The NFL’s 10 most tortured fan bases

Last week, we looked at the NFL teams that enjoyed/dealt with the biggest and worst home-field advantages. This week, we follow that up with a look at the fan bases that have been most tortured over time.

1. Buffalo Bills: This is what happens when you lose four consecutive Super Bowls and when you go on a 14-year playoff drought. The Bills won two AFL Championships just before the Super Bowl became a thing, but they’ve been cursed ever since. Bad timing for a city that is obsessed with its local football team.

2. Minnesota Vikings: The Vikes are the only other team that is 0-for-4 in the Super Bowl, but at least their losses were spread out over an eight-year span. Minnesota has also won six playoff games since the Bills last won in the postseason. Still, it’s gotta be painful that the Vikings have the sixth-highest winning percentage of the Super Bowl era but have nothing to show for it.

3. Detroit Lions: The only team that has been a part of the NFL for every year of the Super Bowl era but hasn’t made a single Super Bowl. Only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a worse all-time winning percentage, though, so at least they’ve never even given their fans hope. Buffalo and Minnesota are teases, while Detroit is just one pathetic loser.

4. Philadelphia Eagles: A lot of playoff success, especially in recent years, but zero Super Bowls and only two appearances a quarter of a century apart. For a city that bleeds green, that’s tough to swallow.

5. Cleveland Browns: That whole losing the team thing certainly stung, as has the fact the Browns have never even sniffed a Super Bowl despite experiencing so much success in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The franchise was inactive for three years, but it’s been two decades since it last won a playoff game.

6. San Diego Chargers: It’s been half a century since the Chargers last won a championship, and they’ve won just 10 playoff games during that span. They were hammered in their only Super Bowl appearance.

7. Cincinnati Bengals: Forty-six years and the Bengals have never won a championship. They’ve lost two Super Bowls by a combined nine points and have often been smothered by terrible ownership.

8. Miami Dolphins: I know, they’re the only team ever to have a perfect season and they did win two championships four decades ago. But the Dolphins wasted 17 seasons with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, Dan Marino, and have also lost three Super Bowls. Plus, they haven’t won a playoff game in 14 years.

9. Atlanta Falcons: Atlanta’s .433 winning percentage during the modern era is worse than all but four other teams, but the Bucs have a Super Bowl, the Texans are extremely young and nobody cares about the Cardinals (who have moved cities anyway). The other team is the Lions, who rank third on this list.

10. New York Jets: At this point, it’s getting pretty tough to live on that miraculous Joe Namath Super Bowl III accomplishment. The Jets have won only 10 playoff games since and haven’t really come close to the Super Bowl.

About Brad Gagnon

Brad Gagnon has been passionate about both sports and mass media since he was in diapers -- a passion that won't die until he's in them again. Based in Toronto, he's worked as a national NFL blog editor at theScore.com (covering Super Bowls XLIV, XLV and XLVI), a producer and writer at theScore Television Network and a host, reporter and play-by-play voice at Rogers TV. His work has also appeared at Deadspin, FoxSports.com, The Guardian, The Hockey News and elsewhere at Bloguin, but his day gig has him covering all things NFC East for Bleacher Report.

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