When the NFL schedule came out in May, the Cleveland Browns were omitted from any primetime games. Come to think about it, the franchise wasn’t involved in any contests in the international series as well.
These games are being played in various countries such as England, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and, for the first time, in Australia and France.
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The NFL recently announced it is broadcasting only five nationally televised preseason games, and the Browns are included. Cleveland’s home game against the New England Patriots on August 27 will be available on Prime Video. This is good news for the faithful Cleveland fanbase.
Each club will play three preseason games except for the two teams participating in the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, during the Hall of Fame induction weekend. This year, it is the Arizona Cardinals and the Carolina Panthers who have the extra game. Both clubs have players who are being inducted.
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The Panthers and Cardinals will play four preseason contests instead of three. When the NFL regular season schedule eventually goes to 18 games, that number will likely drop to two exhibition games.
Getting in an extra practice game?
What many clubs are doing is combining practice sessions with another club for a week and then having multiple live action practices in full pads with full contact. This is considered the new norm for an additional practice game. Once the preseason games are cut to two contests, it may become an annual affair for teams to schedule practice weeks with two clubs instead of just one.
Folks question why the NFL has preseason games at all. The reasons are many.
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For one, rookies need live game situations to gauge the new level. Secondly, new players that arrive on the roster need the time to get acclimated to a new playbook as well as new teammates. Thirdly, when a new head coach is hired, as is the case in Cleveland, invariably new schemes are implemented on both sides of the ball, often with different terminology.
The players need the practice time, and the coaches need to see who is catching on and who is lagging behind. #4, all teams at all levels need practice games before a season begins. They just do. And finally, the coaches need to know who to cut and who to keep. Live games offer a huge glimpse into which players should be retained.
Here is the full national 2026 TV preseason schedule:
Aug. 6: Hall of Fame Game – Panthers vs. Cardinals (NBC), 8:00 pm (Eastern)
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Week 2
Aug. 20: Raiders at Texans (ESPN), 8:00 pm (Eastern)
Aug. 23: Seahawks at Titans (FOX), 8:00 pm (Eastern)
Week 3
Aug. 27: Patriots at Browns (Prime Video), 8:00 pm (Eastern)
Aug. 28: Bengals at Eagles (CBS), 8:00 pm (Eastern)
Browns history in preseason
A long time ago, teams would play each other at neutral sites. The idea was to spread the message of the league’s existence into areas that may not have considered taking on an NFL team as their favorite sports team and hopefully, generate some new fans on TV and radio broadcasts.
The thought process was that if an NFL team plays a preseason game in a city in proximity to their home stadium, then perhaps those folks would adopt them as “their NFL team” and acquire new fans.
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The Browns played in quite a few other cities consistently during the preseason over the franchise’s history.
In their four years in the All-America Football Conference from 1946 to 1949, Cleveland played seven preseason games combined. When the Browns entered the NFL in 1950, the established league was playing five preseason games each year. That rose to six games, and then in 1978, it was cut to four preseason games and finally three beginning in 2021.
In 1954, the Browns played their first neutral-site preseason game when they faced the Detroit Lions in Dallas, Texas. The City of Dallas had the Dallas Texans in 1952, but that franchise was a complete disaster and folded. Later, in 1960, the Dallas Texans of the American Football League and the Dallas Cowboys were born. The AFL Texans won the AFL league crown and then relocated to Kansas City in 1963 and were renamed the Chiefs.
Cleveland also played the College All-Stars four times in Chicago, Illinois, in an exhibition game (1951, 1955, 1956, and 1965). At the time, the reigning NFL champs played a single game against the best incoming college athletes in a contest entitled the “Chicago Charities College All-Star Game.” The proceeds from the game went to selected Chicago-area charities. Paul Brown coached the first three Browns squads, while the 1965 Browns rendition was headed by Blanton Collier.
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The Browns played the San Francisco 49ers in Portland, Oregon, in the 1960 preseason. This is notable because it became the final season that Cleveland had anything on the side of their helmets, as they sported player jersey numbers on each helmet side panel. It was also the first time that the Oreo stripes appeared.
In 1962, the Browns and 49ers convened for another game in Portland as San Fran was making an attempt to gain a fanbase in this Northwestern city.
Other non-NFL cities the Browns participated in a preseason game include Birmingham, AL (1966), Seattle, WA (1969), Memphis, TN (1970), South Bend, IN (1971), Ann Arbor, MI (1972), Columbus, OH, and Knoxville, TN (1973), Tampa Bay and Columbus (1974), Stillwater, OK (1976), Milwaukee, WI (1987), Montreal, Quebec (1988), London, England (1989), and again in Milwaukee (1990).
The Cardinals played the New York Football Giants to a 21-21 tie in the first-ever Hall of Fame Game in 1962. It was the first event created to help raise funds and celebrate the groundbreaking of the Pro Football Hall of Fame being built in Canton.
Hall of Fame Games that included Cleveland were in 1967 against the Philadelphia Eagles, 1981 versus the Atlanta Falcons, and they met the Dallas Cowboys in 1999 as the very first game as the New Browns.
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The first contest held in Columbus, Ohio, was between the Cincinnati Bengals vs. the Browns and held on August, 19, 1973. The following year, the same teams competed in another exhibition game on September 1, 1974. It appeared this would become an annual preseason event in nearby Columbus as an Ohio-type battle confrontation, but the series became a two-game affair.
Local access
Oftentimes, a local TV station like Channel 5 will show the preseason games regionally. Sports bars are the best bet to find out if any of the other Cleveland preseason games are being featured, except for these rare primetime games, which Browns fans from all over can partake.
Browns’ full preseason schedule:
Aug. 15 (Saturday): at Chicago Bears, 1:00 pm (Eastern)
Aug. 22: (Saturday) Buffalo Bills, 1:00 pm (Eastern)
Aug. 27: (Thursday) New England Patriots, 8:00 pm (Eastern) on Prime Video
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