What is the WORST sports franchise of ALL TIME?

In My Humble Opinion
21

theuglytruth said:

“Washington Wizards. No. Used to be the Bullets who won 2 NBA titles.”

I was only aware of one such championship, though I may be wrong. However, having once been good enough to win a championship doesn’t unmake you shitty. Case in point: The San Diego Padres. Other than winning the NLCS a few years back I can’t honestly think of a time they got to a world series or even advanced far in the playoffs. Can someone else?

I think it’s too early yet to make any claim for a MLS or WNBA team, myself.

22

Hey Ugly,

If the criteria is “eternal” in each city in which a franchise played, then you’d better remove the NJ Nets from the list. They won 2 ABA titles with Dr. J. (in 1974 & '76).

You’d also better delete the St.Louis/Phoenix Cardinals. As the Chicago Cardinals they were NFL champs in the late 1940’s.

You’d also better remove the Oakland Seals/California Golden Seals/Cleveland Barons from the list. That franchise merged with the Minnesota North Stars, and became the 1999 Stanley Cup winning Dallas Stars, although I doubt many people in either Oakland, Cleveland or Minnesota cared.

Heck, even the Cubs won the World Series 90 some years ago. Does that make them any less pathetic now?

As for the Cincinnati/KC/Sacramento Kings, they never made the NBA finals, even with the Big O. Someguys in green shirts in Boston beat the crap out of them all the time.

23

As a true Clippers fan I’m shocked that nobody’s mentioned that they started in Buffalo as the Braves. Imagine that their record of futility stretches unbroken across THREE cities.

24

Well, my beloved Vancouver Canucks are not complete losers, but they are very good at making you think “This will finally be the year…” only to collapse as the season proceeds.

Do any of you cheer for teams that have a tendency to do that (show promise that turns to poopie by the end of the season) ?

True, there were the two finals (the 1982 run, against big odds, is one of my fave sports memories), and the patch in the early 90s when they did well, but when hockey is the number one sport in town, expectations for the Canucks are always high.

25

Just a small correction. The Lions won 3 NFL titles in the 1950’s, not 4, in 1953, 1954 and 1957. Saying the Lions ruled the NFL in that period is an exaggeration too, given that the Browns also won 3 titles (1950, 51 and 55) and played in 6 straight league championship games (1950-55).

As for additional nominees of futility, how about these:

Denver Nuggets - 32 seasons without a title.

St.Louis Blues - 32 seasons without a title with spectacular playoff chokes.

Montreal Expos - 32 seasons without a title, there only division championship during the strike year of 1981, and bound for Charlotte or DC or some such place.

26

But the whole point of “Damn Yankees” was that it took a deal with the devil to produce a winning season for the Senators.

27

My beloved Philadelphia Phillies have lost more games in the history of professional sports than any other team or franchise, world-wide.

But, there’s always 1980… :slight_smile:

28

Regarding the New Orleans Saints, I believe they are the only NFL franchise never to win a playoff game, yes?

29

I stand corrected PatrickM. Actually, I looked up that info in my almanac, and although the Lions did win 4 titles overall, they did not win them all in the 50’s. The other title came in 1935.

Either way, they have no business on a “worst ever” list.

Yes, in fact, I do that with the Detroit Lions. But, hey, at least I’m not a Cubs/Red Sox fan. :wink:

30

I would like to petition Baltimore as the official home of pathetic teams…

  1. Orioles. yes, they’ve had their good years. But I lived 5 blocks from Memorial stadium the year that they lost 22 (23/24?) games in a row, from opeining day–a MLB record.

  2. Ravens. not only did we steal the team in an underhand manner, we stole a pathetic losing team. Sure the Browns were once good, but not when we took em. And you know who we tried to get before that? The Tampa Bay Bucanners. Remember that this was a few years ago–before their winning seasons. At the time, they’d had 1 .500 season is something like 14 years. But we still wanted them.

I rest my case.

31

smug said:

The Kansas City Scouts and the Colorado Rockies were the same franchise. They moved again…and are now known as the Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils.

My nominee for the worst sports franchise would be the Pittsburgh Steelers prior to 1972. They were bad from the beginning–it took them 40 years to make the playoffs for the first time. I don’t know if that’s a record, but it’s gotta be close.

32

How about the USFL?

33

I find this hard to believe. The Phillies have lost more games than the Cubs?

34

I am shocked to hear my beloved team mentioned.
The Lions were once a proud franchise and certainly don’t deserve the title of worst of all time. T
hey aren’t even the worst franchise in football, let alone the lesser sports.

In the 50’s the 2 best teams were Detroit and Cleveland. Both won 3 championships in the decade.
Cleveland had the better overall record for the decade but head to head the Lions owned the Browns:

1952 in Detroit: Lions win 17-6
1952 in Cleveland; Lions win 17-7 ( championship game )
1953 in Detroit: Lions win 17-16 ( championship game )
1954 in Cleveland: Lions win 14-10
1954 in Cleveland: Browns win 56-10 ( championship game )
1957 in Detroit: Lions win 20-7
1957 in Detroit: Lions win 59-14 ( championship game )
1958 in Cleveland: Lions win 30-10

I think that it is incorrect to state that the Browns were the “Team of the 50’s”. Detroit was arguably superior but I think that it can best be described as a draw.

My vote for worst NFL franchise would be New Orleans. Having never won a playoff game is pretty embarrassing. While the Cardinals haven’t been respectable vey often, I think that there history keeps them from the ultimate indignity. After all the Arizona Cardinals, formerly know as the Phoenix Cardinals, formerly know as the St. Louis Cardinals, formerly know as the Chicago Cardinals, formerly know as the Racine Cardinals, formerly know as the Normals, and formerly know as the Morgan Athletic Club were founded in 1899 and are the league’s oldest club.
And yes they did win a championship in 1948.

35

I forgot to put in my vote for worst team overall.

I vote for the Washington Generals! :smiley:

36

The Clippers.

Personally, I think it’s splitting hairs to say “the Kansas City Athletics” because they later went on to do well in Oakland (and had previously done well in Philadelphia). If you were going to go this route, you might as well say the Seattle Pilots (one season, then they moved to Milwaukee) or the Cleveland Spiders.

As to the Detroit Lions, yeah, they haven’t won in awhile, but they used to be one of the best teams in the league. The Bengals made a Super Bowl not too long ago, and the Bucs were pretty good last year and getting better.

I certainly can see an argument for the Lightning, but they haven’t been in the NHL long.

The Clippers have no such excuse.

37

More comments on teams mentioned as I wittle down my list:

SAN DIEGO PADRES: NO. 2 World Series appearances, 1985 v Detroit and 1998? v Yankees

NEW JERSEY NETS: 2 ABA titles in the 70s have been erased by extreme mediocrity. If the Nets were at least a competitve team once every few years, I’d take them off the list. The Nets are HORRIBLE. STAY

CARDINALS (NFL): The fact that they won their last title in 1940 is reason enough, but the fact that they went 30 years without making the playoffs solidifies their position of pathos. STAY

SEALS/BARONS: Kicking them off the list because half the team went on to be the Dallas Stars 15 years later is a stretch and a half. STAY

CUBS: See Cardinals, just go back to 1910 or so for their World Series win and no pennant for three centuries. STAY

ROCHESTER/CINCINNATTI ROYALS/OMAHA-KANSAS CITY/KANSAS CITY/SACREMENTO KINGS: Hmmmmmmm. The few playoff appearances in the 90s make me not to want to include them. But, boy have they sucked ass for decades. OK. I’ll put them on until they make the NBA Finals.

DENVER NUGGETS- Good points, losers. ON

ST. LOUIS BLUES: Chokers, yes. Totally pathetic no.

MONTREAL EXPOS: YES! This is a horrible franchise. So bad they couldn’t land a radio deal this year. No titles. No World Series. I went to see the Pos play the Cardinals last season with Mark McGuire in Montreal. There were 17,000 fans there. Pathetic. And the worse thing is, Washinton DC was ready to blow Bud Selig for this team but Major League Baseball sucked up to the Frenchies and a stadium deal was done.
We are in for more years of mediocrity in Montreal I am afraid.

Baltimore Orioles: No way. One bad losing streak cannot erase that great Brooks Robinson team and a 1984 WS.

BALTIMORE RAVENS: Used to be the BrownS. No.

WASHINGTON GENERALS: Games are fixed. No.

38

For all the reasons 2sense defends the Chicago/St.Louis/Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals, I have to vote for them. After all, this is an organization that, except for one shining moment in the late 40s, was NEVER good! They were doormats when the NFL was founded, they were doormats when the AAFC and AFL teams were absorbed into the league, they were doormats in three cities and they will always be doormats. They botch the draft and lose established players. They turn over coaches like they were trading cards. The enitre Bidwell family (father, son, and now grandkids)has proven themselves absolutely incapable of either running a professional sports franchise or getting out of the way and letting someone capable do it.

Unlike the Cubs, Mets, Saints, Clippers and a few other teams, the Cardinals were never lovingly bad, or respectably bad. They are just, year in and year out, mind-numbingly mediocre.

I think a century-long legacy of ineptitude should be enough to convince even the most skeptical among us, that the NFL’s Cardinals are the rotten fish in the sushi bar of pro sports.

39

My vote for the Cubs as the best worst team. Certainly the worst team with the best tradition, fan-base, etc.

There is no point in comparing new expansion teams that haven’t had a chance to do anything yet. There we should have a separate category for the worst team name. In fact, what a good idea…

40

There’s nothing lovable or respectable about the Saints. Remember when fans used to wear bags over their heads at the games? I also think they tried painting the seats of the Superdome in a pattern that tried to hide the fact that it was a graveyard during the games.

Also, by popular demand, TV markets in the entire northern half of the state would show the Cowboys games rather than the Saints (not that this Cowboy fan complained at the time).