An imperfect season (more accurately, an anti-perfect season or a perfectly bad season) is defined as a team losing all of their games. It is the antithesis of a perfect season, and is often referred to as such in a tongue-in-cheek manner. This ignominy has been suffered eleven times in professional American football, six times in arena football, thrice in professional Canadian football.
Gridiron football[]
Because of the short schedules of college and professional football seasons, there is a possibility that a very bad team will not manage to win any games. Before overtime was used consistently, teams might tie a game without winning one; these are generally counted in lists of winless seasons.
NFL Teams with no wins in a season (8 or more games)[]
| Season | Team | Wins | Losses | Ties | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Detroit Lions | 0 | 16 | 0 | Most losses in a single season. Detroit was the first non-expansion team to lose every game in a full season since World War II. |
| 1982 | Baltimore Colts | 0 | 8 | 1 | Strike shortened season. Afterwards, the Colts drafted future Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway with the first pick in the 1983 NFL Draft, but due to protests from Elway before and after the draft, had his rights traded to the Denver Broncos a week later. |
| 1976 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 0 | 14 | 0 | Team made league debut in 1976. Went on to lose the first 12 games of the 1977 season as well, to start 0-26-0 as a franchise. |
| 1960 | Dallas Cowboys | 0 | 11 | 1 | Team made league debut in 1960 |
| 1944 | Brooklyn Tigers | 0 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1944 | Card-Pitt | 0 | 10 | 0 | Merger between Chicago Cardinals & Pittsburgh Steelers due to player shortages during World War II; the Steelers themselves merged with the Philadelphia Eagles the previous year for the same reasons. The Cardinals (now in the Phoenix area as the Arizona Cardinals) and Steelers eventually played each other in Super Bowl XLIII 64 seasons later. |
| 1943 | Chicago Cardinals | 0 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1942 | Detroit Lions | 0 | 11 | 0 | |
| 1934 | Cincinnati Reds | 0 | 8 | 0 | Folded before the season was over. |
| 1925 | Columbus Tigers | 0 | 9 | 0 | |
| 1922 | Columbus Panhandles | 0 | 8 | 0 |
The Rochester Jeffersons went a combined 0-21-2 over four seasons from 1922 to 1925, but in none of those seasons did they ever play more than seven games.
NFL Teams with only one win in a season (8 or more games)[]
| Season | Team | Wins | Losses | Ties | Remarks |
| 2009 | St. Louis Rams | 1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came against the Detroit Lions (8th game) who ended up 2-14 |
| 2007 | Miami Dolphins | 1 | 15 | 0 | Only win was against Baltimore Ravens in OT during Week 15 (14th game) |
| 2001 | Carolina Panthers | 1 | 15 | 0 | Became first team to lose 15 straight games in same season, only win was in opener against the Minnesota Vikings. Did not earn the number one pick in the 2002 NFL Draft by virtue of the expansion Houston Texans automatically having the first pick. Just two years later they ended up being a field goal short of a Super Bowl title. |
| 2000 | San Diego Chargers | 1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 12th game vs. Kansas City 17-16 |
| 1996 | New York Jets | 1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 9th game vs. Arizona 31-21 |
| 1991 | Indianapolis Colts | 1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 10th game 28-27 at the New York Jets |
| 1990 | New England Patriots | 1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 2nd game 16-14 at Indianapolis; several players involved in sexual harassment of Boston Globe sportswriter Lisa Olson |
| 1989 | Dallas Cowboys | 1 | 15 | 0 | Only win in sixth game versus vs Washington Redskins |
| 1982 | Houston Oilers | 1 | 8 | 0 | Strike shortened season |
| 1980 | New Orleans Saints | 1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 15th game 21-20 at the New York Jets |
| 1973 | Houston Oilers | 1 | 13 | 0 | |
| 1972 | Houston Oilers | 1 | 13 | 0 | |
| 1971 | Buffalo Bills | 1 | 13 | 0 | Only win in eleventh game against New England Patriots. |
| 1969 | Chicago Bears | 1 | 13 | 0 | Only win came vs. Steelers, lost coin toss to Steelers to draft future Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw with the number one pick. |
| 1969 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 1 | 13 | 0 | Won first game 16-13 vs. Detroit; first season for Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll & defensive tackle “Mean Joe” Greene. |
| 1968 | Buffalo Bills | 1 | 12 | 1 | American Football League Drafted O. J. Simpson with the first pick in the ensuing draft. |
| 1967 | Atlanta Falcons | 1 | 12 | 1 | Only win 21-20 against Minnesota Vikings. |
| 1966 | New York Giants | 1 | 12 | 1 | |
| 1962 | Oakland Raiders | 1 | 13 | 0 | American Football League Only win came against the Boston Patriots in the final week of the season |
| 1962 | Los Angeles Rams | 1 | 12 | 1 | |
| 1961 | Washington Redskins | 1 | 12 | 1 | Only win in final game against second-year Cowboys. |
| 1960 | Washington Redskins | 1 | 9 | 2 | |
| 1958 | Green Bay Packers | 1 | 10 | 1 | Packers hired Vince Lombardi as coach following the season |
| 1953 | Chicago Cardinals | 1 | 10 | 1 | Only win in final game against Chicago Bears. |
| 1952 | Dallas Texans | 1 | 11 | 0 | Successor to New York Yanks owned by Ted Collins. Only NFL season; game against the Detroit Lions transferred to that team’s home field. |
| 1951 | New York Yanks | 1 | 9 | 2 | |
| 1950 | Baltimore Colts | 1 | 11 | 0 | Consecutive seasons with record of 2-22-0 worst until 1972/1973 Oilers. |
| 1949 | Baltimore Colts | 1 | 11 | 0 | |
| 1949 | New York Bulldogs | 1 | 10 | 1 | |
| 1946 | Detroit Lions | 1 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1945 | Chicago Cardinals | 1 | 9 | 0 | |
| 1941 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 1 | 9 | 1 | |
| 1940 | Philadelphia Eagles | 1 | 10 | 0 | Only win in penultimate game against Pittsburgh Steelers 7-0. |
| 1939 | Chicago Cardinals | 1 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1939 | Philadelphia Eagles | 1 | 9 | 1 | |
| 1937 | Cleveland Rams | 1 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1936 | Philadelphia Eagles | 1 | 11 | 0 | Lost 11 consecutive games after winning opener 10-7 against New York Giants. |
| 1933 | Chicago Cardinals | 1 | 9 | 1 | |
| 1931 | Frankford Yellow Jackets | 1 | 6 | 1 | |
| 1930 | Minneapolis Red Jackets | 1 | 7 | 1 | |
| 1930 | Newark Tornadoes | 1 | 10 | 1 | |
| 1929 | Buffalo Bisons | 1 | 7 | 1 | Only win came in final game of season. Played no games in 1928; previous season (1927), team went 0-5-0. |
| 1929 | Minneapolis Red Jackets | 1 | 9 | 0 | |
| 1927 | Duluth Eskimos | 1 | 8 | 0 | |
| 1927 | Dayton Triangles | 1 | 6 | 1 | |
| 1926 | Canton Bulldogs | 1 | 9 | 3 | |
| 1923 | Oorang Indians | 1 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1921 | Columbus Panhandles | 1 | 8 | 0 | American Professional Football Association[1] |
Source: Worst NFL Teams of all time (ESPN) [2]
Arena Football League[]
The short length of seasons in arena football makes imperfect seasons quite possible. The following teams have gone through an Arena Football League season without winning a game:
| Year | Team | Played | Wins | Losses | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Maryland Commandos | 4 | 0 | 4 | Relocated to Washington, D.C. after season ended |
| 1991 | Columbus Thunderbolts | 10 | 0 | 10 | Moved to Cleveland the following year. |
| 1992 | New Orleans Night | 10 | 0 | 10 | Team ceased operations after season. |
| 1994 | Milwaukee Mustangs | 12 | 0 | 12 | First winless team to remain in same city during following season. Went to 10-4 in 1996 |
| 1996 | Memphis Pharaohs | 14 | 0 | 14 | Relocated twice, firstly as the Portland Forest Dragons from 1997 and then as the Oklahoma Wranglers. Folded in 2001. |
| 2003 | Carolina Cobras | 16 | 0 | 16 | Went to 6-10 the following season. |
United Football League[]
The United Football League has had, to date, one winless season. In their inaugural season, the 2009 New York Sentinels lost all six of their games. The team, which was a traveling team that played games in Hartford, Long Island and New Jersey (and had intended to play a game in New York City but backed out), fired its head coach and settled permanently in Hartford to become the Hartford Colonials. Under the UFL's double round robin format, only one team can finish any particular season entirely with losses, since every team plays each other at least twice. The 2009 California Redwoods lost all their games except their two games against the Sentinels; they relocated from San Francisco to Sacramento (as the Sacramento Mountain Lions) for 2010. Both the Colonials and Mountain Lions made improvements on their records the following season.
Other American football leagues[]
Since non-professional, semi-pro and minor league teams are inherently unstable in their membership, it is far easier for seasons in which a teams wins no games to occur. In the case of non-professional teams, neither mechanisms to force a team to shut down against its will, nor effective drafts or revenue sharing mechanisms to distribute talent evenly among teams typically exist, leading to poor teams accumulating multiple winless seasons. Five teams in football history have failed to score a single point in an entire season; all played eight games or less.[3] There are at least twelve teams who have accumulated losing streaks of 20 games or more; there are also four teams who have accumulated seasons of all losses with at least 13 games.[4] In the case of minor professional football, particularly in indoor football leagues, winless seasons often result from an owner's abandonment or other financial hardship. The American Indoor Football Association had at least one winless team in five out of six seasons; it also had at least one team with one win or less in all six seasons, including one team (the Ghostriders/Ghostchasers) that, despite two reorganizations, lost every game in their two-year existence. The National Indoor Football League went its first three seasons without a winless season, but beginning in 2004, at least one team went winless every year until the league's collapse in 2007. Though the Spring Football League had two teams with winless seasons (the Los Angeles Dragons and the Miami Tropics), and the Stars Football League had one such team (the traveling 2011 Michigan Coyotes), they are almost never mentioned in discussions of perfect and perfectly bad seasons, since those teams only played two games each before the seasons were cut short.
Canadian Football League[]
The Canadian Football League currently has a regular season of eighteen games; from 1952 to 1985 it was generally sixteen games as with the current NFL season, though those teams in the Eastern Division played only fourteen as late as 1973.[5] Consequently, especially given the much smaller number of teams playing, there have been fewer imperfect or nearly imperfect seasons than in the National Football League, with the exception of the first decade or so when fewer games were played.
CFL teams with one or no wins in a season (based on official CFL site)[]
| Season | Team | Games | Wins | Losses | Ties | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Hamilton Tiger-Cats | 18 | 1 | 17 | 0 | Most losses in a CFL season |
| 1964 | Winnipeg Blue Bombers | 16 | 1 | 14 | 1 | |
| 1959 | Saskatchewan Rough Riders | 16 | 1 | 15 | 0 | |
| 1954 | British Columbia Lions | 16 | 1 | 15 | 0 | Expansion team: most recent of present-day CFL teams |
| 1949 | Hamilton Wildcats | 12 | 0 | 12 | 0 | Merged with the Hamilton Tigers for 1950 season |
| 1948 | Hamilton Wildcats | 12 | 1 | 10 | 1 | |
| 1946 | Hamilton Wildcats | 12 | 0 | 10 | 2 | |
| 1941 | Montreal Royals | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | Did not resume when Canadian football recommenced after World War II. |
| 1941 | Vancouver Grizzlies | 8 | 1 | 7 | 0 | Did not resume when Canadian football recommenced after World War II. |
| 1940 | Montreal Royals | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | |
| 1939 | Montreal Royals | 6 | 0 | 5 | 1 | |
| 1938 | Edmonton Eskimos | 8 | 0 | 8 | 0 | |
| 1938 | Montreal Royals | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
CFL teams with only two wins in a season (qualification 12 games, no ties)[]
| Season | Team | Games | Wins | Losses | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Hamilton Tiger-Cats | 18 | 2 | 16 | |
| 1988 | Ottawa Rough Riders | 18 | 2 | 16 | First CFL team to lose 16 games. Franchise disbanded in 1996 |
| 1982 | Montreal Alouettes | 16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1981 | Toronto Argonauts | 16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1980 | Saskatchewan Rough Riders | 16 | 2 | 14 | Successive seasons with combined record of 4-28 |
| 1979 | Saskatchewan Rough Riders | 16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1970 | Winnipeg Blue Bombers | 16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1967 | Montreal Alouettes | 14 | 2 | 12 | |
| 1963 | Edmonton Eskimos | 16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1952 | Montreal Alouettes | 12 | 2 | 10 | |
| 1949 | Winnipeg Blue Bombers | 12 | 2 | 10 | |
| 1948 | Winnipeg Blue Bombers | 12 | 2 | 10 |
References[]
- ↑ The American Professional Football Association was the predecessor to the National Football League
- ↑ "Worst NFL Teams of all Time". ESPN. August 22, 2002. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/football/teams/worst.html. Retrieved 2002-08-22.
- ↑ http://www.semiprofootball.org/minor/records/teampnts.htm
- ↑ http://www.semiprofootball.org/minor/records/teamgame.htm
- ↑ CFL.com