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The Detroit Lions are 0-10-1 this season. Naturally, people have started looking up winless seasons other teams have had in the past. It provides a reference point for comparison because winless seasons are rare.
The NFL is fundamentally designed to be an equitable league. That is why the lowest ranked teams go highest in the draft. That is why there is a salary cap, so that franchises with the richest owners cannot just hoover up all the talent. Hence, the league remains competitive, and while winning and losing seasons happen all the time, it is tough for any team to win all the games or to have a winless season.
But despite the nature of the league, five teams since World War II have had winless seasons. We look at the teams and the seasons that they had.
#1 - Dallas Cowboys, 1960
The Dallas Cowboys commenced operations in 1960 and as a newly established team found it extremely tough in their maiden season in the NFL. They went 0-11-1 during the season, their only tie coming against the New York Giants in the penultimate game of the season.
As an expansion team placed in the Western Conference of the NFL, they got most of their players through the expansion draft. Needless to say, they finished bottom of the conference that season without a single win. In fact, since the tied games were not counted until 1972 towards the standings, the Dallas Cowboys only had losses counted from their winless season.
#2 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1976
Another debutant also had a winless season much like the Dallas Cowboys, and they were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976. In the expansion draft, they mostly got aging veterans, so the chances of success were very low going into their maiden season.
They became the first team in the modern era not to win or even tie a game during a season. As part of their winless season, they also scored the fewest points, rushing touchdowns and passing touchdowns. Their winless season was also part of the longest losing run in NFL history, which ended after 26 games in the subsequent season.
As the NFL changed to a 16-game regular-season format, and most recently to a 17-game regular-season format, the 0-14 record will remain unique.
#3 - Baltimore Colts, 1982
Other than debutants, three other teams have had winless seasons. The first among them were the Baltimore Colts in 1982. A players' strike had shortened the season by seven games and only nine games were played that season. Unfortunately for the Colts, it ended as a winless season as they lost eight games and tied only one.
They began the season with two straight losses before the strike halted the season. When it resumed, they played two matches, not scoring a single point in either of those first games back. Their only tie of the winless season came against the Green Bay Packers, three matches from the end of the season.
#4 - Detroit Lions, 2008
The Detroit Lions made history in 2008 as the first non-debutant team in the modern era to go completely winless without tying a single game. Their record during the winless season read a perfect 0-16. Hence, even if this year's Detroit Lions have a winless season, they will not be able to match the existing franchise record since they have already tied one game.
It was a truly woeful season on all fronts for the Detroit Lions. They allowed 32.31 points per game on defense, while not scoring more than 25 points in any single game. It was the perfect recipe for disaster and hence it duly came to pass. The winless season was the opening act of two disastrous seasons for the franchise, as next season they went 2-14.
#5 - Cleveland Browns, 2017
It is difficult to remember a team worse off than the 2017 Cleveland Browns. The Browns came into the season with a 1-15 record the previous season, and fans rightly believed that they would improve as they would have to be catastrophic not to. But they were as bad as was feared, and had a winless season in 2017 without even a tie. In the process, they equalled the record set by the Detroit Lions in 2008.
This was the nadir of a franchise already stuck in a perpetual rut. This winless season marked the tenth consecutive time that they had a losing season. It extended their divisional championship drought to 25 years and playoff qualification drought to 15 years. Since that awful winless season, the only way was up, and the Browns have duly improved.
