The FirstMerit Patriot Bowl was an annual regular season college football game played on Labor Day weekend in Cleveland, Ohio at Browns Stadium. It was originally envisioned as an annual match-up between a Mid-American Conference (MAC) and a Federal service academy team, but only the first game featured the latter. The event is sponsored by the FirstMerit Corporation, an Akron, Ohio-based financial institution, and organized by the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. The Patriot Bowl featured a pre-game flag football match between the Cleveland police and Cleveland fire departments. The winner of the Patriot Bowl is awarded the Cleary Trophy, named in honor of Michael Cleary, an executive director of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and patron of the Greater C