the league realigned divisions after expanding to 32 teams.
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 Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans), the Browns, the Bengals and the Steelers. 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).
Three of the teams have interlocked histories. Both the Bengals and the original Browns (now 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, have no direct history involving Paul Brown. However, this division can be depicted as the "Paul Brown Division".