Nearly half the league still hasn’t won a Super Bowl

Posted by Mike Florio on February 10, 2016, 7:01 AM EST
AP

The NFL now has closed the books on 50 Super Bowls. And in a 32-team league, only 19 of the teams have ever won a Lombardi Trophy.

Which means that (abacus engaged) 13 teams have never won a Super Bowl. That’s nearly half of the entire league.

The non-champions are the Bills, Browns, Bengals, Jaguars, Texans, Titans, Chargers, Eagles, Vikings, Lions, Panthers, Falcons, Cardinals.

Since the Buccaneers exited that list in Super Bowl XXXVII, only the Saints in Super Bowl XLIV and the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII have joined the ranks of the Lombardi owners.

So as the NFL embarks on the next 50 Super Bowls, the question is how much smaller this bizarro baker’s dozen will be after the NFL plays what likely will be the next championship game that ditches the Roman numeral C for 100.

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67 responses to “Nearly half the league still hasn’t won a Super Bowl”

  7. Poor Eagles. The NFCE least. Empty nothingness, the black hole that is the trophy case. Year after year the hopeful wings begin to flap and then the pigeons come home to roost. It always just that way.

  8. Go ahead and re-run this article in another 50 years. Not sure how the rest will shake out but you can cut and paste the Vikings as a non-winner. Worst franchise in the NFL….hands down.

  15. I feel like the Vikings, Cardinals, Panthers and maybe the Falcons are possible teams to rise above this disaster of a list.

    The Eagles seem destined to screw it up.

    And the poor bengals are the same.

    Texans and Chargers are ok teams.

    Although I feel both of those deserved to be mentioned above the rest.

  16. Are you sure?!? The way Vikings fans talk around here, you’d think they were among some very elusive company regarding championships.

  17. At least a number of those teams have had some playoff success, including playing in Super Bowls. Everyone bashes the Browns, but the Lions have by far the worst postseason history. One playoff win in 59 years. One. How people still root for them is beyond me.

  19. The league is based on competition, and rewards guts, hard work and guile, and does not guarantee equality of result. If you want everyone to always have chances of equal success in football, then don’t play games but run a lottery. Eventually everyone wins that way. Good luck watching that kind of football where games are won or lost by which numbered ball pops up.

  20. This is so true. Thanks for the reminder PFT. If I might add something though, I’d state that several teams on that list have had multiple opportunities to join the winners circle, but have choked in big games repeatedly. But only the Vikings have lost 4 times in the last game without winning a single one.

    How embarrassing.

    >

  22. Ten franchises have accounted for 63 of the 100 Super Bowl appearances, and 39 of the 50 Super Bowl wins (78%). Those ten teams are the Steelers (8 games, 6 wins), Dallas (8/5), New England (8/4), Denver (8/3), San Francisco (6/5), New York Giants (5/4), Green Bay (5/4), Washington (5/3), Raiders (5/3) and Miami (5/2). Buffalo and Minnesota are both 0-4 in Super Bowls too, so 71 of 100 appearances have come from 12 teams, 29 appearances and eleven wins are from the other 30 franchises

  23. Two that we would never want to win a SuperBowl because of how obnoxious they are: Cam Newton and Viking trolls on this site.

  26. And some have expired, like the one the Jets supposedly won.

    But yes think about all the teams that won their first (or first and only) since 2000. Ravens. Patriots. Bucs. Saints. Seahawks. Colts.

    And all the teams that WENT to the Big Game
    . Panthers. Cards. Falcons.

    Biggest losers are Chiefs, Browns, Lions, Vikings, and Jets.

  28. Parity is important but second to a profitable business.
    Goodell has taken the “Sheriff ” approach to manage players behavior. Its just an extension of what the owners want. Protect the investment by controlling labor – always the most volatile variable.

    Imagine a league where as much time effort and focus was directed at addressing Poor self centered egotistical ownership and shoddy Coaching ?

    That is the next level of parity.

    Nobody wants MLB and Yankee type league where big market teams buy championships but this is an owners league and things are not going to change until we see a year where revenues start to fall.

  31. 13 of 32 is one away from being one third and 3 away from being one half. It is far more accurate to say one third of the teams in the NFL have never won a Super Bowl.

  34. ……..You gotta love the fact the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won a Super Bowl before such teams like the Eagles, Vikings and Bills…….that alone SHOULD be amble motivation for those to bust their butt to win at least ONE!

  36. And THIS is why you see multiple owners pulling Goodell’s strings to have him do whatever it takes to get Brady off the field.

    Brady alone has “clogged” the AFC Championship game 10 times in 14 years and was one play away from going to the Super Bowl for the 7th time. Yes – the Patriots were nearly in the Super Bowl on average EVERY OTHER YEAR.

    He’s a major barrier for some owners with MAJOR influence who want THEIR share of the ego and profits that come with having a Super Bowl winner.

    Parity was the goal of the owners – Brady has completely undermined the notion of parity.

    THAT’S why Goodell and certain owners framed him with the “11 of 12” lies and then ignoring the fact that 7th grade science explains a drop of 1 PSI on a cold day.

    Goodell and the Owners have no integrity – thus the game of football has no integrity.

  38. For the first forty years of their existence, the Pittsburgh Steelers won zero playoff games, and in the one playoff game they “competed” in — they put up zero points. However, the hiring of Chuck Noll in ’69 served to 180 their fortunes. Since that hire, the Steelers have won as many or more playoff games as any other team in the NFL and more Super Bowls than any NFL team ever.

    The point is — fortunes can change with a good hire at the top and/or an infusion of talent. Same for the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots. Denver and New England used to be post-season punching bags, if they even got that far. But in the late ’90s and early ’00s, respectively — those teams went on to collectively appear in ten Super Bowls, winning seven of them.

    Now, Carolina, Arizona and maybe even Cincy are “not have” teams — that could some convert into the “have” side of the column. Rivera is particularly encouraging, and Arians is right up there too.

  39. – The Falcons need to actually invest in a defense and they’d be back to Superbowl contenders. Julio Jones is a great player but their draft day trade for him has done more damage than good and set them back a few years.

    – Bills are just screwed because they’re one of the two teams on this list that has to become a superbowl contender just to get into the playoffs thanks to the division their in.

    – Jaguars, Texans and Titans have the easiest road because all three are in the same division so all they have to do is go from embarrassingly bad to just kind of bad and they can win the AFC South as the Texans showed this past season.

    – Vikings and Lions have the next easiest road as their division race is usually pretty close with the only problem is neither team is very consistent and are constantly rebuilding mainly due to getting one good draft pick every draft (normally in the first round to their credit) and a bunch of duds in every round after.

    – Chargers shot themselves in the foot by not having enough patience when they had Marty Schottenheimer and things are only going to get harder now that the rest of the teams in the AFC West have their act together.

    – Cardinals and Panthers have been to the Superbowl recently and I don’t see them loosing momentum any time soon so one of these two will be the next off the list.

    – Finally the Browns and Bengals. The Bengals are a better team than their playoff record dictates since more times than not they beat themselves over other teams beating them. They’re a long shot since the problem is their GM bringing in players with behavior issues and since their GM is their owner they’re not going anywhere.

    As for the Browns they’re maybe 1 or 2 seasons away from playoff/superbowl contention. Unfortunately they are literally always 1 or 2 years away from playoff/superbowl contention thanks to the revolving door that is their front office and coaching staff. They are actually really good at drafting but as soon as the new guys come in they clean house and those really good draft picks get shipped somewhere else (Right TJ Ward and Jordan Norwood and congrats on your Superbowl win right Browns fans?) Rebuild 2016 is the first won that the owner did himself so there is cautious optimism there but emphasis on cautious since like the Bills they’re division makes it so you pretty much has to be an AFC Title contender just to make the playoffs (this is the team that missed the playoffs with a 10-6 record a few years back and just last year spent 90% of the season in 1st place just to be the only team in their division to not make it).

  42. Some teams are simply perennial losers with no hope whatsoever.

    The Bills, Bungals and Chargers come to mind.

  45. There are some benefits to never winning a championship. The taxpayers of Minnesota saved some money by not having to build a trophy case in the new Zygi Wilf Memorial stadium.

  46. And that is why Goodell works in conjunction to make up lies/witch hunts against the Pats.

    He can’t sell the parity concept to London investors if there is no parity, which, there really isn’t.

    This is why Spygate and Deflategate exist, folks.

    Jig is up on Park Ave.

    Fire and arrest Goodell for fraud, defamation, sabotage and collusion.

    Try and convict.

  49. abninf says:
    Feb 10, 2016 7:46 AM
    The Los Angeles Rams have never won one. I hope St. Louis gets to keep their Lombardi.
    ========================================
    What does this mean? St Louis won the Super Bowl. They don’t vacate that championship and it means NOTHING to most LA Rams fans as most couldn’t care a thing about what happened after they left LA 20 years ago.

  50. Of those teams that never won, both the Vikings and the Buffalo Bills deserve special mention for getting to 4 Superbowls each and still not winning.

    Then the Vikings deserve the top billing for getting to an additional 5 NFC title games without winning, thus avoiding a 5th Superbowl lose. Or maybe 9 if they think about it.

    Talk about a loser’s franchise, yet the Viking fans will reappear again this spring with their own predictions of this is their year.

  52. Are you sure the Vikings have never won a Super Bowl?
    The way their fans talk you’d think they’ve collected 3 or 4 Lombardi trophies over the years.

  53. Jags were a game away from going to two in our first 5 years of existence. I only say that to remind people we used to be good. Carry on.

  55. It would be interesting to see a 50yr chart with all 32 teams showing (for each year):

    – the owner of the team
    – Division win (Y/N)
    – AFC/NFC championships (Y/N)
    – Superbowl win (Y/N)

    Just like any business it seems logical that the owner sets the groundwork for team leadership, strategy, investment, philosophy, etc. Everything follows the owner’s lead and the outcome on Superbowl Sunday each year is the result of that lead, year after year.

  56. The Bills should be at the top of this list. 4 straight and they couldn’t win one friggin time? Not once? And the fact players from those teams blabbed on in that 30 for 30 about how they should of won SB26 if good old Thurman Thomas didn’t lose his helmet? Please. It was 37-10 Redskins in the 4th. Delusional, perennial, losers.

  57. My dream Super Bowl is Browns over Lions. Both teams have a rich history and championships predating the Super Bowl, and they played each other several times for the NFL Championship in the 1950s.

  58. ariani1985 says:
    Feb 10, 2016 9:45 AM
    More importantly, how many teams force their fans to buy fake stock?
    ///////////////////////////////////////////////////

    Easy. The answer is none. In fact, only one team even enables the sale of stock, the sale of which is the envy of every other team in the league. 360,000 people around the world have purchased this stock.

    Forced? Nah.

    Honored.

  59. stellarperformance says:
    Feb 10, 2016 8:25 PM
    ariani1985 says:
    Feb 10, 2016 9:45 AM
    More importantly, how many teams force their fans to buy fake stock?
    ///////////////////////////////////////////////////

    Easy. The answer is none. In fact, only one team even enables the sale of stock, the sale of which is the envy of every other team in the league. 360,000 people around the world have purchased this stock.

    Forced? Nah.

    Honored.
    ————————————-

    Forced was the wrong word to chose here. Bamboozled is far more appropriate. They con people into believing it’s actually a “stock” purchase, and by doing so, they are some sort of owner. If that were true, they could be sold, and if successful, they would have some sort of return value. I’ve seen many even say that they are allowed to vote on organizational decisions. If that were the case, Uncle Clem and Cousin Jeb would have been the last two GMs. They may allow you to think you’re voting, but there is no way they are dumb enough to actually take those “votes” into any consideration when it comes to organizational matters. It’s just a way to get money for nothing, since there was no GoFundMe when they started doing this.

  60. “spoiledsport99 says:
    Feb 10, 2016 11:39 AM
    My Bills are a lock to stay on this list. I think I’m in fan purgatory, or is it hell.”
    _______________________________________________

    Move over brother. And can you spare a piece of that crying towel?

    Long, LOOONNGG-suffering Eagles fan.

  61. For fans of teams like the giants we have to pay more for our tickets to keep making the trophy case bigger.

    I thank my parents for not raising me in Eagle country

  63. I thought that all what mattered was going to the SB, even if you are a bridesmaid (the way media outlets was acting in recent years with the whole ‘the teams that never went to a SB’ talk).

  64. 440Barracuda says:
    Feb 11, 2016 2:58 AM
    Bamboozled is far more appropriate. They con people into believing it’s actually a “stock” purchase, and by doing so, they are some sort of owner. If that were true, they could be sold, and if successful, they would have some sort of return value.
    ////////////////////////////////////////

    You find me one Packer fan that didn’t know exactly the “souvenir” aspect this stock purchase represented, and Ill show you a Viking fan in disguise.

  66. For the person who said what about championships. This is about Super Bowls. There were 50 of them. Ravens have two in their short existence with more to come in the near future. Even though they were the Browns at one time. Just had to rub it in.

  67. stellarperformance says:
    Feb 13, 2016 8:22 AM
    440Barracuda says:
    Feb 11, 2016 2:58 AM
    Bamboozled is far more appropriate. They con people into believing it’s actually a “stock” purchase, and by doing so, they are some sort of owner. If that were true, they could be sold, and if successful, they would have some sort of return value.
    ////////////////////////////////////////

    You find me one Packer fan that didn’t know exactly the “souvenir” aspect this stock purchase represented, and Ill show you a Viking fan in disguise.
    ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷
    A “souvenir “? Yeah, a paper souvenir of how you got bamboozled out of your money.

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