How many times have the Jets and Browns played in the Hall of Fame game?
The Cleveland Browns won’t have to travel too far for their preseason opener against the New York Jets in the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night.
It’s the moment we have all been waiting for. The Hall of Fame Game kicks off the NFL preseason on Thursday night and finally our football famine will come to an end. It will most likely be back ups and guys who are the fringe of a roster spot will be featured but it’s football. Cleveland will be playing in their own back yard, while the Jets are less familiar with what it means to play in The Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.
Browns sixth time at HoF Game
Jets fans, Browns fans and football fans rejoice. The NFL is back! The preseason will start with a bang as Cleveland and New York will kickoff Hall of Fame weekend to kick off the preseason slate that will last the entirety of August.
The annual tradition of starting the preseason in Canton, Ohio dates back to the early 1960s when the New York Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals took part of the inaugural game in August of 1962. That was the year that Tom Benson Stadium was officially opened, and almost every year since then two teams converge on football’s holy ground to participate in the exhibition game.
The Cleveland Browns made their debut at the Ohio based stadium just a year after the Giants and the Cardinals. They took on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second edition of the Hall of Fame Game, losing to the Steelers 16-7. That would be the first of five games the Browns have played during this illustrious weekend full of football legends.
Cleveland at home on Thursday
The Browns have gone 2-3 in their first five Hall of Fame Games, losing to the Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears and beating the Atlanta Falcons and the Dallas Cowboys. While Cleveland is always going to have the home field advantage in Canton, they have only been listed as the home team in two of those five games, and coincidentally the Browns won both of those games. The last time Cleveland played on this field was back in 1999 when the Browns beat the Cowboys.
The New York Jets have only played in Canton twice during Hall of Fame weekend. They played the Chicago Bears in July of 1977, losing 20-6 and then beat the Philadelphia Eagles 41-14 in August of 1992.
No Super Bowl champs to come out of HoF Game
It may come as no surprise that the two teams that have played in the Hall of Fame Game are two of the most popular and historic teams in the league. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys have both played in seven edition of the exhibition, with the Steelers holding the edge of the Cowboys with a 4-3 record, as opposed to Dallas’ 3-4 record.
This year the Jets and the Browns will play in one more preseason game than the rest of the league, but despite the extra prep this game doesn’t bode well for a teams’ Super Bowl chances. No team that has participated in the Hall of Fame Game went on to win the Super Bowl that same year.