Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions Battle For Worst NFL Title Drought

Seeing teams take down their seemingly endless championship droughts in 2016 makes a person wonder.  Which NFL teams hold the most notable stretches without one?

Of course most will jump right to the Cleveland Browns but it’s fair to point out that they last got one in 1964, their seventh as a franchise.  So even though the drought has been long, it has neither been the longest nor the easiest to feel sorry for considering how successful they were prior to it.  There are two far more painful famines that continue onward with no ending in sight even as Leicester City and the Cavaliers continue to celebrate what many thought was impossible.

That is the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions.  Some will ask why them considering there are still some franchises out there who have never won a championship at all?  For the simple fact that two franchise are among the most established in the NFL, have tasted championship glory but for a variety of often puzzling and painful reasons haven’t been able to get over the hump.

The Lions still sit under the curse of Bobby Layne, the Hall of Fame quarterback they traded to Pittsburgh back in the 1950s who proclaimed on his way out that the franchise would not win another title for 50 years after he left.  It has been almost 60 now and in all that time they have just one playoff win in 1991.  This despite fielding some outstanding players including Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson.  Not even having a Pro Bowl quarterback in Matthew Stafford seems to have helped matters as they followed an 11-5 year in 2014 with a 7-9 campaign, causing their star receiver Johnson to prematurely retire.

It’s hard to imagine another team can match such pain but what the Eagles may lack in sheer ineptitude over a long period, they certainly make up for in gut-wrenching near-misses.  Many fans still cling to the 1960 team under the great Chuck Bednarik that won the NFL championship.  Since then they have always seemed to have teams capable of winning another, but for one reason or another can’t finish the job.

• In 1980 they were simply outplayed in the Super Bowl by a looser Oakland Raiders team.
• In 1988 it was a freak fog bank that cost them against the Bears in Chicago.
• In 1991 their historic defense was hung out to dry when Randall Cunningham injured his knee.
• Between 2001 and 2003 they lost three consecutive NFC championship games at home.
• In 2004 they lost the Super Bowl due to some of the worst clock management of the modern era.
• In 2008 they became the only team to ever lose a conference championship to the Arizona Cardinals.

Every time it looks like they’ve got the talent and the coaching but then things just go south on them.  Is it the karmic baggage of representing one of the most notorious fan bases in professional sports?  Some might say that but more likely it’s because due to the simple fact that they ran into teams that were better.  Either way it doesn’t make the pain any less bearable for Birds fans.

Of course the lingering question is are the Philadelphia Eagles or Detroit Lions anywhere closer to ending it?  Well, the good is Stafford is still young and seems to have an experience, stable coaching staff around him.  For the Eagles, the arrival of promising young quarterback Carson Wentz, coupled with the deft management of GM Howie Roseman gives that team plenty of hope for the future.  Problem is the fans have heard these rackets before.