Waiting For A Lombardi
Last weekend we charted the waiting time for a championship that fans of all four major sports have lived with going back over 100 years. Here’s the story. Here’s the chart of the 122 teams and their waiting periods.
This time we look specifically at the National Football League and what team has the most patient fans.
Sorry Chiefs fans, but again you have not been waiting longer than any other NFL followers. Not that any of that soothes the frustration and pain of 40 seasons away from the championship game. But there are plenty of others who have been waiting longer.
Here’s a complete list of the 32 teams and how long they’ve waited for a title, a chance for the title, the playoffs and a post-season victory.
The honor of waiting longest – if we can call it that – definitely falls to the fans of the Detroit Lions.
It has been over a half-century since the Motown boys have won the NFL title. The year was 1957, or long before any player currently in the league was born. Some of their parents were not even walking the Earth when quarterback Tobin Rote replaced the injured legend Bobby Layne led the George Wilson coached Lions to a 59-14 title game victory over the Cleveland Browns. There was no Lombardi Trophy then; Lombardi was still an assistant coach with the Giants in that season, still two years away from taking over as head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
The next year, the Lions traded Layne to the Pittsburgh Steelers and reportedly the quarterback said at the time that it would be 50 years before the Lions won again. This became known as the “Bobby Layne Curse” and even though it has been more than 50 years since the Lions won the ‘57 title, a cloud still hovers over the franchise.
The first Super Bowl was played after the 1966 seasons in the NFL and American Football League. Right now, all but four of the league’s 32 teams have made an appearance in the game with the Roman numerals. It’s the Lions and then Jacksonville, Cleveland and Houston, all teams that began life after 1995. The original Browns didn’t make the Super Bowl as well, but did as the Baltimore Ravens.
Detroit leads the list of 14 teams that have never won a Super Bowl, joining Philadelphia, Minnesota, San Diego, Atlanta, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Seattle, Arizona, Carolina, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Cleveland and Houston.
At least the Lions have won championships in franchise history. The Minnesota Vikings have played 49 seasons without an NFL Championship for the franchise. The Atlanta Falcons have played 44 seasons without a title, while the Cincinnati Bengals have 43 seasons without a championship trophy.
Here are the top five teams that have waited the longest for a title:
- 52 seasons, Detroit.
- 49 seasons, Philadelphia and Minnesota.
- 46 seasons, San Diego.
- 44 seasons, Atlanta and Buffalo.
And here are the top five teams that have waited the longest for simply a chance to play in the NFL’s final game of the season:
- 52 seasons, Detroit.
- 41 seasons, New York Jets.
- 40 seasons, CHIEFS.
- 33 seasons, Minnesota.
- 25 seasons, Miami.
To even have a chance to make the Super Bowl, a team must earn a spot in the NFL post-season tournament. In the last decade, only three of the 32 teams did not earn at least one spot in the playoffs – Detroit, Buffalo and Houston. Here are the top five teams that now have waited the longest for a trip to the post-season:
- 10 seasons, Detroit and Buffalo.
- 8 seasons, Houston.
- 7 seasons, Oakland, San Francisco and Cleveland.
There is no way to win a championship in the NFL without earning some victories in the playoffs. That’s something the Chiefs have struggled with over the last two decades. Here are the top five teams that have the longest wait right now for a post-season victory:
- 21 seasons, Cincinnati.
- 18 seasons, Detroit.
- 16 seasons, CHIEFS.
- 14 seasons, Buffalo.
- 8 seasons, Houston.
Over the last decade, the Indianapolis Colts had the most seasons with a trip to the playoffs, going in nine of the 10 years. The New England Patriots had the most post-season victories with 14. There were seven teams that won Lombardi Trophies in the decade: New England (3), Pittsburgh (2) and New Orleans, New York Giants, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay and Baltimore (1 each). There were three teams that did not make the playoffs at least once: Houston, Detroit and Buffalo.
There were 40 berths in the conference championship games in the 2000s and 21 teams were in at least one of those games. Among the other 11 teams that never got an AFC or NFC Championship Game taste in the 2000s some have waited much longer than a decade:
- 52 seasons, Detroit.
- 18 seasons, Washington.
- 17 seasons, Miami.
- 16 seasons, CHIEFS and Buffalo.
Thank you Carl Peterson. For showing the world how to ruin a franchise. Poor draft picks and only building up one side of the football will do for any franchise. Just goes to show you how poorly ran this franchise has been over the last decade. The worst decision Peterson ever made was not holding on to Marty. We would’ve had a Super Bowl by now if Peterson would’ve given Marty enough time and fans had been patient.
ED—
Carl & Herm , have at the very least , given some very strong leadership the chance to start with what look’s like in the next two year’s , if not this year , one heck of a team .
Carl Peterson is not Satan. He did a great job for this team for 10+ years. Unfortunately, he was on the job for 20. But with all due respect…it’s only because Lamar let him. I still firmly believe that, right or wrong, Carl did what he thought was best for the Chiefs. He IS a Chief in my book…and always will be. I thank him for all the good things he did for this organization…and forgive him for his mistakes.
It’s a new era. Let it go.
The Chiefs have been languishing in Playoff Victory Drought since Clinton was President. ( his first term, by the way).
Fortunately, for us fans, Clark has set a little fire in the teepee. Me, being a life long fan of the men in Red & Gold (40 years plus) I’m almost a little pissed about the trivial pursuit of the Lombardi trophy since Jan. 1970 & all those disappointing years that followed. Including Miami in 1970 that ruined my Xmas & Buffalo in 1993. Yes, I saw the Chiefs (live)win Super Bowl IV. One of the few times my Dad & I were buddies.
I truly believe that the passing of Lamar was a blessing in disguise for the Chiefs faithful. We are once again building the Dynasty of our glory days & Clark has done an outstanding job (at this point) to bringing in the right tools to regain the respect & swagger home again.
I’m not that old or have blind faith. The Chiefs are Back… I feel it, I sense it, I’m liking it.
For all you young fans out there. Enjoy the Ride… Believe it… Live It… & Love it… Dynasties don’t last forever.
Go Chiefs.
I’m crying Bobby I’m weeping when are my Chiefs going to go to the dance? I remeber bieng one game away upsetting the Houston Oilers and playing Buffalo and our Montana was knocked silly. Then Thurman Thomas destroyed our defense. I was just a wee little man back then but I remeber it as if it were yesterday.
Wow, I don’t like to think about how it’s been that long, how that much time has gone by or how far the franchise fell.
But, I do think the falling is over, and the team is now in ascent. I beleive the guys in charge are good football people, and I expect continued positive movement towards getting the team to be highly successful on a consistent basis.
It’s too early for me to say what I think the team may do this year, except to say I think it will be much better than last year. As we all know, that was really hard to watch at times, embarrassing and frustrating.
This year, at minimum, I want to see a good, competitve team that no opponent can take lightly. Right now, I think there’s a good chance of that.