Baltimore was declared a "swing team" and played one game against each of the other 12 NFL clubs. The original intent of the merger was to have the popular Cleveland Browns serve as this team for two years to equally help gate receipts throughout the league, however, this was refused point blank by Paul Brown. Over a 13-week season, one team was idle each week while the other 12 met in the six scheduled games. Each team played a home-and-away game against the other five teams in their conference, one game outside the conference, and one game against Baltimore over the course of a 12-game schedule.