By Rustin Dodd, Zack Meisel and Andy McCullough
When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers snapped a file 26-game shedding streak in December 1977, head coach John McKay tried to look on the intense aspect.
“Three or 4 aircraft crashes and we’re within the playoffs,” he stated.
It was arduous guilty him. The 12 months earlier than, the Bucs had completed 0-14 of their inaugural season, stamping their place among the many worst groups within the historical past {of professional} sports activities.
The listing contains the winless, the hopeless, and the talentless. One proprietor traded all of his good gamers to his different workforce. This 12 months, the listing features a new applicant: The 2024 Chicago White Sox.
This 12 months, the South Siders set the trendy MLB file for probably the most losses in a season, topping the 1962 New York Mets Friday evening with loss No. 121 — they usually’re not executed but. Right here’s the place the White Sox rank amongst a baker’s dozen of the worst groups ever.
So terrible they had been forgettable
13. 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, NBA, 7-59, .106
Earlier than the season, the Bobcats’ proprietor sized up his workforce’s probabilities this fashion: “Who is aware of how good we might be? We’ve acquired some good items that may assist us get to the playoffs. I’m not ready till subsequent 12 months. I feel we’ve a great high quality basketball workforce this 12 months.”
It was a uncommon airball from maybe the best basketball participant who ever lived. Michael Jordan gained six NBA Finals MVP awards. His Bobcats gained seven common season video games throughout the 2011-12 season. Jordan flirted with immortality as a participant, after which as an proprietor he oversaw the maybe most vincible NBA workforce ever assembled.
Positive, that season was shortened to 66 video games due to a lockout, however the Bobcats weren’t precisely trending effectively towards the top. They dropped their ultimate 23 video games. In any other case, 7-59 might need change into 9-73 or 10-72 or, hell, 7-75.
Their seven wins had been one-third the whole of the next-worst workforce. Their 87.0 factors per recreation are the bottom by any workforce within the final 20 years. They misplaced by double digits 38 instances and by not less than 20 factors on 22 events. Their .106 profitable share is the worst in NBA historical past. Their head coach, Paul Silas, reportedly shoved ahead Tyrus Thomas “towards his locker” after a loss to the Boston Celtics as a result of Thomas had been “fraternizing” with the opposition. — ZM
12. 2011 Tulsa Shock, WNBA, 3-31, .088
When the WNBA’s Detroit Shock relocated to Tulsa for the 2010 season, legendary former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson took over as head coach. In 2011, the workforce put a brand new spin on “40 Minutes of Hell.”
Gutted by departures, the 2011 Shock started the season with a 1-10 file earlier than Richardson resigned. It didn’t get higher. Underneath new coach Theresa Richards, the workforce completed 3-31, setting a WNBA file for worst profitable share (.088). The workforce completed final in factors per recreation, second to final in factors allowed, and set a file for consecutive losses (20) — later matched by the 2023 Indiana Fever. “What can I say?” Richards stated. “I’m the one within the seat.”
The Shock lasted simply 4 extra seasons in Tulsa earlier than shifting to Dallas. — RD
Perhaps relegation is a good suggestion
Derby County’s Steve Howard after yet one more loss, this one to Crystal Palace. (Ryan Pierse / Getty Photographs)
11. 2007-08 Derby County, English Premier League, 1-29-8, .026
In 2023-24, Sheffield United set a Premier League file by permitting 104 targets in 38 video games. And but by way of sheer awfulness, they will’t contact the Derby County aspect from 2007-08, which gained only one match and accrued simply 11 factors, the worst because the league started in 1992.
Supervisor Billy Davies was out after simply 14 matches. His alternative, Paul Jewell, didn’t expertise a win. Neither did anybody throughout the membership’s ultimate 32 matches — a file for top-flight soccer.
Derby County additionally set the file for fewest targets (20) and most defeats (29). They had been relegated after the season and have by no means performed their method again to the Premier League. As The Athletic’s Duncan Alexander wrote earlier this 12 months, “ … no aspect will ever go as little as 11 factors once more, however Derby not less than have had the sense to by no means return.” — RD
There’s no earthly purpose they need to have been this dangerous
10. 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, NBA, 9-73, .110
In his memoir, Tom Van Arsdale, a 6-5 taking pictures guard who joined the Sixers in January 1973, in contrast the workforce to a “burnt, light, broken-down used lemon with the sticker worth so low it was virtually offensive.”
The workforce set the NBA file for losses with 73.
Their head coach was Roy Rubin, a New Yorker who was employed from Lengthy Island College to exchange Jack Ramsay, after which lasted simply 51 video games, ending with a 4-47 file. In a 2023 story for ESPN, middle John Block described Rubin as “a pleasant man, however he actually, actually had a tough time teaching.”
Block later moved to Florida and operated an IHOP restaurant.
Philadelphia had been in a common state of decline since shedding Wilt Chamberlain after the 1967-68 season. Nevertheless it had by no means been this woeful. The Sixers endured a 14-game shedding streak that began in December, snapped the skid on Jan. 7, 1973, after which promptly misplaced one other 20 video games in a row.
The most effective participant on the ‘72-73 Sixers was guard Fred Carter, who doubled as the very best story. The upbeat Carter, who hung round Philly for 4 extra seasons, was later credited with serving to popularize the fist bump along with his Sixers teammates. — RD
9. 2003 Detroit Tigers, MLB, 43-119, .265
This might have been the workforce the 2024 White Sox had been chasing, if not for a miraculous restoration within the ultimate week of the season. The Tigers began the season 1-17. By late September, they had been 38-118 and on the verge of eclipsing these ’62 Mets as probably the most pitiful outfit to ever step foot on a contemporary big-league diamond.
It wasn’t as if this got here out of left area. As workforce architect Dave Dombrowski recalled to The Athletic final 12 months: “We didn’t anticipate to have a great season, by any means.” Because the membership reached triple digits within the loss column in late August, although, they began eyeing that Mets file and computing how they may avoid it.
With 20 video games remaining, they knew they wanted six extra wins to keep away from infamy. With six video games remaining, they nonetheless wanted 5 extra wins. They surged to the end line, although, and now, they’re merely a footnote within the annals of baseball ineptitude.
“It was virtually like profitable the World Sequence,” stated outfielder Craig Monroe about that frantic end to the season, which included Detroit’s greatest comeback win in 38 years. “Doesn’t that sound loopy as hell?”
Why, sure, it does. — ZM
Enlargement? How about contraction as an alternative?
8. 1992-93 Ottawa Senators, NHL, 10-70-4, .119
The headline writers on the Ottawa Citizen couldn’t include their glee when the Senators returned to city after a 56-year absence: “Perhaps Rome was in-built a day,” the paper declared after the Sens defeated the Montreal Canadiens within the first recreation of the season. “10,449 followers went wild, and it was magical,” a sub-hed learn.
They had been mistaken about Rome — they usually had been mistaken concerning the new hometown workforce.
Ottawa didn’t win once more till its twenty third recreation. The remainder of the season went about the identical method. The workforce gained simply as soon as — as soon as! — on the highway. And that occurred within the 81st recreation. The membership completed with 24 factors, 34 factors behind the Hartford Whalers within the Adams division. Not perfect. — AM
7. 1974-75 Washington Capitals, NHL, 8-67-5, .100
When the Washington Capitals and Kansas Metropolis Scouts joined the NHL for the 1974-75 season and proceeded to have two of the worst years in league historical past, a common opinion shaped across the league: Enlargement was a mistake.
The Scouts had been terrible. The Capitals had been even worse, ending a surprising 8-67-5, together with an unimaginable 1-39 on the highway. The Capitals allowed a file 446 targets. They misplaced 4 video games by not less than 10 targets. The explanation was easy sufficient: The NHL had tipped the scales towards the brand new franchises, permitting the league’s incumbent groups to guard all of their good gamers.
“It’s not truthful,” Capitals GM Milt Schmidt informed The New York Instances in 1974. “We paid $6 million to affix the league, and look how little the opposite groups have left for us.”
When the Capitals did win their one and solely highway recreation, they returned to the dressing room and paraded a trash can across the room prefer it was the Stanley Cup. — RD
6. 1976 Tampa Buccaneers, NFL, 0-14, .000
Head Coach John McKay and his Bucs didn’t have a lot, however they did have these distinctive uniforms. (Concentrate on Sport / Getty Photographs)
Hamstrung by inequitable growth guidelines, the Buccaneers had a roster of ageing veterans (lots of whom would injure their hamstrings) and unproven younger gamers. They set a brand new customary for skilled incompetence.
The Bucs didn’t rating till their third recreation and didn’t file a landing till their fourth. They did handle to put 17 gamers on the injured reserve, an unofficial file. In all of the Bucs had been outscored 412- to-125, together with a 42-0 loss at Pittsburgh and a 34-0 loss on the Jets. And earlier than the season opener, head coach John McKay famously acquired misplaced within the Astrodome tunnels.
The creamsicle uniforms had been good, however the workforce aircraft was not. In an NFL Movies phase, future Corridor of Famer Lee Roy Selmon — as a rookie, maybe the workforce’s lone brilliant spot — relayed a narrative about how the Bucs’ outdated aircraft, which all the time appeared to interrupt down, was leased from the proprietor of a chainsaw firm, full with a chainsaw brand on the aspect: “Immediately,” he stated, “I used to be a little bit fearful.” — RD
5. 1962 New York Mets, MLB, 40-120, .250
“Can’t anyone right here play this recreation?” Mets supervisor Casey Stengel famously requested.
The reply was no. (Effectively, Frank Thomas and Richie Ashburn had been first rate.)
The Mets completed 40-120, setting the trendy period file for losses. Their exploits had been legendary: Their pitchers posted a workforce ERA of 5.04. They dedicated 210 errors. Practically 25 % of their wins got here throughout a 9-3 spurt in Might. Nineteen gamers would by no means play one other season within the majors. Maybe no second symbolized the 1962 Mets just like the day Marv Throneberry missed first base towards the Cubs whereas hitting a possible game-winning RBI triple with two outs. When the Cubs appealed to first and Throneberry was referred to as out, erasing the runs, the umpire had a message for an upset Stengel. “Casey, I hate to inform you this,” he stated, “however he additionally missed second.” — RD
The 0-16 Membership
The 2017 Cleveland Browns discovered themselves wanting up at just about each workforce ever. (Patrick Smith / Getty Photographs)
4. 2017 Cleveland Browns, NFL, 0-16, .000
Hue Jackson assured the Browns wouldn’t repeat their 1-15 file from 2016. If that occurred, he vowed, he would plunge into the uneven, chilly waters of Lake Erie.
And he was proper! The Browns didn’t produce one other 1-15 displaying in 2017. No, they went winless.
They ranked final within the league in factors per recreation and second-to-last in factors allowed per recreation. All season, they began a uncooked second-round choose from Notre Dame, DeShone Kizer, who tossed twice as many interceptions as landing passes. Just one participant, the bac”kup working again, recorded 400 or extra receiving yards.
When the season ended, followers organized a parade to protest the franchise for its annual incompetence. They marched across the stadium in subzero temperatures, shouting: “What do we would like? Watchable soccer! When do we would like it? Now!” Some Browns followers sported No. 16 jerseys with the title “Owen” on the again. Some Lions followers made the journey to commiserate with the brand new members of the winless membership.
Jackson lastly waded into Lake Erie the next June. “It’s going to be a cleaning of our group,” he declared. He was fired 4 months later, leaving Cleveland with a 3-31-1 file. — ZM
3. 2008 Detroit Lions, NFL, 0-16, .000
The query, looking back, is likely one of the funniest within the trendy historical past of American sports activities press conferences. The Lions had simply misplaced, 42-7, giving up greater than 30 factors for the twelfth time in 15 video games. The workforce’s defensive coordinator, Joe Barry, simply so occurred to be the son-in-law of head coach Rod Marinelli. As Marinelli spoke to the media, Detroit Information columnist Rob Parker couldn’t resist.
“On a light-weight observe,” Parker ventured, “do you would like your daughter would have married a greater defensive coordinator?”
Sufficient time has handed that hopefully we are able to admit it: That’s a great zinger.
The Lions had been the primary NFL workforce to ever go winless in a 16-game season. The feat was matched 9 years later by the Cleveland Browns. However the 2017 Browns had been outscored by 176 factors. The 2008 Lions? Attempt a point-differential of negative-249.
Marinelli, understandably, didn’t take it effectively. Parker handled loads of blowback; he was suspended by the newspaper and ultimately resigned. However he stays a fixture within the sports activities media panorama. Marinelli was by no means a head coach once more. — AM
The Applicant
2. 2024 Chicago White Sox, MLB, file unknown
There’s an outdated adage, usually attributed to Mark Twain, that claims humor equals tragedy plus time.
There’ll come a time sooner or later when the 2024 White Sox shall be remembered in a method that the majority baseball groups will not be. Lots of the groups on this listing haven’t been assembled or competing for many years, however their exploits won’t ever die.
Two gamers colliding because the opposing announcer declares the second “full White Sox?” Andrew Benintendi likening the workforce to a “lifeless horse?” A 21-game shedding streak that tied the AL file?
Sooner or later, these shall be colourful and humorous particulars.
It simply takes time.
The White Sox had a 4-40 stretch. They misplaced 27 of 28 at residence. They grew to become the primary workforce because the 1916 A’s to fall 81 video games beneath .500.
You’ll be able to go on.
Historical past will choose the 2024 White Sox. However they don’t seem to be the worst workforce of all time. — RD
The Cleveland Spiders’ legacy lives on. (Quinn Harris / Getty Photographs)
The Worst Crew of All Time
1. 1899 Cleveland Spiders, MLB, 20-134, .130
Frank and Stanley Robison owned each the Cleveland Spiders and St. Louis Perfectos, and believing that St. Louis was the higher guess to generate profits going ahead, they stripped the Cleveland roster of all its expertise and stacked St. Louis as an alternative. Earlier than the season, they swapped Cy Younger and different stars with gamers who didn’t ultimately have distinguished awards named after them. And so the Spiders grew to become probably the most futile baseball workforce of all time, a sad-sack bunch destined to fail earlier than they ever took the sphere.
The Spiders endured a 24-game shedding streak. They misplaced 40 of their final 41 video games. They completed the season with a run differential of minus-723. They trailed first-place Brooklyn by 84 video games within the ultimate standings. In the course of the summer-long funeral procession, the Cleveland Plain Supplier stopped referring to them because the Spiders and as an alternative dubbed them the Cleveland Exiles or the Cleveland Forsakens.
Following a 4-2 Spiders win on Aug. 25 towards the New York Giants, the Plain Supplier printed: “An eighth surprise has come into the world and the Colossus of Rhodes, the Pyramids, the Statue of Zeus and the remainder of the seven wonders had higher look to their laurels. Cleveland has gained one other recreation. The way it occurred is past rationalization. … They put up such a pointy, quick recreation that the 200 individuals who had gone out to League Park to get a little bit contemporary air and take a quiet siesta had been quickly aroused to one thing very near enthusiasm.” The Spiders wouldn’t win once more for three-and-a-half weeks.
Followers bailed on supporting the deliberately depleted roster, so the membership wound up touring for many of its video games. They launched into a 50-game journey in July and August, on which they went 6-44. Even the workforce’s uniforms stunk, in accordance with the Plain Supplier, which wrote: “Now they’re obliged to put on the castoff uniforms of the St. Louis Browns, all of that are plenteously adorned with patches.”
The Spiders had been promptly booted from the Nationwide League and disbanded. Cleveland baseball was reborn in 1901 as a constitution member of the American League with a franchise that also stands right this moment because the Guardians. — ZM
(Illustration by Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Pictures: Quinn Harris / Getty Photographs, Gregory Shamus / Getty Photographs, David T. Foster III / Charlotte Observer / MCT)
