History
After adding as many teams as possible for the 1926 season to keep them out of the rival American Football League, the NFL embarked on a policy of getting rid of many of its weaker, small-market franchises and putting teams into larger cities.
The Cleveland Bulldogs were part of that policy. Built around Benny Friedman, the great rookie passer out of Michigan, the team had a number of players who had been with the Kansas City Cowboys in 1926.
Despite an 8-4-1 record and a fourth-place finish, the Bulldogs didn't interest many Cleveland fans and the team folded after one season. Friedman, player-coach Roy Andrews, and several other players joined another new team, the Detroit Wolverines, in 1928.
The Wolverines finished third, appropriately losing only to Providence and Frankford, the NFL's first- and second-place teams. Tim Mara, owner of the New York Giants, then bought the franchise and deactivated it, mainly so he could add Friedman to his New York roster.
Even though the Cleveland and Detroit teams operated under different franchises, they're included together here because they had the same coach and most of the same players.