List of winless seasonsA winless season is a regular season in which a sports team fails to win any of its games. The antithesis of a perfect season, winless seasons have been suffered twelve times in professional American football, six times in arena football, three times in professional Canadian football, once each in American professional lacrosse and box lacrosse, more than twenty-five times in major Australian football leagues, over twenty times in top-level rugby league, at least twice in top-level rugby union, and twice in Engl...
Rod MarinelliRodney Henry Marinelli (born July 13, 1949) is an American former football coach. For 48 consecutive years, he had been a defensive coach for several college and professional teams, serving primarily as a defensive line coach when not assigned as coordinator. From 2006 until 2008, Marinelli was the head coach of the NFL's Detroit Lions, where he presided over their infamous winless 2008 season. Coaching careerEarly careerMarinelli's coaching career began in 1973 as an assistant at Rosemead High School in suburba...
1981 Baltimore Colts seasonThe 1981Baltimore Coltsseason was the 29th season for the team in the National Football League (NFL). The Colts finished the NFL's 1981 season with a record of 2 wins and 14 losses, finishing in a tie with the New England Patriots for both last place in their division, the AFC East, and the worst record in the league. However, by virtue of beating the Patriots for their only two wins of the season, the Colts finished ahead of New England on a tiebreaker. Those wins came in the first and last weeks of the season,...
2000 Detroit Lions seasonThe 2000 season was the Detroit Lions' 71st in the National Football League (NFL). After a wildcard playoff appearance with an 8–8 record in 1999, the Lions improved to 9–7 in 2000, but missed the playoffs thanks to a Christmas Eve home loss to the 4–11 Chicago Bears, where they blew a 10-point lead in the second quarter. In the first 12 games, the Lions were 8-4. But, after that, they only won one more time. Nonetheless, this was the Lions' sixth winning season in 10 years, capping one of the best decades...
Detroit LionsThe Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The team plays their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit. The franchise was founded in Portsmouth, Ohio, as the Portsmouth Spartans in 1928 and joined the NFL on July 12, 1930. Amid financial struggles, the franchise was relocated to Detroit in 1934 and renamed the Lions in reference to the city's Major...
1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers seasonThe 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's first season in the National Football League (NFL). The Buccaneers played their home games at Tampa Stadium and their inaugural head coach was John McKay. The Buccaneers gained infamy as the first team to play an entire 14-game season without winning or tying a single game (including five games where they never scored). It remains one of only four winless seasons since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. The Buccaneers did not score until their third game and did not...
1978 NFL seasonThe 1978 NFL season was the 59th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded the regular season from a 14-game schedule to 16 games, which it remained in place until 2021 when it was increased to 17 games. Furthermore, the playoff format was expanded from 8 teams to 10 teams by adding another wild card from each conference. The wild card teams played each other, with the winner advancing to the playoff round of eight teams. The season ended with Super Bowl XIII when the Pittsburgh Steeler...2008 NFL seasonThe 2008 NFL season was the 89th regular season of the National Football League (NFL), themed with the slogan "Believe in Now." Super Bowl XLIII, the league's championship game, was at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 1, 2009, with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out victorious over the Arizona Cardinals 27–23 and winning their NFL-record sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy. Conversely, the Detroit Lions became the first NFL team with a winless season since the strike-shortened 1982 NFL season, fini...2020 NFL seasonThe 2020 NFL season was the 101st season of the National Football League (NFL). The regular season started with the NFL Kickoff Game on September 10, in which the defending Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Houston Texans. The playoffs were expanded from 12 to 14 teams, adding a third wild card spot per conference. The season concluded with Tampa Bay defeating Kansas City 31–9 in Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 7, 2021. After a decades-long controvers...
AFL–NFL mergerThe AFL–NFL merger was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It paved the way for the combined league, which retained the "National Football League" name and logo, to become the most popular sports league in the United States. The merger was announced on the evening of June 8, 1966. Under the merger agreement, the leagues maintained separate regular-season schedules for the ...
National Football LeagueThe National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and the highest professional level of American football in the world. Each NFL season begins annually with a three-week preseason in August, followed by an 18-week regular season, which runs fro...
Expansion teamAn expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also hope that the expansion of their competition will grow the popularity of the sport generally. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues but is applied to sports leagues in other countries with a closed franchise sy...*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.