THE worst team ever - as a fan in your lifetime

[Daily Horoscope]

Kansas City Attack

[Gary]

I'm from Michigan, so of course the 03 Tigers and the 0-16 Lions always haunt me. But stuck by them.

[LMU]

1992 Dodgers (63-99)

1999 Angels (70-92)

1995-96 Kings (24-40-18)

2008-09 LMU Men's Basketball (3-28)

[Cosmic]

This year's Sabres finished 14 points behind 29th place Florida. 14 points behind 29th place.

The Bills are consistently bad, but usually not flat-out awful. I'll give the "worst" title to a sentimental pick... the 2004 Bills were 9-6 headed into Week 17 and would have made the playoffs if they beat the Steelers that week. The Steelers had nothing to play for, so they played second and third stringers for most or all of the game. Their second and third stringers trounced us when we had everything to play for, and they had nothing to play for.

Here's the recap from that Bills game:

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) -- Willie Parker, Brian St. Pierre and James Harrison -- who are these guys, you might ask?

They represent the collection of Pittsburgh backups and scrubs that kept the Steelers' roll going, and ended the Buffalo Bills' playoff hopes, 29-24 Sunday.

"If there was a team that you could put up as a poster boy for a 53-man roster, it's us," said St. Pierre, the Steelers' third-string quarterback, who was activated off the practice squad Friday. "It's special."

And so are the Steelers, who didn't need Ben Roethlisberger, Jerome Bettis or a host of other starters to win their 14th straight to match the single-season record set by Miami in 1972. The Steelers also became just the fourth team in NFL history -- and first in the AFC -- to finish 15-1.

Parker, an undrafted rookie free agent, had 102 yards rushing, including a 58-yarder that set up Jeff Reed's 37-year field goal, Pittsburgh's go-ahead score.

And then there was Harrison, the backup linebacker, who returned a fumble 18 yards for a touchdown to seal the victory.

"It says a lot about the backups and the character of this team," Harrison said. "It's a sense of pride. You don't want to lose to anybody."

The Steelers, who had clinched home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs, knocked off a Bills team that was among the hottest in the league. Buffalo had a chance to earn its first playoff berth since 1999.

"Pretty angry. ... I'm a little bit in shock," said red-eyed quarterback, Drew Bledsoe. "The bottom line is if we can't beat them with their backups on the field, then we probably don't deserve to be in."

The Bills (9-7), who had overcome an 0-4 start, had a six-game win streak snapped. Their loss automatically put the New York Jets in.

"It's rough," left tackle Jonas Jennings said. "Everything was set up for us and ... we had to come out and handle our business and we came up short."

Buffalo made it close when Willis McGahee scored his second touchdown of the game on a 1-yard plunge with 78 seconds left. But the Bills failed on an onside kick when Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor smothered the ball.

The Bills looked nothing like a team that outscored its opponents 228-89 in its previous six games.

Buffalo managed just 267 yards, with seven three-and-outs. And the defense couldn't get the Steelers off the field, losing the time-of-possession battle by more than 11 minutes.

The game turned late in the third quarter after Buffalo's Rian Lindell missed wide right on a 28-yard field goal that left the Bills clinging to a 17-16 lead.

The Steelers responded with 10 points in an 85-second span at the start of the fourth quarter.

Following Reed's field goal, Bledsoe was blind-sided by rookie cornerback Ricardo Colclough, who forced a fumble that fell directly into Harrison's hands.

The Bills went three-and-out on their next possession and the Steelers then ate up nearly nine minutes with a 14-play, 46-yard drive helped by two defensive penalties. It was capped with a 33-yard field goal by Reed, who kicked five.

St. Pierre extended the drive with a 2-yard bootleg on fourth-and-1 at the Bills 37.

Antwaan Randle El also scored on a 16-yard Maddox pass.

"15 and 1, baby!" Steelers running back Duce Staley yelled as he headed to the locker room.

Roethlisberger was bubbling following the performance.

"I told someone, `If I'm dreaming, I don't want to wake up because I want to keep this going," Roethlisberger said. "What's so special about this team is everyone is selfless."

The Steelers have two weeks to await their next opponent. The Bills have a long offseason to ponder what went wrong.

"It's frustrating because I want more for this organization, especially the fans," said receiver Eric Moulds. "I feel like they deserve more than what we showed today."

Bills' owner Ralph Wilson remained upbeat.

"We had a bad day and it didn't work out," Wilson said. "I'm really looking forward to next year, because we have something to build on."

[C's]

2012 Red Sox: They were garbage, but once early summer rolled around and it started to sink in that this was just a lost season... I don't know, it was kind of entertaining to watch the team unravel like that. They were behaving like such out-of-control dickheads that they just brought it on themselves. Every Valentine moment from that season put a smile on my face, because I hated the hire from day one and it took him no time at all to prove me right about him being a loud-mouthed schmuck. The players weren't much better, Lackey, Beckett, Gonzalez, and Crawford had pretty much lost the fanbase for different reasons. Ortiz also turned into a real jerkoff starting in 2010 or so. 2004 was literally the only thing keeping the fanbase from turning on him too. Then the trade happened, the nightmare/comedy of errors was over, and there was nothing left but a quiet, cold, miserable September to sit through. Poor Mauro Gomez, he's like the new Henry Finkel for Boston fans.

2006-07 Celtics: Our opening day roster included stiffs like Telfair, Szczerbiak, and (at that time) a wildly disappointing Al Jefferson figuring to play key roles. Stupid teenage me thought we could make the playoffs. Instead we got injuries. Pierce did something to his knee (I think) in December (I think) and was gone for two months. Tony Allen destroyed his knee in a random game against Indiana when he decided to dunk after the whistle and landed badly. He was really turning a corner too, but that injury set him back pretty much to his rookie state. Lost 18 in a row. Allan Ray and Kevin Pinckney were playing minutes for us. Jefferson actually broke out that year and if we were healthy we probably could have made a playoff run. Then to top it off, we get the #5 with the second worst record in the league. We looked like we'd be in the basement for a while, but other stuff happened instead and the rest is history.

I don't include this season's Celtics team because a) I was rooting for them to be as bad as possible, and having moved out of New England in early 2013 made them almost impossible to follow. The tail-end of the Garnett era wasn't hard to keep up with, but once Jeff Green became our best active player the franchise ceased to exist in the national media.

[Sport]

Columbus Blue Jackets
2011-2012 This is the single worst season I've ever been through as a fan. The team had been not horrible in 10-11 and I thought adding Jeff Carter and Wisniewski was going to be what got them over the playoff hump. The hockey doubters were getting louder and relocation talks were starting to gather buzz around town so a complete disaster of a season was the worst thing that could've happened. Season begins with Wiz getting suspended for the first 8 games (the very first Shanaban. Way to send a message!), Carter shows up in a petulant mood, the team starts 0-7 and was never competitive for the entire 82 game stretch. All of their offseason acquisitions were either injured, didn't work out, were infecting the locker room with their terrible attitude, or all of the above.

Scott Arniel looked completely lost behind the bench and eventually erupts on reporters after yet another loss asking them sarcastically to "keep pilin' on". Middle of the season Carter demanded a trade and loafed around the ice until he got it. Shortly thereafter Rick Nash demanded a trade which Howson botches on the press side so the organization looked even worse, can't work a deal at the deadline and the team plays the last quarter of the season with a lame duck captain who everyone knew would be gone. Some fans stage a protest outside of the arena. Steve Mason was also the starting goaltender and he was dreadful. DREADFUL.

On top of that Carter goes to the Kings and wins a Stanley Cup because we hadn't been through enough. Then the team that finished in last by 9 points loses the draft lottery.

Silver linings: All of the bad things were finally rock bottom and forced the organization to make changes to the way they handle hockey operations. They restructured their lease agreement which allowed them to put more into the team. This terrible season led to the hiring of Craig Patrick and John Davidson. Arniel's firing led to Todd Richards. The Carter trade landed them Jack Johnson and I don't care about his advanced stats because he instantly changed the mindset in the dressing room. The Nash trade landed them Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov and I'd do it again 100 times over. Losing the draft lottery sucked at the time, but it was ultimately meaningless as Howson has said he was going to take Ryan Murray with the number one anyways and Edmonton was dumb enough to take Yakupov ahead of him so that actually worked out.

[wonderbread]

2012 Red Sox: They were garbage, but once early summer rolled around and it started to sink in that this was just a lost season... I don't know, it was kind of entertaining to watch the team unravel like that. They were behaving like such out-of-control dickheads that they just brought it on themselves. Every Valentine moment from that season put a smile on my face, because I hated the hire from day one and it took him no time at all to prove me right about him being a loud-mouthed schmuck. The players weren't much better, Lackey, Beckett, Gonzalez, and Crawford had pretty much lost the fanbase for different reasons. Ortiz also turned into a real jerkoff starting in 2010 or so. 2004 was literally the only thing keeping the fanbase from turning on him too. Then the trade happened, the nightmare/comedy of errors was over, and there was nothing left but a quiet, cold, miserable September to sit through. Poor Mauro Gomez, he's like the new Henry Finkel for Boston fans.

2006-07 Celtics: Our opening day roster included stiffs like Telfair, Szczerbiak, and (at that time) a wildly disappointing Al Jefferson figuring to play key roles. Stupid teenage me thought we could make the playoffs. Instead we got injuries. Pierce did something to his knee (I think) in December (I think) and was gone for two months. Tony Allen destroyed his knee in a random game against Indiana when he decided to dunk after the whistle and landed badly. He was really turning a corner too, but that injury set him back pretty much to his rookie state. Lost 18 in a row. Allan Ray and Kevin Pinckney were playing minutes for us. Jefferson actually broke out that year and if we were healthy we probably could have made a playoff run. Then to top it off, we get the #5 with the second worst record in the league. We looked like we'd be in the basement for a while, but other stuff happened instead and the rest is history.

I don't include this season's Celtics team because a) I was rooting for them to be as bad as possible, and having moved out of New England in early 2013 made them almost impossible to follow. The tail-end of the Garnett era wasn't hard to keep up with, but once Jeff Green became our best active player the franchise ceased to exist in the national media.

Very similar for me, also include probably the 2000 pats that just were god awful with a 5-11 record and then when we lost the first 2 games of 2001 while loosing our franchise qb I thought it was more to come but we all know what happened next

[OnWis97]

I am from Minnesota. I don't have time to sort through this.

[Sport]

I was such a Bengals homer after they played in the Super Bowl in 1981. Thought I was doing good while supporting them the next ten years. I looked like such a fool in the 90's trying to defend them. Every year was the year they would break out and make some noise in the playoffs. Never happened until I became emotionally disconnected from the team. Things have gotten better lately, but that 90's team in Cincy was the worst of all time. They changed me completely as a Bengals fan.

I grew up in the 90’s and I have no idea why I ever became a Bengals fan. I was 17 before I ever saw a winning season or a playoff appearance. There’s been so many bad years that I just kind of became numb to it. That was reality for me as a kid. Playoffs and super bowls were for other fans and I guess I sort of accepted that as a kid.

It’s hard to pick the worst year because the 90’s were so terrible. Here’s their records from 1991-2002: 3-13, 5-11, 3-13, 3-13, 7-9, 8-8, 7-9, 3-13, 4-12, 4-12, 6-10, 2-14

It’s hard to be so consistently bad that a 7-9, 8-8, 7-9 stretch is considered a success.

If I have to pick a worst season though it would have to be 2002. They’d been the joke of the NFL for over a decade and they started the season 0-7 and they were crushed in their first four games so we as fans were checked out by like week 3. Their first win of the season came over the expansion Texans so it sort of felt like it didn't count, they had six and seven game losing streaks, they had the worst ranked defense and the 28th ranked offense, right handed Gus Frerotte threw a pick six interception with his left hand in week 2 which really set the tone for the rest of the season.

I watched a lot of the 2008 Lions that went 0-16 and I watched most of the 2002 Cincinnati Bengals and I think that Lions team was better than that Bengals team.

[nuordr]

No specific years, but from 1979 - 1995 being a fan of this team generally sucked! Sure there were good times, but the bad times out weighed them.

[MrRangersFan]

2011 Colts. 2-14. Peyton Manning out for season. Quaterbacks we have never heard of starting.

[Dnice]

Probably the 1988 Braves, the 2007 Falcons and the 2003-04 Hawks.

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

This tells you everything you need to know. Fichaud and all, especially Fichaud.

[flasah]

1988-1989: All of my favorite teams were horrible

Atlanta Braves

1988: 54-106 - Last place

1989: 63-97 - Last place

Dallas Cowboys

1988: 3-13 - Last place

1989: 1-15 - Last place

San Antonio Spurs

1988-89: 21-61 - 5th place (only ahead of expansion Miami Heat)

But a combined 8 championships since then (maybe 9 soon) makes up for it.

[Lee Noire]

The 1998-99 Clippers are bar none the worst team I've ever watched.

I would also say the '99-2000 team as just as bad. They seem quit on the season even before it started, and maybe if Chris Ford was my coach, I would have quit too. Maybe the worst Clipper game I ever seen was a home game against the Warriors mid-season, and you had guys like Maurice Taylor (my least-favorite Clipper all-time behind Baron and the Kandi-ass) and Derek Anderson out there going through the motions, and played like they couldn't give two :censored:s about anything. The only bright spot was a rookie Lamar Odom...they brought in Corey Maggette, Keyon Dooling, Darius Miles, and Quentin Richardson the following season to go with Odom, and although the 2000-01 team finished at 31-51, at least they were fun to watch.

Yeah that 00-01 team was when I became a fan. I didn't even watch basketball until my dad got free tix to a game that season. So personally the worst season I ever witnessed as a Clipper fan was the 08-09 season. They were second to last in the west and only won 19 games. I think we can all agree that, numbers aside, damn near every season was a bad one for the Clips. 05-06 was good though.

[Hat Boy]

1990 New England Patriots

--1-15 record

--the locker room incident with Lisa Olsen

--head coach Rod Rust fired after one season

I sat through a driving rainstorm to watch the Week 15 match up with the Redskins. In the first 5 minutes, the Redskins scored a TD on a fumble return and a safety on a botched snap during a NE punt. Ugh.

[Tigers6884]

AS a Detroit Lions fan, I think this topic was just made for me.

[mattb6]

2010-11 Cavs: Watching LeBron leave, the whole Dan Gilbert guarantee and the 26 game losing streak. Mo Williams was also my favorite player at the time, and he was traded midseason to the Clippers (which supplied the pick which ended up being Kyrie) 2011-14 sucked too, and 2013-14 was really painful because of the Bynum mess and with having such a weak East a blown shot of making the playoffs with a lot of young talent.

1999- Present Browns (Excluding 2008 and 2002) All of the blown draft picks, only making the playoffs once (2002) and the front office mess. And the Brown pants were introduced along with the gray facemask.

2009-2010 Indians were pretty bad too, as the Indians were second last and last in attendance, respectively, and finished at the bottom of the AL Central both years. Not much good came from those years except the prospects coming up (Brantley, Santana and Masterson, although he had a regular role in the rotation)

[crashcarson15]

Okay we have the worst days of your life as a sports fan, this time it's for the worst team(s) you've ever cheered for as a sports fan.

*Knicks just this last season.

*David Moyes era in Manchester United. He tried to make us like Everton and succeeded. Also sucks to see rival fans revel in our downfall.

Aww I'm so sad for you. A team that just barely missed the playoffs and a team that finished 7th in a 20-team league. So sad. Like, I'm literally crying right now for your misfortune as a sports fan.

As for a productive addition to the thread, here's mine in no particular order...

• 2007 Notre Dame football. 3-9 and that included starting the year 1-9. Getting embarrassed at home by Air Force was one of the most painful things I've ever seen.
• 2010-11 Cavaliers. Actually started the year 7-9 which was respectable. Finished 19-63, including that 26-game losing streak. Won 4 of the last 6, too, so went 8-52 over a 60 game stretch. Probably the worst team I've ever seen.
• 2011-12 Blue Jackets. As McCarthy said earlier, this team might be the worst experience due to the expectation of finally doing something—with Jeff Carter, the organization had finally made a move that signaled a serious run at contention. Whoops.
• 2008 Indians. They might've finished .500 and had the Cy Young winner but this team was miserable to follow. After coming within a game of the World Series the year prior, this team was 37-53 through 90 games. Not to mention trading Sabathia and, yeah, never been the same since. Sigh.

[neo_prankster]

The Chargers in 2000. But in a strange way, a 1-15 record helped them draft Tomlinson and Brees the following spring.

The Padres every year since Tony Gwynn's retirement. Not one player on that team with the same work ethic or positive attitude as Gwynn for the last thirteen years.