The Seattle Seahawks’ thumping of Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLIV gave the city of Seattle their first professional sports championship in more than three decades. But several other cities remain in title droughts, leaving their fans in despair, year after year. Instead of examining the worst sports cities historically, I’m going to focus on the worst sports cities over the past 25 years.
Cleveland—Browns (NFL); Cavaliers (NBA); Indians (MLB)
Cleveland sports fans have to look back to 1964 to reminisce on their last professional sports title. Since 1990, the Browns organization has been in disarray, tallying two short-lived playoff appearances. The NFL is reliant on good coaching and good quarterback play, and Cleveland hasn’t seen either. Since Marty Schottenheimer left in 1988, there have been 10 different coaches, none of which has left Cleveland with a plus-.500 coaching record. Their longest tenured starting quarterback is a four-way tie between Colt McCoy, Derek Anderson, Tim Couch, and Vinny Testaverde, each lasting two seasons. Ouch. The Indians have been much better, but equally torturous. A string of five straight playoff appearances in the mid-90’s saw the Indians come up short each time, losing in the World Series twice. They are regular competitors in the American League, but will continue to come up short versus big-market teams with more flexibility to sign top free agents. And then there’s the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs achieved moderate success in the early 90’s before a seven-year playoff drought was halted in LeBron’s third season. From that point on, you know the story—heartbreaking Game 7 losses in two Conference Semifinals and a four-game sweep courtesy of the San Antonio Spurs in the ’07 NBA Finals. Then LeBron took his talents to South Beach, and Cleveland became awful. And bitter, but mostly awful.
San Diego—Chargers (NFL); Padres (MLB)
The weather may be great, but the suffering is real in San Diego—it is the only American sports city with a longer title drought than Cleveland. The Chargers made a surprising Super Bowl run in 1994, but the following decade was plagued by the Ryan Leaf fiasco. If only they drafted Peyton… LaDainian Tomlinson led the Chargers to several playoff appearances, but fans watched them come up short each time—twice to the Jets, and twice to the Patriots. If that wasn’t enough, they are stuck watching the least likable quarterback in the NFL scream at his teammates every Sunday. The Padres have a state-of-the-art facility to brag about, but their on-field display has been the opposite. Just four playoff appearances in the past 25 years, the Padres have been a cellar dweller in the NL West. Three of their postseason defeats came against Saint Louis, two of which were sweeps. Their 1998 World Series appearance also ended in a sweep against the New York Yankees. Fans will keep coming out to the ballpark, but they know what to expect when it comes to postseason success.
Kansas City—Chiefs (NFL); Royals (MLB)
Remember that coaching and quarterbacks lesson I referenced with the Cleveland Browns? Well the Chiefs have had the coaching, but not the quarterback. The aforementioned Marty Schottenheimer departed San Diego for Kansas City and recorded a .634 winning percentage in 9 years with the Chiefs. Dick Vermeil and Herm Edwards are both legends who took over the Chiefs in the 2000’s, and Andy Reid has already proven his worth in one season with the Chiefs. But when Alex Smith is a franchise savior, you know expectations for a franchise QB are low. Matt Cassel and Brodie Croyle had no business being starting quarterbacks in the NFL, and Trent Green wasn’t much better. The Chiefs haven’t won a playoff game since 1993 (0-7 postseason record in that span) and will be hard-pressed to turn that around, even with Andy Reid at the helm. The Royals on the other hand have simply put together one of the worst 25 year-spans in professional sports history. 0 playoff appearances; 5 seasons with a winning record; 17 4th or 5th place finishes in the AL Central. It is hard to play that poorly for so many consecutive seasons, but the Royals have managed to do so. 2013 marked their best season in ten years, so Royals’ fans are hopeful for the 2014 season. But recent history suggests they probably shouldn’t be.
