Fibonacci (also known as Leonardo Fibonacci, Leonardo Bonacci or Leonardo Pisano) was born in Pisa, Italy in 1170 and died around 1250. He was a talented mathematician1 probably most famous for popularising the Arabic numbering system and a number sequence named after him – The Fibonacci sequence or Fibonacci numbers.2
I, on the other hand, am not a talented mathematician. I’m a Browns fan.
Nevertheless I’m about to link Fibonacci numbers – more precisely the Fibonacci spiral3 – with the performance of the Cleveland Browns onwards from the disastrous 2016 and 2017 seasons.4 Note, not attempting to link, actually linking.
By the way, before the mathematicians shout at me, though closely linked to the Golden spiral5, Fibonacci’s is composed of a series of 90° arcs within squares of increasing size. It’s not a ‘pure’, continuous geometric shape thingy.
Here’s an image rotated from the Wikipedia original of the Fibonacci spiral in coloured squares, numbered upto 216.
We shall start on this silly journey with the Browns 2016 season represented by the white square. 2016 was bad for the team. Really bad. 1 win from 16 games played. The arc goes up a bit and to the left.
2017 was bad. Worse. Absolutely dire. So the arc in the magenta square drops to the left, representing the zero (0) wins from 16 games.
Now 2018 is when I became a fan of the team. Although the purple arc goes downwards it goes to the right. 2018 brought 7 wins and a tie (!) from 16 games. Woohoo! It was a season of promise, of hope. And we got rid of Head Coach Hue Jackson. Which was nice.
In 2019 the progress regressed a bit, to 6 wins from 16 games, so although the blue arc goes up and to the right it doesn’t fit this scheme I’m outlining. 2019 was generally seen by Browns fans to be a disappointing aberration, so I’m giving Fibonacci a pass on this one. He’s no Nostradamus7 so couldn’t have foreseen Head Coach Freddie Kitchens – promoted beyond his ability at the time.
2020, wow. Cyan, numbered ‘5’. The curve goes up and to the left. An 11 win season from 16. We vaulted into the playoffs, beating the steelers twice in succession, and only falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisonal Playoffs. Probably the most enjoyable season of football I’ve ever seen. Kevin Stefanski, Head Coach of the Year.
Now, in 2021 you’d expect the team to capitalise on the preceding season. But no. The green arc goes downwards and to the left. We won 8 games from the expanded schedule of 17 games. Not great. Injuries at crucial positions screwed us over and so disappointment was again the order of that year.
And then we lost quarterback Baker Mayfield.
2022? Orange, down, right. Regression again, 7 wins from 17 games. Injuries. Meh.
In 2023 we won 11 games from 17. We got into the playoffs and fell immediately to the Houston Texans. Red square, upwards and to the right. We did it with a quarterback dragged off his sofa halfway through the year and plugged into the offense. Joe ‘Elite Dragon’ Flacco.
Still with me?
Let’s carry the sequence on then, for the 2024 season just ended. For us at least. A mere 3 wins from 17 games. So, what does the arc do with a teeny bit of extrapolation? Up, to the left. Colour? Black I’d imagine. Even accounting for our quarter-billion quarterback woes this was a bad one.
| Season | W-L-T | Fibonacci |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1-15-0 | ↖️ |
| 2017 | 0-16-0 | ↙️ |
| 2018 | 7-8-1 | ↘️ |
| 2019 | 6-10-0 | ↗️ |
| 2020 | 11-5-0 | ↖️ |
| 2021 | 8-9-0 | ↙️ |
| 2022 | 7-10-0 | ↘️ |
| 2023 | 11-6-0 | ↗️ |
| 2024 | 3-14-0 | ↖️ |
| 2025 | Who knows? | ↙️ |
2025 will have an arc heading down and to the left. Pain for us fans? Of course it is, we’re Browns fans. Colour Brown then? It’s expected that 2025 will be a rebuilding year of sorts for us. Fans are already talking about the dearth of quarterback talent in this year’s draft and so pushing for a mediocre-to-tanking season to get a better 2026 pick.
I’m not one of those fans.
But you can’t argue with the mathematics of all this.
Can you?
Of course you can.
When I posted a version of this to the r/Browns subreddit someone made the point that since Coach Stefanski arrived it’s been a win-lose-win-lose sequence. That’s not entirely true, it’s actually been win-lose-lose-win-lose-lose, etc.
And so I updated the chart:
| Season | W-L-T | Fibonacci #, coach |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 7-8-1 | 1 (HJ,GW) |
| 2019 | 6-10-0 | 1 (FK) |
| 2020 | 11-5-0 | 2 (KS) |
| 2021 | 8-9-0 | 3 (KS) |
| 2022 | 7-10-0 | 5 (KS) |
| 2023 | 11-6-0 | 8 (KS) |
| 2024 | 3-14-0 | 13 (KS) |
| 2025 | Who knows? | 21 (KS?) |
| 2026 | Super Bowl! | 34 (KS?) |
There’s a pattern. 2018 and 2019 (before Stefanski arrived) improved on the preceding 2 seasons, but weren’t great. The Fibonacci numbers are odd.
2020 showed up as an even Fibonacci number, and we reached the playoffs. Remember this.
2021 and 2022 again brought a slide in results – odd Fibonaccis both.
2023 was an even numbered year, and we reached the playoffs. Which was nice.
2024, predictably as far as I’m concerned, brought a desperately deep low in my fandom. An odd-numbered year.
2025, well, as an odd Fibonacci I expect nothing better than misery.
But, as the table clearly states, 2026 is going to be a Super Bowl season; we Browns fans should expect nothing less!
Footnotes? Oh yes!
- The life, works and legacy of Fibonacci (Wikipedia). ↩
- The Fibonacci sequence (Wikipedia). ↩
- The Fibonacci spiral (Wikipedia). ↩
- A List of Cleveland Browns seasons (Wikipedia). ↩
- The Golden spiral (Wikipedia). Linked here for the continuously zooming/magnifying image at the top of the page. Oooh, mathematics porn! ↩
- Wikipedia image by Romain, credits. ↩
- Noted seer Nostradamus (Wikipedia). ↩
