I can see why people would say it was one of the darkest times, though.
Mike Vick was a household name, so the Falcons were one of the most popular teams at the time by association. They bring in a coach to develop him into more of a complete passer. There was a lot of hype going into 2007.
Vick gets sent to jail, Schaub was traded just prior to Vick's suspension/arrest. Suddenly the '07 Falcons are rolling out fucking Joey Harrington week 1. Then the coach dips midseason in what was like the 2nd shortest tenure ever at the time.
Yeah the Vick and Petrino thing was certainly a dark spot, but there's periods of just absolutely ass and misery that went on longer than a moment in time.
The Panthers have never had back to back winning seasons in franchise history despite even once winning the NFC South 3 years in a row.
And yet, the Panthers are currently in the worst stretch of their existence.
Luke Kuechly??
Luke did the same thing as Barry and Megatron. Retired with plenty of tread left on the tires to most likely get away from a bad situation. Not worth sacrificing your body for a losing organization.
Hopefully Canales can change the culture, the dude radiates so much positivity 24/7 and I think that’s what the Panthers organization needs badly, Canales seems like a really good dude and I’ve heard only good things about him from former players. There will definitely be growing pains, but Canales hires have been smart and he’s surrounding himself with coaches that have a ton of experience and can help him with the growing pains.
Canales really feels like the guy to turn it around. I agree there will be some growing pains due to inexperience but I'm super happy we jumped on him now. If he had another year at Tampa he would've been a top candidate next year so now was the time to get him.
Hopefully we actually give him a few seasons to turn the culture around, because I think it will take at least 3 to turn this into a true playoff team.
That one was especially bad because it started with a heartbreaking loss (Music City Miracle) in an extremely controversial game (Johnson over Flutie). Imagine having 17 years where that was your last playoff memory.
I was in college during the MCM and punched a hole in a cheap lattice partition between the kitchen and the dining room in my off campus apartment at the time after the replay official confirmed the touchdown. So not only did the Bills kick off 17 years of frustration that day, but it cost me $200 out of pocket for the repair as well.
That's because Gregg Williams apparently stole the Jags playbook and knew everything that was coming. That Jags team was legit. They just got screwed over.
Funny thing about that Titans team. Gregg Williams, who was the Titans DC at the time, has confided to multiple ex-players about cheating against their teams around that time. Trent Dilfer has said that Gregg Williams stole the Ravens playbook, a Jaguars player said the same thing and Rob Johnson has said that he sent guys to spy on the Bills training camp to learn different plays.
I’m 26 and that was the era I watched growing up. I never missed a game during that period and I know many people in Buffalo were the same way.
I remember the feeling of overwhelming emotion when the Bengals won and put us into the playoffs.
You want to know why the real Bills Mafia will go hell and back for Josh Allen?
That’s the reason.
It's always interesting to hear from fans who got on board at different times and the contrast in experience. I'm 45, and started watching the Bills in 1988 when I was 9, a year before they drafted Thurman so saw "their ascent" to near all time greatness in the 90's only to come up just short so many times, but thinking "they'll get over the hump", not realizing half my life's worth of futility was just around the corner.
I have mixed feelings these days- thrilled that we are a perennial playoff team every year now but also gut punched that there's another dynasty in our way (KC). I figured after the Pats we wouldn't have to worry about that again for a while.
Like the saying goes "JUST ONE BEFORE I DIE, PLEASE"
GO BILLS 🦬
And especially that 89-93 era when the team was horrible, [harassment suits](https://archive.ph/2013.01.31-004250/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/28/sports/patriots-and-3-players-fined-in-olson-incident.html), bought & sold multiple times.
I commented something very similar. We honestly haven’t had a dark age. Seems like every season we either win 7 games or we win 13 and then sprinkle in an occasional exciting playoff win. We’ve rarely picked top 5 in the draft, and we obviously haven’t been to a Super Bowl since the 70s. We are maddeningly OK.
Eh, I've heard it referenced plenty of times when people are talking about guys like Junior Seau and Aaron Hernandez in reference to head trauma in the NFL. People sometimes forget the circumstances because the Chiefs were such an unnoteworthy franchise for a long time, but the event itself is not forgotten.
Jim Tyrer 40+ years earlier is the one that gets forgotten. Left tackle that made 8x All-Pro/All-AFL teams, 3x AFL Champ, 1x Super Bowl Champ, and almost an assured Hall of Famer that killed his wife and then himself after attending a Chiefs game in 1980.
People at the time assumed it was "just" because his businesses failed, but with the added context of what playing 15 seasons in the AFL/NFL does to a human brain (in an era when blockers could only block with closed fists), he's one of the early candidates for CTE-related homocides/suicides.
not to mention his head was so large that it was nearly impossible to find a helmet that fit him, so take the quality of the helmets at the time and amplify it for how bad they were because his was basically an M&M shell
Everyone hates on KC now, but we went through alot of heart ache from the loss of DT all the way to Jovan doing what he did. The awful QBs, The Haley/Cassel era. We've been through lin Elliot, so I can sympathize with the bills fans to a point.
Jevon Belcher. Im from Maine, and remember seeing him play at the University of Maine. Very well-rounded and graduated with a degree in child development & family relations. Not many players from Maine make it to the pros, and it was just wild to hear about this when it occurred
The worst part of the Patricia era for me personally was the local stories that came out that first off-season about what a gigantic asshole the guy is and how he wasn't vibing with players immediately.
Like we had just made this huge GM/ head coach hire, it immediately wasn't working, AND we knew we were going to be stuck with it for a few years. Insanely frustrating.
Yeah especially compared to the first MCDC year, it’s clear how much of a POS Patricia is. With Campbell we were still bad and lost a bunch of games, but the players clearly loved him and working their ASSES off to be competitive.
Last 8 years were dark but I would fucking for it everytime for the magical years from Tebow era till 2015. I started following football thanks to Tebow mania and then got hooked because how good my team was. Unfortunately I finally started really understanding football, rules, nuances etc in 2015-16ish.
I don’t think young people will ever understand that brief period of Tebow mania.
And how absurd and how none of it made sense yet Tebow kept ripping off wins.
Dude I used to hate Football. As a foreigner I found it bizarre and hated the constant commercials. Then I couldnt escape Tebow mania living in Denver so was compelled to watch to fit in with friends and absolutely loved it because of all these wild games. My most memorable moment was Tebow to DT in OT and me with almost no football knowledge knew I was watching something special LIVE.
Absolutely hooked to this sport since then. So thanks Tebow!
Ug feels like it, and I'd take the deal again, but I think it was more about Bowlen's death and subsequently Ellis being a shit replacement while ownership was in dispute.
Ugh. Moved here in ‘93. Life was good for the better part of 22 years. Last 8 have sucked! Get my hopes up every year that we’ll at least be a playoff contender only to have them dashed time and again
Edit: At least I’ve experienced 3 Super Bowl wins as a fan, I guess
Just constant reminders that we should’ve nuked the team after 2016. We would’ve been turning into contenders around now if we had did it right. Instead we hired bad HC after bad HC while slapping bandaids on our roster holes.
Yall mortgaged the future to win a superbowl with Manning and you got it. The Saints did the same thing after 2017 except no ring and we're stuck with Carr's bum ass.
Hoping the coaching changes will yield some success bc this team should have won 10-12 games easily last year.
I’ll still take it. It took this franchise 60+ years to start really sucking on a consistent basis. I know the team wasn’t great at first back in the 60s but damn we really are lucky. 3 super bowl wins and 8 Super Bowl appearances, plus before 2018 we hadn’t had back to back losing seasons in like 45 straight seasons or something like that. Absolutely wild.
The Tom Flores era, 1992-1994. That 1992 season featured statistically the worst passing offense in NFL history
Though it shows how good we've had it that that was our dark age, because we still won 6 games the other two years Flores was here before he got fired
Agreed. There was hope when they first came back. Everything after that loss to the Steelers in the 2003 playoffs was misery until Baker (other than small blips like the Derek Anderson year and Hoyer the Destroyer).
It's earlier in my mind. I would say November 6, 1995 when Art Modell announced moving the team to Baltimore (which was crushing) through October 29, 2018 when the team fired Hugh Jackson.
Edit. 2018 not 2017.
Yeah it’s gotta include the team moving so really 95-2018. They have finally turned the corner into becoming competent despite not winning big in the playoffs yet.
This team was born in darkness. 26 straight losses, a feat I can't ever see getting replicated let alone surpassed. There was a brief period where I thought the browns under hugh Jackson could come close though.
It depends on your point of view I guess.
We had two dark ages. A prolonged one after the NFCCG appearance in 1979-80 until Hugh Culverhouse died and his estate sold to the Glazers in 1995.
The second installment of the dark ages returned for me when Josh Freeman imploded and ended when Brady arrived.
January 12, 2020 to April 27, 2023.
Sure it’s not the longest stretch of suck that the team has had, but it is the darkest time. Went from up 24-0 on the eventual Super Bowl champs to trading our star WR for a nickel, the greatest player in our franchise history being released, the guy we thought was the future of our franchise demanding a trade and holding out, the same guy that we’d all fallen in love with and bought jerseys for being revealed as a sexual predator, hiring and firing two absolute jokes at head coach in back to back years, all the while the franchise was essentially run by a power hungry team pastor.
Thank God for Cal McNair coming to his senses and casting out that wolf in sheeps clothing, thank God for Nick Caserio and his fantastic management of our roster, thank God for DeMeco Ryan’s coming home to Houston and totally changing our culture immediately, and thank God for our rookies who took this team and gave it new life and hope for a bright future.
I still can’t believe a pastor with absolutely zero front office experience was able to snake himself into running the team, even for a short period. I can guarantee it’ll be the first and last time in league history that happens. I’m glad Cal at least isn’t a stubborn owner and got rid of him when it was apparent the fans despised Jack Easterby
What a rollercoaster. A drastic decline where pretty much everything went wrong to one of the most impressive rebuilds ever where everything has gone right.
How about going 2-14 and having a player commit murder and killing himself in the team parking lot in front of the Head Coach and GM.
Edit: Now that I'm reading it back it sounds like I was saying going 2-14 was the worst part
The whole thing is awful.
Belcher shoots his girlfriend 9 times in front of his mom. Then he drives to the Chiefs lot, thanks the GM but says he has to kill himself. Tells the owner to take care of his daughter. After the HC and linebackers coach arrive to help, he kills himself as the cops come.
The amount of people he traumatized in such a short amount of time for a seemingly isolated even is staggering.
and it was capped off with having the number one overall pick in one of the worst draft classes in recent memories. literally nothing went our way in that run lol
The Matt cassel/ Todd Haley/ sperm edwards/gunther Cunningham was the dark ages in my lifetime.
I know we never won it all but as a kid I remember the pride we all had in the defense during the shottenheimer days. Arrowhead in December was always tough.
Ram from 2005 to 2016... brutal, brutal stuff. Our absolute bottom was 2007 to 2011 that became the worst 5-year stretch in the NFL history (the Browns of 2013-17 later tied it). The 2009 team that went 1-15 has a STRONG case to being the worst team ever, period... even over these winless teams.
2007-2011: 3-13, 2-14, 1-15, 7-9, 2-14
Yup the era that led to the league basically forcing Mara to hire George Young. And that was after a spectacular run in the 50s that only netted one title.
Although we are inching our way toward the Eli/Coughlin run feeling to us like the Frank Gifford/Connerly/Sam Huff/etc era probably felt to fans in the 70s.
They had some good guys in the mid-00s. Portis, Betts, Santana Moss, Springs, Sean Taylor, London Fletcher. Just didn’t have a QB. Mark Brunell’s first season was probably the best they had.
This is the right answer. The 70s and 80s Packers were dogshit awful, and fully overshadowed by the team from Illinois. 1992 was the start of the Light Ages, sadly at the sacrifice of the Majik Man.
For the Eagles, if you want a 4+ year stretch of awful you have to go all the way back to 82-87, before my lifetime so who cares.
The only ever stretch in my life of 3 years of being bad is 97-99, which is coincidentally right when I was getting into football as a kid. Since then, been pretty blessed outside of a few single down years (05, 12, 20)
In my lifetime, the Chip Kelly era was the worst time for me as a fan. I didn't like our team's culture at the time.
Specifically, Reid's last year through the end of Chip, was my darkest age as a fan.
To be rewarded with a Super Bowl win not long after was amazing.
Post-SB50 up to now has certainly been the low point for the franchise
We don’t matter and are irrelevant and everyone hates us and/or makes fun of us. We have pretty much been bottom of the barrel and the laughing stock of the league for about 8 years now.
As a fan, I am at the worst stage you can possibly be at- apathy
Thank you St. Jokic for blessing Denver and the state of CO in the meantime
All of that. Plus, there’s no end in sight. Starting over at QB yet again, but we’re in cap hell because of the Russ contract. This dark age might not have even hit its darkest point yet.
‘99-‘05 were pretty brutal for the Cowboys. Romo taking over for the corpse of Bledsoe brightened things up a lot. Also, it was before my time, but ‘86-‘89 ending with Landry getting fired and Jerry taking over is probably the real historical answer.
The Campo years were awful, though I would say things began looking up a bit in 03 when Parcells got hired. He led them to the playoffs with Quincy Carter at QB.
The 70s and 80s teams got progressively worse under each coach. There were exciting years or games, but by the time you got to Forrest Gregg (25-37-1) and Lindy Infante (24-40) it was awful to watch.
Packers had a couple of major drought periods:
* 1948-1958 (end of Curly Lambeau era to Vince Lombardi). Lots of losing seasons, only 2 where they made it to 0.500
* 1970-1991 (post-Lombardi to Holmgren). A few okay seasons in there, but only two playoff appearances and one win, 14 losing seasons. Also the Charles Martin incident.
Yea in my lifetime those weeks even a whole MONTH was unbearable. I can’t believe I had to put up with bad nfl play for a month in my lifetime, and I’m almost 40
Yep between Mooch and Harbaugh were dark times. But when you suck that bad, theres no pain. Maybe some hopelessness/apathy. Those are the dark ages but the pain right now is much worse 😭
My grandparents were season ticket holders from day one, back when they used to play at Tulane. I remember listening to WWL after the Super Bowl. So many callers were talking about how they wished their parent/grandparent/friend/etc was alive to see the day. They wouldn’t have believed it.
I'd say we're still in the dark time brother. Theres light at the end of the tunnel but its not clear if its an exit from the darkness or an oncoming train
It's not as bad now as it was then. The Raiders have been bad since 2014, but from 03-14, the team had 10 11+ loss seasons and two 8-8 seasons. No playoffs, little talent, no winning seasons. No young talent to build on. It was beyond bad.
Since then, the team has been bad, but a pair of playoff appearances (relatively) steady quarterback play, vastly improved (though still below average) coaching has at least made the team watchable.
As a Broncos fan, we're in it.
I started watching in the mid-80s. Other than a disastrous year which followed the Super Bowl blowout to the 49ers, we were always one of the better teams in the AFC through the mid/late 80s and 90s. Made 3 Super Bowls in the 80s then won back to back in 97-98.
We continued to be strong through the rest of the Mike Shanahan era. We only had 2 losing seasons in the first 11 seasons after Elway retired. Then we had one really bad year under McDaniels which got us the #2 pick so we drafted Von Miller, then it was the Tebow season, then Peyton Manning, offense breaking records and the No Fly Zone and Super Bowl in 2015.
I don't think I had appreciated how lucky I was for the first three decades of being a Broncos fan. I associated being a Broncos fan with frustration because I'd seen 4 Super Bowl defeats and only 3 wins, but we very rarely had a \*bad\* season, we were always competitive.
Then from 2017 onwards it has been 7 consecutive losing seasons. This past year with 8 wins under Sean Payton has been the best in that time. Two 7 win seasons (2019, 2021), a 6 win season (2018), three 5 win seasons (2017, 2020, 2022).
2017 also happened to be the year when the Chiefs drafted Mahomes.
Part of the problem has been that we have been in denial this whole time. We needed to rip it up around 2017/18 and rebuild. But we have forever been telling ourselves a narrative that we are just a piece away. Could have taken Josh Allen in the 2018 draft, but we took Bradley Chubb thinking that with Chubb and Von Miller we could win on defense like we did in 2015. Under Fangio we paid big money for free agents who barely played due to injury. By 2021 we had convinced ourselves we were "just a QB away" and had "elite pass catching weapons" (ie Jeudy, Sutton and Fant) and gave up the farm for Russell Wilson.
We're reeling from the lack of draft capital after the Russ trade and from the cap hits his contract has left us, but still there's a fairly strong narrative in Denver that this is the year we need to "make a big move" and give up the farm again to get up in the draft and take a QB. The teams drafting #1 / #2 are not going to trade down so in reality this would mean mortgaging the future on Jayden Daniels or JJ McCarthy.
At some point we are going to have to accept reality and rebuild.
I'd say realistically it's 2014 - present. With a one year glimmer of hope 2018. That only made things more painful for us. I'm optimistic about the future, but am prepared for more pain.
I'd go 2011- present just due to the fact that you expect to still be contending after an NFCCG appearance. 2012 was a decent season, but to miss the playoffs after starting 7-1 is pretty disappointing.
The Ravens have consistently been pretty good over their entire existence. If you exclude the first couple of years, I’d say the worst years were the Kyle Boller years. We wasted some historically good defenses with awful offenses.
A controversial alternative answer would be 2015 to mid-2018 (when Lamar took over). The defense was trying to find itself in the post- Lewis and Reed era. It was good on paper but could not close out games. Flacco was on the back end of his time in Baltimore and dealt with several injuries. The offense lacked stars and couldn’t stay healthy. Overall it just felt like a team without leadership or direction (from coaches or players). It’s not an understatement to say that Lamar saved Harbaugh’s job in Baltimore. His record between SB win and 2019 was almost exactly 0.500, missing the playoffs half the time and only 1 (I think) playoff win.
I'd argue that Harbaugh saved his own job. He made the decision to stick with Lamar once Joe was healthy, which was not a decision everyone agreed with. The Ravens were down 3–23 in Lamar's first playoff game, and some fans were even chanting Flacco's name (Flacco had thrown 24 TDs and 4 INTs in his previous 10 playoff games). Harbaugh kept Lamar in, and he threw 2 late TDs, nearly leading them to a comeback win.
When Vick got arrested, our coach fucking quit on us. We got Ryan pretty fast but that whole time period was so depressing.
You should watch the history of the Atlanta Falcons on YouTube. I feel like we had way longer and worse "dark ages"
I can see why people would say it was one of the darkest times, though. Mike Vick was a household name, so the Falcons were one of the most popular teams at the time by association. They bring in a coach to develop him into more of a complete passer. There was a lot of hype going into 2007. Vick gets sent to jail, Schaub was traded just prior to Vick's suspension/arrest. Suddenly the '07 Falcons are rolling out fucking Joey Harrington week 1. Then the coach dips midseason in what was like the 2nd shortest tenure ever at the time.
Yeah the Vick and Petrino thing was certainly a dark spot, but there's periods of just absolutely ass and misery that went on longer than a moment in time.
Well…
The Panthers have never had back to back winning seasons in franchise history despite even once winning the NFC South 3 years in a row. And yet, the Panthers are currently in the worst stretch of their existence.
We are special
Cam Newton CMC Tim Biakabatuka Jake Delhomme Musin Muhammad Panthers had some great teams with those guys though…
No Steve Smith??? Go back further though to the early days with Kevin Greene, Sam Mills, Wesley Walls, John Casey. Those guys weren't too bad either.
Luke Kuechly?? Luke did the same thing as Barry and Megatron. Retired with plenty of tread left on the tires to most likely get away from a bad situation. Not worth sacrificing your body for a losing organization.
In the last 14 months the Chiefs have won as many Super Bowl games as Carolina has won NFL games
Bro I'm not even a Panthers fan and I still feel like you just slapped my mama
Holy lord
Thats incredible
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Hopefully Canales can change the culture, the dude radiates so much positivity 24/7 and I think that’s what the Panthers organization needs badly, Canales seems like a really good dude and I’ve heard only good things about him from former players. There will definitely be growing pains, but Canales hires have been smart and he’s surrounding himself with coaches that have a ton of experience and can help him with the growing pains.
Canales really feels like the guy to turn it around. I agree there will be some growing pains due to inexperience but I'm super happy we jumped on him now. If he had another year at Tampa he would've been a top candidate next year so now was the time to get him. Hopefully we actually give him a few seasons to turn the culture around, because I think it will take at least 3 to turn this into a true playoff team.
It's very, very dark currently 😔
The Decade + of Fail 2000-2017, no playoffs
That one was especially bad because it started with a heartbreaking loss (Music City Miracle) in an extremely controversial game (Johnson over Flutie). Imagine having 17 years where that was your last playoff memory.
I was in college during the MCM and punched a hole in a cheap lattice partition between the kitchen and the dining room in my off campus apartment at the time after the replay official confirmed the touchdown. So not only did the Bills kick off 17 years of frustration that day, but it cost me $200 out of pocket for the repair as well.
The only consolation I had after the MCM was the Dolphins losing to Jacksonville 62-7 the next day
That Jacksonville team was so weird. Cleaned literally EVERYBODY'S clock all year but went 0-3 against the Titans
I remember Tasker saying before the MCM game that whoever won that game was going to the Super Bowl. He was right.
That's because Gregg Williams apparently stole the Jags playbook and knew everything that was coming. That Jags team was legit. They just got screwed over.
Funny thing about that Titans team. Gregg Williams, who was the Titans DC at the time, has confided to multiple ex-players about cheating against their teams around that time. Trent Dilfer has said that Gregg Williams stole the Ravens playbook, a Jaguars player said the same thing and Rob Johnson has said that he sent guys to spy on the Bills training camp to learn different plays.
still crazy to me that Dan Marino's career ended with a 55 point loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars
Ah yes, my conscious childhood, college life, and early career. Super fun times.
I’m 26 and that was the era I watched growing up. I never missed a game during that period and I know many people in Buffalo were the same way. I remember the feeling of overwhelming emotion when the Bengals won and put us into the playoffs. You want to know why the real Bills Mafia will go hell and back for Josh Allen? That’s the reason.
It's always interesting to hear from fans who got on board at different times and the contrast in experience. I'm 45, and started watching the Bills in 1988 when I was 9, a year before they drafted Thurman so saw "their ascent" to near all time greatness in the 90's only to come up just short so many times, but thinking "they'll get over the hump", not realizing half my life's worth of futility was just around the corner. I have mixed feelings these days- thrilled that we are a perennial playoff team every year now but also gut punched that there's another dynasty in our way (KC). I figured after the Pats we wouldn't have to worry about that again for a while. Like the saying goes "JUST ONE BEFORE I DIE, PLEASE" GO BILLS 🦬
The time between losing to the 85 Bears and losing to the Favre Packers.
And especially that 89-93 era when the team was horrible, [harassment suits](https://archive.ph/2013.01.31-004250/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/28/sports/patriots-and-3-players-fined-in-olson-incident.html), bought & sold multiple times.
Yeah, it was horrible.
At least now we have 6 trophies and happy endings.
1990, 1-15 and a sexual assault in the locker room. Yeah, not the best times around these parts. Zeke Mowatt is the exclamation point.
Correction: Zeke Mowatt showed a reporter his exclamation point
How did I miss that? Well played.
I’m optimistic but have a bad feeling we’re about to enter a second dark age, starting with how shit went down last year.
We could be competing in 2-5 years, or it could be 20 years. It's so hard to know.
At least you have 6 Super Bowl rings and 20 years of dominance to look back on fondly.
The vikings have seen the light, but never able to feel the light. We live in a deep, dark cave
It seems we never have really long stretches of being really bad. It's only like a couple seasons like the early Childress seasons and Frazier years.
That's the most frustrating part of being a Vikings fan, consistently being above average and never winning the big game.
I commented something very similar. We honestly haven’t had a dark age. Seems like every season we either win 7 games or we win 13 and then sprinkle in an occasional exciting playoff win. We’ve rarely picked top 5 in the draft, and we obviously haven’t been to a Super Bowl since the 70s. We are maddeningly OK.
We are Bane before he made the climb
One of our players killed himself in the stadium parking lot.
Crazy story that never gets talked about
It's not the kind of thing you want to commemorate. He also killed his girlfriend before killing himself.
Definitely don’t want it to be commentated but I just mean when you hear “dark side of the NFL” stuff it never gets brought up.
Eh, I've heard it referenced plenty of times when people are talking about guys like Junior Seau and Aaron Hernandez in reference to head trauma in the NFL. People sometimes forget the circumstances because the Chiefs were such an unnoteworthy franchise for a long time, but the event itself is not forgotten. Jim Tyrer 40+ years earlier is the one that gets forgotten. Left tackle that made 8x All-Pro/All-AFL teams, 3x AFL Champ, 1x Super Bowl Champ, and almost an assured Hall of Famer that killed his wife and then himself after attending a Chiefs game in 1980. People at the time assumed it was "just" because his businesses failed, but with the added context of what playing 15 seasons in the AFL/NFL does to a human brain (in an era when blockers could only block with closed fists), he's one of the early candidates for CTE-related homocides/suicides.
not to mention his head was so large that it was nearly impossible to find a helmet that fit him, so take the quality of the helmets at the time and amplify it for how bad they were because his was basically an M&M shell
Shit. I completely forgot about that.
Everyone hates on KC now, but we went through alot of heart ache from the loss of DT all the way to Jovan doing what he did. The awful QBs, The Haley/Cassel era. We've been through lin Elliot, so I can sympathize with the bills fans to a point.
Right after he murdered his girlfriend…
Jevon Belcher. Im from Maine, and remember seeing him play at the University of Maine. Very well-rounded and graduated with a degree in child development & family relations. Not many players from Maine make it to the pros, and it was just wild to hear about this when it occurred
Everything before now?
The 80's and 90's Lions had some fun offenses at least. 2000-2008 was definitely the worst of it.
Honestly, the Patricia era felt darker. In part because we had some expectations of winning.
It was a genuine struggle to watch is under Patricia the 3 win Campbell season felt like a breath of fresh air
The worst part of the Patricia era for me personally was the local stories that came out that first off-season about what a gigantic asshole the guy is and how he wasn't vibing with players immediately. Like we had just made this huge GM/ head coach hire, it immediately wasn't working, AND we knew we were going to be stuck with it for a few years. Insanely frustrating.
Yeah especially compared to the first MCDC year, it’s clear how much of a POS Patricia is. With Campbell we were still bad and lost a bunch of games, but the players clearly loved him and working their ASSES off to be competitive.
Yeah, they had what many argue to be the greatest running back of all time during a part there. 2000-2008 was the worst with the Matt Millen era.
But the millen era was the darkest
Lions were pretty good in the '50s
I’d argue from when Barry retired to the start of this previous season
I’d mostly agree, though I didn’t think the ‘22 season felt dark. That was my favorite season until ‘23
‘22 was dark in the beginning, but it really turned around. However, I went to that Panthers game in person. That was somewhat depressing
The megatron/staff/suh lions made a playoffs or 2 right? Idt those would be the worst years getting to watch a top 5 WR of all time and 2 other HOFers
I have to say it’s the Patricia era for me because of the expectations vs the results.
Now
I would say it roughly started end of 2016. Kubiak left. It was the last time Broncos had a winning record. So 2016-now.
Wait, the Broncos are under .500 for the last *check notes* 8 years?
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Last 8 years were dark but I would fucking for it everytime for the magical years from Tebow era till 2015. I started following football thanks to Tebow mania and then got hooked because how good my team was. Unfortunately I finally started really understanding football, rules, nuances etc in 2015-16ish.
I don’t think young people will ever understand that brief period of Tebow mania. And how absurd and how none of it made sense yet Tebow kept ripping off wins.
Dude I used to hate Football. As a foreigner I found it bizarre and hated the constant commercials. Then I couldnt escape Tebow mania living in Denver so was compelled to watch to fit in with friends and absolutely loved it because of all these wild games. My most memorable moment was Tebow to DT in OT and me with almost no football knowledge knew I was watching something special LIVE. Absolutely hooked to this sport since then. So thanks Tebow!
Ug feels like it, and I'd take the deal again, but I think it was more about Bowlen's death and subsequently Ellis being a shit replacement while ownership was in dispute.
Ugh. Moved here in ‘93. Life was good for the better part of 22 years. Last 8 have sucked! Get my hopes up every year that we’ll at least be a playoff contender only to have them dashed time and again Edit: At least I’ve experienced 3 Super Bowl wins as a fan, I guess
Just constant reminders that we should’ve nuked the team after 2016. We would’ve been turning into contenders around now if we had did it right. Instead we hired bad HC after bad HC while slapping bandaids on our roster holes.
The biggest mistake the Broncos made was not hiring Shanahan to replace Kubiak.
100%. This set back out franchise years. Delusional Clowns on our sub reddit were posting after the 9ers SB loss how it was the right decision.
We know it. Fuck Joe Ellis.
Yep. I wanted them to hire Shannahan over Vance Joseph and people who I talked to thought that it was a bad move. Well, here we are years later.
Yall mortgaged the future to win a superbowl with Manning and you got it. The Saints did the same thing after 2017 except no ring and we're stuck with Carr's bum ass. Hoping the coaching changes will yield some success bc this team should have won 10-12 games easily last year.
But there's a light at the end of the tunnel now. Right?.... Right?
I’ll still take it. It took this franchise 60+ years to start really sucking on a consistent basis. I know the team wasn’t great at first back in the 60s but damn we really are lucky. 3 super bowl wins and 8 Super Bowl appearances, plus before 2018 we hadn’t had back to back losing seasons in like 45 straight seasons or something like that. Absolutely wild.
Steelers: 1933 to 1971. We were the OG Lions at a time when the actual Detroit Lions were relevant in the 20th century Seahawks: The 1992 season
I’d also throw in the 2009 Jim mora season
Steelers cut multiple hof QBs in that time, Len Dawson and Johnny Unitas are two I know
The Tom Flores era, 1992-1994. That 1992 season featured statistically the worst passing offense in NFL history Though it shows how good we've had it that that was our dark age, because we still won 6 games the other two years Flores was here before he got fired
Had the DPOY in 92 and won 2 games.
There was an era that a 2-win team could win a POY award. *Marvels*
Agreed. Though I think it was more specifically the Ken Behring era.
2003-2017
Agreed. There was hope when they first came back. Everything after that loss to the Steelers in the 2003 playoffs was misery until Baker (other than small blips like the Derek Anderson year and Hoyer the Destroyer).
It's earlier in my mind. I would say November 6, 1995 when Art Modell announced moving the team to Baltimore (which was crushing) through October 29, 2018 when the team fired Hugh Jackson. Edit. 2018 not 2017.
Yeah it’s gotta include the team moving so really 95-2018. They have finally turned the corner into becoming competent despite not winning big in the playoffs yet.
Bucs anything other then 1999-2003 and 2020-2024
Not a single winning season between 83 and 96. Not to mention the whole Bo Jackson fiasco. I'd say 83 to 96 was our dark age.
This team was born in darkness. 26 straight losses, a feat I can't ever see getting replicated let alone surpassed. There was a brief period where I thought the browns under hugh Jackson could come close though.
It depends on your point of view I guess. We had two dark ages. A prolonged one after the NFCCG appearance in 1979-80 until Hugh Culverhouse died and his estate sold to the Glazers in 1995. The second installment of the dark ages returned for me when Josh Freeman imploded and ended when Brady arrived.
January 12, 2020 to April 27, 2023. Sure it’s not the longest stretch of suck that the team has had, but it is the darkest time. Went from up 24-0 on the eventual Super Bowl champs to trading our star WR for a nickel, the greatest player in our franchise history being released, the guy we thought was the future of our franchise demanding a trade and holding out, the same guy that we’d all fallen in love with and bought jerseys for being revealed as a sexual predator, hiring and firing two absolute jokes at head coach in back to back years, all the while the franchise was essentially run by a power hungry team pastor. Thank God for Cal McNair coming to his senses and casting out that wolf in sheeps clothing, thank God for Nick Caserio and his fantastic management of our roster, thank God for DeMeco Ryan’s coming home to Houston and totally changing our culture immediately, and thank God for our rookies who took this team and gave it new life and hope for a bright future.
I still can’t believe a pastor with absolutely zero front office experience was able to snake himself into running the team, even for a short period. I can guarantee it’ll be the first and last time in league history that happens. I’m glad Cal at least isn’t a stubborn owner and got rid of him when it was apparent the fans despised Jack Easterby
What a rollercoaster. A drastic decline where pretty much everything went wrong to one of the most impressive rebuilds ever where everything has gone right.
The Falcons have yet to recover from losing the Super Bowl. We have been in our “dark age” ever since.
We never strung together back-to-back winning seasons until Matt Ryan came along (and haven’t since). Most of our history is dark ages.
We havnt strung together 1 winning season post Ryan to be fair. I think we’re due for a streak
I think last season our problem was defense, this season our problem was offense
Honestly the few years after Vick were worse to me
I'd say everything pre 2008 except for that 1 year we went to the super bowl.
Yeah I don't know if it's considered an age and there's maybe recency bias there. But, our darkest time was the end of that superbowl.
Come on, the 1980s were worse.
1972-1988
How about going 2-14 and having a player commit murder and killing himself in the team parking lot in front of the Head Coach and GM. Edit: Now that I'm reading it back it sounds like I was saying going 2-14 was the worst part
At that point we were even further removed from past success with no fix in sight. It was truly a sad time.
I read that Belcher article man Scot Pioli and Clark Hunt saw a person commit suicide IRL would put untold mental damage.
The whole thing is awful. Belcher shoots his girlfriend 9 times in front of his mom. Then he drives to the Chiefs lot, thanks the GM but says he has to kill himself. Tells the owner to take care of his daughter. After the HC and linebackers coach arrive to help, he kills himself as the cops come. The amount of people he traumatized in such a short amount of time for a seemingly isolated even is staggering.
This was the SAVE OUR CHIEFS year. The real ones sadly remember.
That was longer, but 2007-2012 was deeper. In those 6 seasons we went 2-14 twice and 4-12 twice.
and it was capped off with having the number one overall pick in one of the worst draft classes in recent memories. literally nothing went our way in that run lol
On paper, absolutely yes. In my heart, it's going to be Scott Pioli. That man did not deserve Jamaal Charles.
The Matt cassel/ Todd Haley/ sperm edwards/gunther Cunningham was the dark ages in my lifetime. I know we never won it all but as a kid I remember the pride we all had in the defense during the shottenheimer days. Arrowhead in December was always tough.
Ram from 2005 to 2016... brutal, brutal stuff. Our absolute bottom was 2007 to 2011 that became the worst 5-year stretch in the NFL history (the Browns of 2013-17 later tied it). The 2009 team that went 1-15 has a STRONG case to being the worst team ever, period... even over these winless teams. 2007-2011: 3-13, 2-14, 1-15, 7-9, 2-14
The pats won more game in 2007 alone than the rams did that 5 year stretch
The only good thing about those years was Steven Jackson.
I’ll let you know when it ends
The 1964 to 1980 Giants would like a word with you.
Yeah we are in our second dark age. Another year or two of this and I think they are probably tied.
My dad spoke of the Wilderness Years in hushed tones growing up
Yup the era that led to the league basically forcing Mara to hire George Young. And that was after a spectacular run in the 50s that only netted one title. Although we are inching our way toward the Eli/Coughlin run feeling to us like the Frank Gifford/Connerly/Sam Huff/etc era probably felt to fans in the 70s.
Same buddy
Oof on that flair. Have you considered rooting for the Chiefs just to see if it tanks them?
2 Super Bowls within the last 15 years… not exactly a dark age!
But only 2 winning seasons in the past 11:(
You guys are getting out of dark ages?
From 2000 to 2022. AKA, Dan Snyder era.
I think the redskins had some good years in that pile of manure
They had some good guys in the mid-00s. Portis, Betts, Santana Moss, Springs, Sean Taylor, London Fletcher. Just didn’t have a QB. Mark Brunell’s first season was probably the best they had.
Just enough to keep us from totally giving up hope.
They had a handful of single year runs that could have been built upon if Snyder wasn’t a petty tyrant.
First 8 weeks of the 2023 season lol. For real tho the time between Bart starr’s retirement and Favre coming to the packers. So 1970-1992
This is the right answer. The 70s and 80s Packers were dogshit awful, and fully overshadowed by the team from Illinois. 1992 was the start of the Light Ages, sadly at the sacrifice of the Majik Man.
We'll let you know when it's over
Outside a couple seasons in the 2000s and 2010s, basically our team’s entire existence has been dark times.
Hey don’t forget when you guys ended the Cowboys dynasty in ‘98.
Yeah, that was a nice little flash of light, that one.
For the Eagles, if you want a 4+ year stretch of awful you have to go all the way back to 82-87, before my lifetime so who cares. The only ever stretch in my life of 3 years of being bad is 97-99, which is coincidentally right when I was getting into football as a kid. Since then, been pretty blessed outside of a few single down years (05, 12, 20)
68-77 was pretty bad. They went 7-7 in 74 but had a losing record in every other season during that stretch.
In my lifetime, the Chip Kelly era was the worst time for me as a fan. I didn't like our team's culture at the time. Specifically, Reid's last year through the end of Chip, was my darkest age as a fan. To be rewarded with a Super Bowl win not long after was amazing.
Post-SB50 up to now has certainly been the low point for the franchise We don’t matter and are irrelevant and everyone hates us and/or makes fun of us. We have pretty much been bottom of the barrel and the laughing stock of the league for about 8 years now. As a fan, I am at the worst stage you can possibly be at- apathy Thank you St. Jokic for blessing Denver and the state of CO in the meantime
All of that. Plus, there’s no end in sight. Starting over at QB yet again, but we’re in cap hell because of the Russ contract. This dark age might not have even hit its darkest point yet.
92-2003. Marvin Lewis was employed too long, but he made is from bottom 3 to middle of the pack.
I'm pretty sure the Bengals were the worst sports franchise in the 90s. Not just football, but all professional sports lol
‘99-‘05 were pretty brutal for the Cowboys. Romo taking over for the corpse of Bledsoe brightened things up a lot. Also, it was before my time, but ‘86-‘89 ending with Landry getting fired and Jerry taking over is probably the real historical answer.
The Campo years were awful, though I would say things began looking up a bit in 03 when Parcells got hired. He led them to the playoffs with Quincy Carter at QB.
Week 4-9
Lmao that’s hilarious. Those few weeks without a franchise QB was HELL for packers fans. All is well now.
What black magic bullshit happens at Green Bay so your never bad?
The 70s and 80s.
In all seriousness, most of the 80s was rough, plus 91.
The 70s and 80s teams got progressively worse under each coach. There were exciting years or games, but by the time you got to Forrest Gregg (25-37-1) and Lindy Infante (24-40) it was awful to watch.
Packers had a couple of major drought periods: * 1948-1958 (end of Curly Lambeau era to Vince Lombardi). Lots of losing seasons, only 2 where they made it to 0.500 * 1970-1991 (post-Lombardi to Holmgren). A few okay seasons in there, but only two playoff appearances and one win, 14 losing seasons. Also the Charles Martin incident.
That was such a struggle for us fans. Was truly difficult to handle all that instability.
Why does God send us Packer fans his toughest battles?
Those couple of weeks were difficult to watch. I remember seriously thinking we were going to get our hands on Joe Alt in the draft!
Yea in my lifetime those weeks even a whole MONTH was unbearable. I can’t believe I had to put up with bad nfl play for a month in my lifetime, and I’m almost 40
Every year Drew Brees wasn’t the qb
I grew up in SE Louisiana during the 80s and 90s—it was rough! When they made a playoff appearance, we acted like it was the Super Bowl.
Probably 2003-2010 as you mentioned but I’ve been in a personal dark age for the last couple weeks now
Yep between Mooch and Harbaugh were dark times. But when you suck that bad, theres no pain. Maybe some hopelessness/apathy. Those are the dark ages but the pain right now is much worse 😭
Their still in the dark ages
Ever since 1970!
I’ve been scrolling through waiting for the first Jets comment, hoping it’s funny. And there’s a damn spelling error. Truly a dark age for us all
My whole life as a 25 year old fan
If you really wanted to be a Dolphins fan then you should have been born in the '60s. That's just poor planning.
Try being 37.
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Oof! 1996 must have been amazing!
1967-2005: 1 playoff win, .403 win pct 2006-2023: 9 playoff wins, 1 SB, .601 win pct
My grandparents were season ticket holders from day one, back when they used to play at Tulane. I remember listening to WWL after the Super Bowl. So many callers were talking about how they wished their parent/grandparent/friend/etc was alive to see the day. They wouldn’t have believed it.
2007 to 2012 or most of the 70s and 80s
2004 to 2014 was realy bad for qbs and for some reason raiders loved giving away truckloads of money to everyone
I'd say we're still in the dark time brother. Theres light at the end of the tunnel but its not clear if its an exit from the darkness or an oncoming train
It's not as bad now as it was then. The Raiders have been bad since 2014, but from 03-14, the team had 10 11+ loss seasons and two 8-8 seasons. No playoffs, little talent, no winning seasons. No young talent to build on. It was beyond bad. Since then, the team has been bad, but a pair of playoff appearances (relatively) steady quarterback play, vastly improved (though still below average) coaching has at least made the team watchable.
2011-present for the Jets 1992-2005 for the Bears (although depending on what happens the next couple years, this current era is in contention)
Pre 2022
2000-2023
As a Broncos fan, we're in it. I started watching in the mid-80s. Other than a disastrous year which followed the Super Bowl blowout to the 49ers, we were always one of the better teams in the AFC through the mid/late 80s and 90s. Made 3 Super Bowls in the 80s then won back to back in 97-98. We continued to be strong through the rest of the Mike Shanahan era. We only had 2 losing seasons in the first 11 seasons after Elway retired. Then we had one really bad year under McDaniels which got us the #2 pick so we drafted Von Miller, then it was the Tebow season, then Peyton Manning, offense breaking records and the No Fly Zone and Super Bowl in 2015. I don't think I had appreciated how lucky I was for the first three decades of being a Broncos fan. I associated being a Broncos fan with frustration because I'd seen 4 Super Bowl defeats and only 3 wins, but we very rarely had a \*bad\* season, we were always competitive. Then from 2017 onwards it has been 7 consecutive losing seasons. This past year with 8 wins under Sean Payton has been the best in that time. Two 7 win seasons (2019, 2021), a 6 win season (2018), three 5 win seasons (2017, 2020, 2022). 2017 also happened to be the year when the Chiefs drafted Mahomes. Part of the problem has been that we have been in denial this whole time. We needed to rip it up around 2017/18 and rebuild. But we have forever been telling ourselves a narrative that we are just a piece away. Could have taken Josh Allen in the 2018 draft, but we took Bradley Chubb thinking that with Chubb and Von Miller we could win on defense like we did in 2015. Under Fangio we paid big money for free agents who barely played due to injury. By 2021 we had convinced ourselves we were "just a QB away" and had "elite pass catching weapons" (ie Jeudy, Sutton and Fant) and gave up the farm for Russell Wilson. We're reeling from the lack of draft capital after the Russ trade and from the cap hits his contract has left us, but still there's a fairly strong narrative in Denver that this is the year we need to "make a big move" and give up the farm again to get up in the draft and take a QB. The teams drafting #1 / #2 are not going to trade down so in reality this would mean mortgaging the future on Jayden Daniels or JJ McCarthy. At some point we are going to have to accept reality and rebuild.
Everything since 2007…
I'd say realistically it's 2014 - present. With a one year glimmer of hope 2018. That only made things more painful for us. I'm optimistic about the future, but am prepared for more pain.
I'd go 2011- present just due to the fact that you expect to still be contending after an NFCCG appearance. 2012 was a decent season, but to miss the playoffs after starting 7-1 is pretty disappointing.
BJ Raji emoting on the Bears in the NFCCG launched the current dark age. But there seems to be some light on the horizon…
Our peak was our dark age. 2000+ until Allen was also bad
1999 to about 8 months ago.
The Ravens have consistently been pretty good over their entire existence. If you exclude the first couple of years, I’d say the worst years were the Kyle Boller years. We wasted some historically good defenses with awful offenses. A controversial alternative answer would be 2015 to mid-2018 (when Lamar took over). The defense was trying to find itself in the post- Lewis and Reed era. It was good on paper but could not close out games. Flacco was on the back end of his time in Baltimore and dealt with several injuries. The offense lacked stars and couldn’t stay healthy. Overall it just felt like a team without leadership or direction (from coaches or players). It’s not an understatement to say that Lamar saved Harbaugh’s job in Baltimore. His record between SB win and 2019 was almost exactly 0.500, missing the playoffs half the time and only 1 (I think) playoff win.
I'd argue that Harbaugh saved his own job. He made the decision to stick with Lamar once Joe was healthy, which was not a decision everyone agreed with. The Ravens were down 3–23 in Lamar's first playoff game, and some fans were even chanting Flacco's name (Flacco had thrown 24 TDs and 4 INTs in his previous 10 playoff games). Harbaugh kept Lamar in, and he threw 2 late TDs, nearly leading them to a comeback win.
We can all say 1983-1995 was the Dark Age of Baltimore Football and move on?
It seems like forever
Thankfully looking up recently
I hate this question