Best teams to never win a championship (last 50 years)

Phi Slamma Jamma

 

As someone who was born in 1967, grew up in Minnesota, and was rendered a quivering shell of a young child by the Super Bowl losses, it pains me greatly to say this . . . but with the benefit of hindsight, the Vikings of that era did about what they should have. Until Tarkenton came back, their offense wasn't much (granted, it was a different era with different rules, but the '71 Vikings scored only 23 offensive touchdowns in a 14-game season), and by the time Tarkenton/Foreman really had things going offensively in '75, the defense was aging and not what it once was. If you look at the Super Bowl losses, they lost to clearly better teams in all four. SB IV and the Chiefs is the only one where you could even make a case that they should have won, but I don't think it's convincing.

And for all the mystique about the Vikings allegedly being dominant in cold-weather playoff games, they were only 7-3 in the playoffs at the Met, losing three divisional games at home between 1970 and 1975.

 

Beef beat me to the first one that popped into my head: 94 Expos.

 

1990-91 Portland Trailblazers, who had the best record in the NBA that year.
1988 New York Mets who lost to the Dodgers in the NLCS.
Mid 1980s University of Houston basketball.

 

2002 Miami Hurricanes thanks to a mysterious pass interference penalty the crooked fucking zebe waited 10 fucking minutes to call! [/bitterfanofTheU]

 

1976-77 Philadelphia 76ers - Dr. J. George McGinnis, Doug Collins and The Bomb Squad choked against the Portland TrailBlazers.c
2011 Philadelphia Phillies - purely a WTF moment int he playoffs.

 

IIRC, didn't the Sixers win the first two games? You may laugh me off the thread, but I have always felt those Eagles teams Buddy crossing over to Uptight were capable of winning it all - atleast with that defense.

Somebody mentioned the 1980 USSR hockey team. It is worthy to note that while they had a couple of monumental losses (1972 Summit and Lake Placid), that core group won more than its share of championships.

 

1976 Pittsburgh Steelers. Arguably the Steelers greatest team. Injuries to Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier severely handicapped the team in an AFC Championship game loss to a good Raiders team that went on to win the Super Bowl.
The Steel Curtain was particularly AWESOME posting something like six or seven shutouts.

1994 Penn State Nittany Lions...A Goliath of an offense with two legitimate Heisman Trophy contenders a stud tight end and some talented WRs. The offense's average time of possession was under two minutes (1:56). Running back Ki-Jana Cater averaged an eye-popping 7.6 ypc.
PSU team throttled OSU scoring 63 points that year on the way to a unbeaten season. They pulled out a come-from-behind win at Illinois - which had a loaded defense - Simeon Rice, Kevin Hardy, Dana Hardy and John Holecek (sp?) - and for that got shafted in the polls.*
Rather than tie for the national title it was handed to Nebraska (fuck you Lee Corso!). PSU finished No. 2.

* That coupled with allowing a pair of late junk TDs in a win (35-29) at Indiana that made the game look much closer than it was.

 

The Sixers were up 3-0. And lost.

"Que cera cera," said Dr. J.

 

I'm assuming this is just fanboi you and not a serious suggestion. That team doesn't belong anywhere near this list compared to other teams that have been mentioned. The Eastern Conference at that time was terrible.

 

You may be right, but I don't recall any NBA team blowing a 3-0 lead in the championship series.