The 22 Worst Groups within the Historical past of Sports activities

There’s one thing sports fans care about above anything else: athletic excellence.

They enjoy watching the best players compete at the highest level. Sometimes, however, the opposite happens. Historic futility can take shape when a mismanaged roster of underachievers gives up on each other, and onlookers make fun of the worst teams in sports history.

The worst of the worst are fascinating to remember and hilarious to experience in the moment! Unless, of course, you’re a fan of those teams.

1. 2008 Detroit Lions (0-16 record)

The worst team in NFL history, the 2008 Detroit Lions, didn’t win a single game, even with Calvin Johnson starring as wide receiver. The Lions are often the laughingstock of the NFL and professional sports, so it’s no shock that they take the crown of infamy here.

At least this dismal season allowed them to draft franchise icon Matthew Stafford the following spring.

Today, the Detroit Lions are, believe it or not, a model franchise that just appeared in the NFC Championship game. The future is bright in Detroit!

2. 1973 Philadelphia 76ers (9-73 record)

The 1973 Philadelphia 76ers show how far a team can drop when they don’t know how to follow up immense success.

The Sixers won the 1967 championship with Wilt Chamberlain and Hal Greer leading the way. Still, with Chamberlain long gone and Greer averaging a mere five points per game in his twilight, Philadelphia hobbled to the worst record in basketball history.

3. 1962 New York Mets (40-120 record)

The New York Mets have always been viewed as somewhat of a little brother to the Yankees, and a huge reason for this was their maiden season in 1962.

The expansion Mets stumbled out of the gate and set a poor precedent during the 1960s, but the team was able to crawl out of the hole and win the 1969 World Series just seven years later.

4. 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134 record)

The Cleveland Spiders performed so abysmally during the final year of the 19th century that the franchise went extinct afterward. The Spiders got rid of Hall-of-Famer Cy Young the season before this, contributing to their lack of talent on the diamond in 1899.

The city of Cleveland would have to wait until 1920 to see a World Series when the Indians brought home the hardware.

5. 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-14 record)

Like most expansion teams, the Tampa Bay Bucs were on the wrong side of history during their 1976 season. The team entered the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks (who went 2-12) and struggled to even put the ball in the endzone on a game-by-game basis.

Tampa would be surpassed in futility by the Detroit Lions when that franchise lost all 16 games in 2008.

6. 1975 Washington Capitals (8-67-5 record)

The first season in Washington Capitals history yielded the worst record in franchise and NHL history. The team gave up more goals than any other in hockey lore and continued to struggle in the following seasons.

The Capitals had a winning record for the first time in 1983. Today, they are a far more successful franchise thanks to NHL superstar Alexander Ovechkin. They would win the Stanley Cup in 2018 for the first time in franchise history.

7. 1993 Dallas Mavericks (11-71 record)

The Dallas Mavericks have been a symbol of consistency since billionaire Mark Cuban bought the team, but the franchise hardly knew how to put out a winning product in the 1990s. The pinnacle of misery came in 1993 when the Mavs won 11 games, and 13 victories followed that season in 1994.

Don’t worry, Mavs fans; the misery would all be worth it. Following the 1994 season, they would win three division titles (2007, 2010, 2021), take home two conference championships (2006, 2011), and defeat the Lebron James-led Miami Heat to become NBA champions in 2011.

8. 2016 Philadelphia 76ers (10-72 record)

The general manager of the Sixers, Sam Hinkie, wanted fans to “Trust the Process” as the team intentionally lost games during the mid-2010s. With enough tanking, Philly believed they would build a dynasty through the draft.

The franchise has relied on superstar Joel Embiid in the last half-decade, and they’ve made many playoff appearances, but no titles have come from the “Process.”

9. 2012 Charlotte Bobcats (7-59 record)

Charlotte consistently struggled to put out a decent team after they were granted an expansion franchise in 2004, and the low point of their destruction came during the lockout season in 2012. Charlotte benefited from only having to play 66 games, but they’ve continued embarrassing themselves in the decade since.

They have since ditched the Bobcats name and returned the old-school Hornets logo, but it didn’t bring them long-term success. The team has made only two playoff appearances after this terrible run.

10. 2024 Detroit Pistons (10-53 as of this writing)

The Detroit Pistons broke the record for most consecutive losses in a single season in basketball history (26 by the 2014 Sixers and the 2011 Cavaliers). With Monty Williams in his first year as the head coach and talented players like Cade Cunningham on the court, it boggles fans’ minds why MoTown can’t get a single victory in the last two months.

While there has been some improvement as the season progresses, they’re still dreadfully bad and are showing little signs of improvement.

11. 1990 New England Patriots (1-15 record)

The Patriots are now known for their legendary Super Bowl teams in the 2000s and 2010s, but the 1990 iteration reminds people of how lowly New England was before Tom Brady and Bill Belichick took over.

This version of the Pats lost 14 games in a row at one point and remains the worst team in franchise history. The team was so bad that plans for them to move out of Foxboro were in place not once but twice! Once to St. Louis and another to Hartford. None of those took fruition, however. Robert Kraft would buy the team in 1994, and the rest was history.

12. 1993 San Jose Sharks (11-71-2 record)

When discussing the worst team in NHL history, the 1993 San Jose Sharks certainly gave the 1975 Washington Capitals a run for their money. Unlike most other teams, the Sharks got worse in their second season in franchise history, dropping 13 more matches and losing a record 17 in a row.

The team would finally see sustained success in the 2000s and 2010s, but times are tough once again for San Jose. At the time of this writing, they are tied for the worst record in the league for the 2023-2024 NHL season.

13. 2013 Houston Astros (51-111 record)

In the early 2010s, the Houston Astros were one of the first baseball teams to not-so-secretly tank for better prospects, and it worked tremendously. The 2013 team won about a third of their games, but they eventually incorporated star players like George Springer and traded for Justin Verlander.

Houston’s strategy of purposefully tanking seems unethical, but it resulted in championships in 2017 and 2022.

14. 1955 Alabama Crimson Tide (0-10 record)

The Alabama Crimson Tide went winless in 1955, which would be unfathomable in the 2020s.

College football’s most successful program of late didn’t always know how to win until Bear Bryant was hired just three years after this terrible year and turned the team into the powerhouse we know today.

15. 1944 Chicago-Pittsburgh Cardinal-Steelers (0-10 record)

Some of the funniest stories in sports happened because of World War II. The Chicago Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers combined to make one total team of terrible players, while the best ones went off to fight in the war.

It may sound foreign today, but military service was required of young people back in the 1940s.

16. 2023 Toronto FC (4-20 record)

Toronto has been struggling for a while now in the MLS, and the 2023 campaign symbolized rock bottom for the Canadian strikers.

Toronto possessed only 22 points when the season ended, and the franchise has no improvement in sight.

17. 2011 Tulsa Shock (3-31 record)

The Tulsa Shock were still reeling after relocating from Detroit at the start of the 2009 WNBA season.

Great players like Cheryl Ford no longer appeared on the roster, and a lack of leadership led to the worst record in the history of women’s professional basketball.

18. 2018 Baltimore Orioles (47-115 record)

The Baltimore Orioles are another recent MLB team that has capitalized on the misery of past seasons to catapult into contender status. The O’s got rid of many quality players like Manny Machado and Kevin Gausman in an attempt to become as bad as possible.

The dark before the dawn certainly seems to have worked so far. The team went 101-61 in 2023 and is primed for another successful season in 2024.

20. 2011 Cleveland Cavaliers (19-63 record)

The Cleveland Cavaliers relied solely on LeBron James to lift them year after year during the 2000s. When he took his talents to South Beach, the void turned into a black hole in Ohio.

The Cavs lost 26 games in a row and had no idea how to sustain a reputable product without their franchise icon—the season led to them drafting Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, two much-needed pieces that won them the 2016 title when James returned.

21. 1973 Houston Oilers (1-13 record)

Before the days of Warren Moon (pictured above), the Houston Oilers were the epitome of lousy coaching and poor player development during the 1970s.

The team won a single game and gave up nearly 32 points per game. Anyone and their mother could and would move the ball up the field on the Houston Oilers.

22. 1991 Indianapolis Colts (1-15 record)

The Indianapolis Colts have benefited from quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck in the 21st century, but they deserved those superstars after seasons like this one in 1991. They were still fresh off their overnight move from Baltimore to Indianapolis, but the team wasn’t seeing any on-the-field success.

Their single victory season showed how far they had to go before becoming relevant in the AFC. Good times were coming; Colts fans just had to be patient.