Halfway through the NFL season and for many fans, it’s already over. Admit it: You’re already studying free agency or dreaming about the draft, waiting for another “next year.”
Again.
For some, that painful ritual is relatively new. For others, it’s lasted for decades. And for many, the constant disappointment is just a part of their fan experience. The suffering feels like the whole point.
If that describes you, you probably feel like nobody, anywhere, has it worse. But the truth is, a lot of fans around the NFL literally feel your pain. Some cheer for teams that haven’t made the playoffs in more than a decade. Some cheer for teams that have never been to a Super Bowl. Some root for teams that haven’t experienced glory since before the Super Bowl — and their own parents — were even born.
So which is worse? Rooting for a team that can’t get over the championship hump? Rooting for a team that’s often good, but keeps finding new ways to fail in the end? Are you better off heartbroken or snake-bit? Is it better to have won and then lost, or never to have won at all?
The suffering of a fan base is in the eye of the beholder. So it might be impossible to figure out which fan base is the most desperate to see their favorite team finally bring home a Super Bowl trophy. But as another lost season starts to sink in for many, FOX Sports will give it a try anyway, with a list of the most desperate fan bases in the NFL. It takes into account the length of their pain, their expectations, their passions, and the unusual circumstances some have experienced along the way.
The countdown to the most desperate fan base in America begins here:
Seriously, if you’re a fan of the two-time defending champion and currently undefeated Chiefs and you’re feeling any desperation at all, it’s probably just for news of an engagement between Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift.
They probably were feeling desperate after 12 straight non-playoff seasons before Tom Brady dropped into their lap in 2020 and immediately led them to a Super Bowl championship. That bliss from a gift like that should last them a while. And just in case it doesn’t, Todd Bowles and Baker Mayfield have revived their careers in Tampa. So even with Brady in the broadcast booth, the Bucs are still pretty good.
The past three years have felt like a struggle in L.A., but they did win a Super Bowl in 2021, they do still have the best young coach in the game in Sean McVay, and possibly the best stadium in the league. McVay has had six winning seasons in seven years there, and they might be headed toward another one even though they’ve been crushed by injuries. Things are pretty good, and the last trophy doesn’t even have much dust on it yet.
They probably think they feel desperate in Philly, but that mostly comes from their feeling that the Eagles are better than everyone else and should win every year. They won a Super Bowl four years ago and lost one two years ago, so desperate fans really need some perspective. Of course, perspective is not something Philly fans do well, especially after the Eagles ruined a 10-1 record last year with a 1-6 finish.
Oh, boo hoo! If any Patriots fans are feeling desperate after 4 ½ bad, post-Tom Brady years, just get over yourselves. You had an unprecedented, 18-year run under Bill Belichick and Brady that included 13 AFC championship games, nine Super Bowls, and six championships. Yeah, they’ve bottomed out and are now rebuilding. Again: Boo hoo! Nobody’s buying your tears.
They haven’t won a Super Bowl since 2012, and last year’s loss in the AFC championship was the closest they’ve gotten in the Lamar Jackson era. But they’ve been a threat to get there in almost every year John Harbaugh’s been their coach. They’ve been to the playoffs 11 times in the previous 16 years. So, feeling desperate? Try running that by the Orioles fans down the street and see what they say.
It’s only been 10 years since they should have won back-to-back titles if it weren’t for the worst Super Bowl play call of all time. They only have the one title, but the recently ended Pete Carroll era was an incredible run of success. They made the playoffs 10 times in 13 years with eight seasons of double-digit wins. Things aren’t great now, which is why the desperation is building, but they’ve still had just one losing season in the last 12 years.
They were much higher on this list before Sean Payton and Drew Brees arrived and brought the city its first Super Bowl title just when it needed it the most. Yeah, that was way back in 2009, but they’ve had championship-caliber teams with double-digit wins to root for as recently as 2017-20. If their inability to win another title has the fan base feeling desperate, at least they can go drown their sorrows on Bourbon Street.
They haven’t gone three years without a playoff berth since 1992. They’ve had a steady flow of great quarterbacks from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to, presumably, Jordan Love. The desperation here comes from the ghosts and the fact that these aren’t the 1960s anymore. Their last title was 2010 and that was their only Super Bowl this century. As older Packers fans will tell you, the ghosts did better than that.
They have enjoyed so much success (eight Super Bowls) and so much pain (five Super Bowl losses). They’ve had great coaches (Dan Reeves, Mike Shanahan, and now Sean Payton) and great players (John Elway, Peyton Manning). And it hasn’t even been 10 years since their last title. Then again, they haven’t been to the playoffs since then and have had losing records in each of the previous seven years. That’s quite a fall.
They are probably feeling a little desperate because of their passion and the standards of their franchise. It has to hurt that they haven’t won a playoff game since 2017. But please, have a little perspective. They’re tied for the most Super Bowl rings ever (six, though the last was in 2008). They are a model of stability with just three coaches since 1969. And their last losing season was … 2003? A lot of fan bases would sign up for desperation like this.
Any desperation they feel is really a direct correlation to just how spoiled they were during the Peyton Manning era, and the briefer era of Andrew Luck. Yeah, they’ve only been to the playoffs once since Luck retired and they’ve cycled through 10 starting quarterbacks in six years. And sure, they haven’t won a Super Bowl since 2006. But come on, you can’t expect to be gift-wrapped a franchise quarterback in every generation, can you?
Can you believe they were actually in the Super Bowl just nine years ago? It feels like centuries ago the way the last seven years have gone. They’ve become the epitome of mismanagement, and their desperation now comes from the fact that it’s hard to see how they’ll dig themselves out of their latest hole. That, and a 33-75 record since David Tepper bought the team.
This fan base is a tough one to place since Los Angeles also has the Rams, and the Chargers are the Jets-like other team in town. Honestly, even when they were in San Diego it was hard to tell just how passionate the fan base was. Their most loyal fans, though, are both stung by no trips to the Super Bowl since 1994 and probably a little numb to their penchant for mismanagement and losing in very unique ways.
Their fan base was spoiled a little by the fact that Tom Coughlin turned them into the most successful expansion franchise in NFL history with four playoff berths and two trips to the NFC championship in their first five years. OK, it hasn’t been good since and they still have never made a Super Bowl (despite coming close as recently as 2017). I’m thinking they might be more worked up, though, over the fact that the Florida Gators have had three straight losing seasons and haven’t won a national title since 2008.
They’d be much higher on this list if they were still the Houston Oilers, the franchise they inherited. But they’re not. Plus, remember, they did actually get to a Super Bowl, and within a yard of a championship, just three years after the franchise moved. Of course, that was 25 years ago and the team has been to the playoffs just nine times since.
The old Houston Oilers fans have probably channeled their lingering desperation into the Texans, but a lot of apathy also set in when it took the Texans 10 years into their existence to make the playoffs for the first time. Also tempering the desperation is that right now is really the high point of their existence. The future is bright with coach DeMeco Ryans and quarterback C.J. Stroud. It’s hard to feel down when, after 20 years, the franchise is finally on the way up. Maybe Houston’s first-ever Super Bowl with either franchise is finally in reach?
They’ve been in the desert for 36 seasons now and they’ve gone to the playoffs six times. What makes them a little less desperate, though, is that the Bruce Arians and Ken Whisenhunt eras were pretty good, and they were recent. They made a Super Bowl and two NFC championships between 2008-15. But that’s really all the good out there. Well, that and the abundance of golf.
Oh, they know they had it good for a while and they savor their four Super Bowl trophies and the fact that it’s only been 13 years since the last one. Their desperation comes from what’s happened since. They’re on their way to their 10th losing season in 13 years. That includes eight seasons of double-digit losses and a record of 78-125-1. They’ve even become a coven of chaos with five head coaches and four GMs in the last eight years. They were once a model franchise. Now the model is broken.
Their last Super Bowl championship was 1994, which means a whole generation hasn’t experienced that yet, even though their six rings are tied for the most in NFL history. But their desperation may be tempered by being so close, so often. They made three straight NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl under Jim Harbaugh (2011-13). And in the last four years under Kyle Shanahan they’ve been to four NFC championships and the Super Bowl twice. Of course, that’s a big tease, too. Being so close can be agonizing.
12. Las Vegas Raiders They basically just got to Las Vegas, and any fans they left behind in Los Angeles or Oakland might feel more angry and abandoned than desperate. They do tend to have passionate diehards, though, and they’ve endured a lot. They’re about to make it 20 playoff misses in the last 22 years. They’d be higher on the list if they hadn’t already alienated so many of their fans.
To be honest, they were probably most desperate to get rid of Dan Snyder and that wish has been fulfilled. Yeah, they’re still looking for their first playoff win since 2005, but everything’s great right now with a new owner, a new coach, the best young quarterback in the game and a shocking 7-2 start. They’re ready for a parade no matter how the rest of the season goes. Of course, good vibes can only last so long.
It’s easy to forget how good this franchise was in the 1970s, which is in part because they lost all four of their Super Bowls. Since then, they’ve actually been blessed with a lot of good teams and a lot of playoff teams. They’ve even been to four NFC Championship Games between 1998 and 2017. But they lost them all, including two of them in overtime.
Outside of a brief, but significant revival under Lovie Smith from 2005-12 (one trip to the Super Bowl and two trips to the NFC Championship Game), this is a fan base still living in the Super Bowl Shuffle 1980s. Those ’85 Bears are the glory years multiple generations still worship in the Windy City. That’s especially true lately when they’ve had two playoff games (both losses) in the last 13 years.
They were so close to winning it all in 2021 and 2022, and they do still have one of the best young quarterbacks in the game in Joe Burrow. But they also have a terrible history of knowing their franchise is so cheap, they may waste his career. Before their Super Bowl run in ’21 they had gone 29 years without winning a playoff game. They cheer with a nagging feeling that something is always about to go wrong.
It’s really not a good sign that the guy who is still their most famous player is now 63 years old. And Dan Marino never won a championship either, by the way. They haven’t seen their team win a playoff game since 2000, and they haven’t won two in the same season since Marino was in his second season — 1984. On the bright side, the weather is great and the beach is never too far away.
They watched as their team blew a 28-3, third-quarter lead in the Super Bowl, which is more torture than any fan base should ever experience. But they also blew a 17-0 lead in the 2012 NFC Championship Ggame — a game they still led in the fourth quarter. They’ve never won a championship, and they’ve only made the playoffs 14 times in their 59-year history, but it’s the near misses that led to the most pain.
The agony for them is in their own greatness. From 1970 through 1995, they appeared in 14 NFC Championship Games, eight Super Bowls and won five championships. Since then, despite being “America’s team” and the NFL’s most valuable franchise, they’ve yet to get back to a conference championship. It’s not all bad. They made the playoffs 13 times in 29 years. They’ve even won 12 games in each of the last three years. But that can’t keep pace with their Texas-sized expectations and memories.
Even kids who weren’t born yet in 1990 are taught the agony of Scott Norwood’s “Wide Right,” when the Bills came as close as a team can come to winning a Super Bowl without winning it. And that was just the first of four straight Super Bowl losses, just to add to the pain. They’ve also been tortured by the “Music City Miracle” and, most recently, the Kansas City Chiefs. They represent a region desperate for any kind of sports championship (other than indoor lacrosse, which doesn’t count). The Bills keep getting good, and then the rug gets pulled out from under them again.
Their recent revival under Dan Campbell has all the feels and it coincides with the revival of their city. But they still have never been to a Super Bowl and haven’t won a championship since 1957 — a Browns-like drought. They also had losing seasons in 17 of 21 years from 2001-21 plus a humiliating 0-16 season in 2008. That sucked the life out of the fan base. But they’re back now, desperate for the parade they’ve never had.
They must have sold their souls for the most important Super Bowl win in NFL history, which was a mere 55 years ago. They have had close calls (most recently back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 2009-10). Ownership has fanned expectations by bringing in big names like Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick (for a few hours), Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. They keep showing up and keep believing, but what do they get for their efforts? Oh, the pain.
It’s hard to beat a group that’s suffered through two different versions of their favorite franchise. They were heartbroken when the Browns left town in 1996, then thrilled when they returned in 1999, only to see them miss the playoffs in what will soon be 22 of the next 25 seasons. There’s also a whole generation of Browns fans still reeling from their three, soul-crushing losses in AFC title games in the 1980s. And you’ve got to be in your 80s to really remember their last championship in 1955. A picture of the Dawg Pound sits next to the word “desperation” in the dictionary.
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
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