In the zero-sum game that is the NFL playoff system, there are 12 winners and 20 losers–no exceptions.\u00a0 And, if you ask the people from New England or San Diego, they will probably both tell you that it is not always the best 12 teams that “win” or the worst 20 teams that “lose.”\u00a0 But, whatever it is, it is clear that 12 sets of fans have hope that this “new life” that their teams have found will leave the past 17 weeks’ worth of\u00a0disappointments and frustrations (more for some teams than others) behind them and it will all come together as chapters in a book with a glorious ending.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other 20 fan bases and forced to sit and look back at 17 weeks of “what could have been” and sulk through a postseason without their team and a long offseason thinking about what is going to be different next year.\u00a0 And, is it me or does it seem like there is more universal heartache for fans around the league this season than in most seasons?\u00a0 It has been ridiculous.\u00a0 So, it led me to thinking about just how difficult it is going to be for some NFL fans around the country to watch the playoffs without their teams, so I tried to rank the 20 teams that missed the playoffs on just how hard this season must have been to swallow for their fans.\u00a0 So, here is my order of how hard the NFL team’s kick to its fans groin was this year, from most gentle\u00a0to most devastating.\u00a0 It’s basically a list, in order, of the fans with whom I would\u00a0least like to\u00a0trade places:<\/p>\n
#20. Houston Texans #19. San Francisco 49ers #18. New Orleans Saints #17. Seattle Seahawks [And, we are officially out of teams with relatively decent futures and relatively tolerable seasons.\u00a0 Yes, there were only 4 of them–and Seattle is a stretch on the “tolerability” of their season.\u00a0 So, there are 16 NFL teams whose seasons were extremely painful in either an acute, punch-in-the-stomach kind of way or in a woeful-sign-of-chronic-heartache-to-come-for-a-miserable-team kind of way.]<\/p>\n #16. Oakland Raiders #15. Kansas City Chiefs #14. Cincinnati Bengals #13. St. Louis Rams #12. Cleveland Browns #11 Washington Redskins #10. Jacksonville Jaguars #9 Buffalo Bills #8. Green Bay Packers #7. Chicago Bears #6. New England Patriots #5. Detroit Lions #4. Dallas Cowboys #3 New York Jets #2. Denver Broncos And, the grand punch in the gut prize goes to the fans of…<\/p>\n #1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers In the zero-sum game that is the NFL playoff system, there are 12 winners and 20 losers–no exceptions.\u00a0 And, if you ask the people from New England or San Diego, they will probably both tell you that it is not … Continue reading
\n<\/u><\/strong>Yes, the Texans fans had high hopes that this would be the year that their team would make the playoffs.\u00a0 And, yes, they finished with the exact same record as last year, but I think given the slow start, the tough division, and recurring injuries, the Texans resurgence at the end of the year may ease a lot of the pain for its fans.\u00a0 Then again, this exact paragraph could have been written about the 2007 Houston Texans…<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>Like the Texans, this team’s fans were spared some heartache by the team’s heart and success down the stretch.\u00a0 In fact, if you only saw the last 5 weeks of the season, you would be shocked to find out that the 49ers were not the absolute class of the NFC West.\u00a0 Plus, it seems they found a coach…now all they need is a quarterback.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>Some people call the NFC South the best division in football, so the heartache of last place is not as severe for fans of the Saints.\u00a0 And, if you’re a fan and you’re team is offering you up heartache after heartache, you get really good at finding silver linings and strong, relieving rationalizations.\u00a0 The silver lining is named Drew Brees, who had one of the best seasons at quarterback ever (and led an entertaining offense week in and week out), and the rationalization is that the Saints were murdered by the schedule-makers–they went 5 weeks without a home game and were still a couple plays away from 9 wins.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>Though this team had pretty high expectations and fell WAY short of them, there are still some rationalizations that can be made–like injuries–to justify why this team can rise again to the top of a very bad division.\u00a0 Yes, it’s probably disappointing to see Holmgren go out like that, but it’s time.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>If I told you that there were 15 fan bases that were kicked in the groin harder than the Raiders fans were this year, you would call me nuts…until I listed off the next 15 teams.\u00a0 The Raiders actually finished relatively strongly this year, including wins in their last two games against Houston and Tampa Bay.\u00a0 No, I do not think this is a sign of things to come.\u00a0 I think the Raiders are terrible and will remain terrible, I just do not think that their fans have as much to complain about as 15 other teams’ fans.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>Another really bad team, but not surprisingly and, therefore, not that heart-wrenching.\u00a0 Everyone knew the Chiefs would be bad.\u00a0 The problem with this team–and the reason that they are after the Raiders–if because they lost so many games in such dramatic fashion.\u00a0 Just look at the two games against AFC West champion San Diego, where they had a 2-point conversion fall short that would have won it in the first game and then the Chargers needed a touchdown-onside kick-touchdown flurry to win the second.\u00a0 This might be one of the best 2-14 teams ever…yes, I just said that.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>And the hits just keep coming.\u00a0 This is another team where if I just told you where they were in this ranking, you would call me crazy…until you heard the other 13 teams and compared their seasons to the Bengals.\u00a0 Has one tackle every really changed a franchise as much as the hit that Kimo von Oelhoffen put on Carson Palmer in the 2006 playoff game?\u00a0 How excited were you, as a Cincinnati Bengal fan, back then when your team won the AFC North, with an 11-5 record and the whole core of the team was young and full of potential?\u00a0 Since that tackle,\u00a0they have not had a winning season, let alone\u00a0a return to the playoffs, culminating in this year’s 4-11-1 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>It feels like the Rams played 2-14 seasons with an 8-8 in the middle of it.\u00a0 They were the NFL’s worst team, then they actually looked semi-decent (with wins over Dallas and Washington–we’ll get to that), and then they returned to awfulness.\u00a0 And, the worst part about it for the fans is that there is still some talent on this team.\u00a0 Not pretty to be a Rams fan this year.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>At least the Browns have a semi-decent quarterback (Brady Quinn) and some skilled players.\u00a0 And, at least there is a glimmer of hope with the firing of Romeo Crenel.\u00a0 Plus, they lost three quarterbacks to injury this year–THREE.\u00a0 So, it’s not all bad in Cleveland.\u00a0 Then again, this team was 10-6 last year, and they may never have been as far from being a playoff team as they are right now.\u00a0 In fact, other than the Detroit Lions, I don’t think there is a team in the NFL that would surprise me more to make next year’s playoffs than the Browns.\u00a0 They did not score an offensive touchdown in their last SIX games (an NFL record), including shutouts in the last 2.\u00a0\u00a0Coming off a 10-6 season, that is depressing.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>Coming off a playoff year, with an up-and-coming quarterback and a star running\u00a0 back in his prime, this team was still concerned in the beginning of the year because of its brand-new head coach and the turmoil that went along with that search.\u00a0 So, if you told Redskins fans at the beginning of the year that the team would finish 8-8, including a win over a playoff Eagles team in Week 16, they’d probably be okay with it.\u00a0 But, then you’d have to tell them the context of the season.\u00a0 A blistering start, talks of a league MVP race between two Redskins (Portis and Campbell), and the dubbing of Jim Zorn as a “genius” and a “prodigy” made ‘Skins fans believe.\u00a0 And, you know what happens when fans start to believe in flawed teams?\u00a0 Heartache…<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>Thanks to the collapse of the Denver Broncos, the Jaguars have officially stolen the title of “most disappointing season” from the Chargers (even though, in reality, the Chargers lackluster 8-8 is VERY disappointing, they have been repreived because they are in the playoffs).\u00a0 The only reason the Jaguars are all the way down at #10 is because the season itself lacked any semblence of promise from about Week 3 on.\u00a0 The season, as a whole, is heart-wrenching for fans of a team that watched last year, as David Garrard came to life\u00a0(just in time for an ill-advised contract extension) and the defense physically dominated opponents.\u00a0 But, in the grand scheme of things, these fans have had plenty of time to deal with the disappointment, which I believe is a bit easier to handle–the slow burn is not nearly as bad as the suddenness of some of the stomach punches that NFL fans around the country have experienced this year.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>The Dolphins are coming off a 1-15 season.\u00a0 The Patriots lost Tom Brady and missed the playoffs.\u00a0 The Jets never got it together with Favre and missed the playoffs.\u00a0 The Bills started 5-1, with three of the wins coming\u00a0against teams that made the playoffs last year (Seattle at home, at Jacksonville, at San Diego).\u00a0 All four of those statements are completely true, yet somehow the Bills are not in the playoffs.\u00a0\u00a0To make matters worse for these long-suffering fans, the games they lost in their 2-8 finish were heart-wrenching losses in themselves.\u00a0 They blew a double-digit second half lead against Miami in Week 8; they lost on a 47-yard field goal that went wide right (sound familiar?) in Week 11; and, they fumbled away a sure win against the Jets in Week 15.\u00a0 And, just as if this collapse isn’t enough to devastate a fan base–they play in a division with intense rivalries and hatred, and they went 0-6 against division foes.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>It’s interesting that if the Jets had won one more game and made the playoffs, but the Packers did nothing different, Green Bay may have been #1 on this list, simpy because their 6-10 team would have to watch good ole Brett sling it around in the playoffs.\u00a0 But, the saving grace for the fans of a team that lost 7 more games this year than last is that they made the absolute right choice at quarterback.\u00a0 It’s a small consolation for a playoff favorite that lost 10 games this year, but it is a consolation.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/u>Not only did the Bears miss the playoffs by a half-game, but their fans can look back on a season of near misses that could depress them more than the Chicago winter.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone will remember the loss in Week 17 against the Texans that would have put the Bears in the playoffs.\u00a0 But,\u00a0if they had won one more\u00a0game earlier in the season, they would not have needed that win.\u00a0 And, it is heartbreaking to look back at some of the earlier games\u00a0this season.\u00a0 Week 2: Carolina scores the game-winning TD with less than 4 minutes left in the game, Bears lose 20-17.\u00a0 Week 3: In Chicago, Tampa Bay makes up a 10-point deficit with less than 6 to go, including a game-tying touchdown on the last play of regulation, and then wins in OT, 27-24.\u00a0 Week 6: Jason Elam kicks a 48-yard field goal as time expires to lift the Falcons over the Bears, 22-20<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/u>All things considered, it’s hard to complain if you’re a Patriots fan, especially after your team loses its franchise quarterback, puts in a guy who hadn’t started a game since high school, and they finish 11-5.\u00a0 But, just the sheer fact that they went 11-5\u00a0and have to watch the 8-8 Chargers host <\/em>a playoff game has got to be incredibly frustrating for New Englanders.\u00a0 But, like I said, I have no sympathy.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>If they had gone 1-15, they probably would have been around #15 or #16 on this list, but they didn’t.\u00a0 They went 0-16.\u00a0 There is no future and certainly no present.\u00a0 This team is really bad and, unless massive changes are made, will remain so for a long time.\u00a0 What does it say, though, that I believe that there are four sets of fans around the league that would rather have invested their time and emotion in the 0-16 Detroit Lions this year than their own teams?\u00a0 FOUR!!!<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>The poster children this year for the fact that underachieving hurts a team’s fans more than straight-up losing.\u00a0 So, putting them ahead of Detroit was easy.\u00a0 In fact, when I first considered doing this, they were the first team that came to mind.\u00a0 They have some excuses for the 9-7 season (injuries, distractions, etc.), but it doesn’t make it any easier.\u00a0 Plus, you throw in the way the lost down the stretch–the fourth-quarter meltdown in Pittsburgh, losing the last game in Texas Stadium, and the shellacking that the Eagles put on them, with the playoffs on the line–and you’ve got disappointment galore.\u00a0 And, we haven’t even mentioned the question marks surrounding this core going into the offseason–can Romo win a big game (one that I think is overdone, but does have legs)?\u00a0\u00a0Will TO sabotage yet another team\/QB?\u00a0 Is Wade Phillips really the answer at head coach?\u00a0 What happened to the “genius” of Jason Garrett?\u00a0 Was Roy Williams worth the draft picks?\u00a0 Can this team possibly function with all the malcontents and disruptive forces?\u00a0 Sounds frustrating…<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>Hahaha.\u00a0 I don’t hate the Jets.\u00a0 I actually respect Jet fans (mostly just because they live in New York and choose not to root for the Giants).\u00a0 But, I do hate Brett Favre.\u00a0 And, I do find this season absolutely hysterical.\u00a0 And, hysterical in a way that cannot be good for the fans.\u00a0 They start out so hot.\u00a0 There is all this talk about a “Subway Super Bowl,” (which is ridiculous because both teams play in Jersey).\u00a0 And, then 20 interceptions later and this team has absolutely punished its already defeated fans yet again.\u00a0 And, to make matters worse, now they have to sit through an entire offseason of Favre Indecision 2009.<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>The biggest 3-game collapse in the history of the NFL.\u00a0 No team has had a 3-game lead with three and not won the division.\u00a0 After Week 13, the Chargers were in second place at 4-8.\u00a0 How could the Broncos not <\/em>win this division?\u00a0 I’ll tell you how–they lost three straight potential clinchers, including a home game against the Buffalo Bills.\u00a0 And, the Chargers won four straight–including a Week 15 miracle against the Chiefs, where they trailed by 13 late in the fourth, before scoring a TD, recovering the onside kick, and scoring another touchdown to win.\u00a0 Then, the next week, the Chargers\u00a0flew 3,000 miles into Tampa Bay, against a Bucs team that needed the win and took that game too.\u00a0 Finally, San Diego put the final nail in the coffin of the Broncos (and their seemingly invincible coach–and Delta Sigma Phi brother–Mike Shanahan) themselves, with a 52-21 win in a winner-take-all game in Week 17.\u00a0 The only reason that this is not the most frustrating team to its fans this season is because, well, they are not really very good, so how upset can the fans be?\u00a0 Right?<\/p>\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>When the Bucs beat the New Orleans Saints one month ago yesterday, they were 9-3, in first place in the NFC South, and the talk was all about how unfair it is going to be if the Bucs make the Super Bowl and get to play in their home stadium.\u00a0 Their three losses were all on the road and all against teams that were expected to be among the leagues best (New Orleans, Dallas, and Denver).\u00a0 Their defense was being compared to the defense that won them the Super Bowl in 2002, and their offense had scored 110 points (27.5 average) in the last four games.\u00a0 The only question was whether or not they could hang on to a first-round bye.\u00a0 The fans were happy.\u00a0 Then the Bucs lost back-to-back road games against Carolina and Atlanta (in overtime), but still found themselves in good position, especially with the tiebreaker scenarios, and in GREAT position with the schedule.\u00a0 Going into Week 16, there had been eighteen games where a west coast team traveled to the eastern time zone.\u00a0 Only one of these teams had won.\u00a0 And, the Bucs finished with home games (in the eastern time zone) against the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders.\u00a0 Two wins would clinch at least a\u00a0wild card spot, if not the division title.\u00a0 Well, it looked good against San Diego, as they had a 24-20 lead going into the 4th quarter.\u00a0 But, they gave up three unanswered touchdowns and lost 41-24.\u00a0 Still, though, it looked like they were catching all the breaks, as the Eagles lost to the Redskins (and eventually beat the Cowboys), meaning that, again, all Tampa had to do was beat a West Coast team, at home, and they would have been in the playoffs.\u00a0 And, this was a very bad West Coast team–the Oakland Raiders.\u00a0 The Bucs were two touchdown underdogs and were, again, leading late.\u00a0 They had a 24-14 lead late in the third quarter.\u00a0 Then, in the fourth, they were up 24-21, with ball on the Oakland 33 yard line.\u00a0 Their drive stalled and they turned it over on downs.\u00a0 The very next play, Michael Bush ran for a 67-yard touchdown to put the Raiders ahead.\u00a0 The very next play after that, Garcia threw an interception and the rest is history.\u00a0 The Bucs lost four in a row to close the season, including two at home, in games that they had no business losing (one to Coach Gruden’s old team, the Raiders).\u00a0 And, if that isn’t bad enough, their best running back, Cadillac Williams tore up his knee in the fourth quarter of the Raiders game, and their legendary defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, is leaving the team to join his son’s coaching staff at the University of Tennessee.\u00a0 The only silver lining in this whole story is that it happened to Tampa Bay and I hate <\/em>them so much because of the 2002 NFC Championship Game.\u00a0 But, either way, I’m sure that all 17 Buc fans are completely miserable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"