One thing all NFL teams share in common with each other? At some point or another in their existence, they’ve come into contact with a true villain.
The dictionary describes a villain as “the person or thing responsible for specified trouble, harm, or damage.” They don’t necessarily have to be evil, though some seem to relish that role, they all do share the common trait of inflicting suffering on a franchise and its fans. Sometimes it’s a player. Others it’s a coach. In some cases, it might even be an owner.
One thing is clear. They’re universally hated for what they did on or off the football field. So who were the greatest villains in the history of each franchise? Rest assured there were loads of qualified candidates that took serious research to sift through. In the end, every team has a guy and each guy was quite good at living up to his villainous status.
Get ready for a trip down memory lane. Try to avoid any PTSD along the way.
Arizona Cardinals
Is it possible for one play to make a man the greatest villain in franchise history? Given the magnitude of that play and that moment, the answer can be yes for James Harrison. The Arizona Cardinals were in their first Super Bowl in 2008. They had a chance to take the lead going into the second half, grabbing all sorts of momentum in the process.
Then James Harrison ruined everything.
The outside linebacker intercepted Kurt Warner at the goal line and proceeded to run it back for a 100-yard touchdown return. It was arguably the most gigantic swing of fortunes in Super Bowl history. Pittsburgh took a 20-7 lead into the half and though the Cardinals managed to battle back and take the lead, it wasn’t enough as the Steelers put it out of reach with one last touchdown.
Just for good measure though, to cement his villain status, Harrison delivered a big sack seven years later in 2015 to help Pittsburgh beat the Cardinals again. One of just three regular season losses they’d suffer that season.
Atlanta Falcons
This is going to confuse a lot of people. Why is Andy Reid the greatest villain in Atlanta Falcons history when he’s neither coached in their division and hasn’t coached in their conference for years? To understand why one must look back on history. It all started back in 1995. That year the Falcons fell to the Green Bay Packers in the wild card playoffs. Reid was their offensive line coach for that game, a day that saw the offense rack up 37 points.
It only got worse from there. A few years later in 2002, the Falcons lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs. Reid was the head coach of that team. Then in 2004, Atlanta made it all the way to the NFC championship game, but once again found Reid and the Eagles waiting for them. They had no chance, falling 27-10. Yet the misery goes even deeper than that.
Just last season the Falcons were ousted once against in the playoffs by Philadelphia 15-10. The head coach of that Eagles team was Doug Pederson, a protege of none other than Reid himself.
Baltimore Ravens
The Pittsburgh Steelers-Baltimore Ravens rivalry didn’t really become a thing until the late 2000s when the two teams began competing for playoff supremacy. Most of that time was characterized by one thing: physicality. Both teams were known for their fierce defenses and every game became a slugfest where it was less about who would win and more about who would survive.
However, even such games are always determined by the quarterback. The Ravens found this out the hard way as Ben Roethlisberger has made their lives miserable for the past 10 years. It began in 2008 when he led the victory over them in the AFC championship game and has only gotten worse since. Big Ben has defeated Baltimore twice in the playoffs.
Beyond that? In his career, Roethlisberger has led a 4th quarter comeback 32 times in his career. Five of them have come at the expense of Baltimore. He’s often the one directly responsible for them not being able to even make the playoffs as last season showed with his 506-yard performance service to knock them out of contention.
Buffalo Bills
Lot’s of people had good reasons to hate Jimmy Johnson, and this goes back to his days coaching at Miami in the 1980s. Heck, even his own fans in Dallas didn’t like him because he replaced Tom Landry. Yet if there was one team that grew to despise Johnson during his run in the NFL, it hands down had to be the Buffalo Bills. No man knew how to wreck their dreams better than him.
The primary reason is the obvious one that most people remember. Johnson was the architect of that grew Dallas Cowboys dynasty of the 1990s. The team that won three Super Bowls in four years, and it was the Bills who felt their wrath the most. In their two meetings in the big game in 1992 and 1993, the Cowboys humiliated Buffalo 52-17 and 30-13.
It was Johnson’s defense that was the primary culprit, forcing a combined 12 turnovers in those two games. The pain didn’t stop there though. In 1998, the Bills made the playoffs driven by the magic of resurgent quarterback Doug Flutie. Many felt they were a team of destiny. That’s when Johnson struck again. His Miami Dolphins crushed the dreams of Buffalo again, winning their wild card playoff matchup 24-17.
Carolina Panthers
It may not have been a sustained villainy like others on this list, but rest assured even to this day that Carolina Panthers players and fans can still see Von Miller in their nightmares. That’s how devastating his performance in Super Bowl 50 was. He alone took a 15-1 team into his hands and flattened it like a pancake until their spirits were broken.
He was everywhere in that game. Not only did Miller sack Cam Newton 2.5 times and forced two critical fumbles that all but won the Denver Broncos the game, he also made six tackles and deflected a pass. To understand, the Panthers averaged 40 points in their first two playoff games. They managed 10 in the Super Bowl, and that was mostly because of Miller.
Then, just to rub salt in the wound, the Broncos and Panthers met again in the 2016 season opener. Miller sacked Newton again and helped to force the key turnover that handed Denver the win. Carolina would spiral to a 6-10 season.
Chicago Bears
There was never any doubt that a Packer was going to be the choice here, but many will be shocked to see that it’s not Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers. Each has taken their turn tormenting the Chicago Bears for years. Yet simply winning a lot of games doesn’t make a good villain. Not in the oldest rivalry in the NFL. A little extra spice is needed.
Enter Forrest Gregg. Here’s a man who became a Hall of Fame offensive lineman for the Vince Lombardi Packers, paving the way to five championships in the 1960s, often at the expense of the Bears. That alone is enough to verify his qualifications. It was what he did later as a head coach though that transformed him into Chicago’s version of Thanos.
When Gregg took over as coach of the Packers, one of his first orders of business was to toughen them up. His solution ramping up the rivalry with the Bears to the level of deliberate cheap shots. His players often took liberties when playing Chicago. Two of the most infamous moments came in back-to-back years.
In 1985, defensive back Mark Lee pushed Walter Payton so far out of bounds that he literally knocked the Hall of Fame running back over the Packers’ bench. He was ejected for that. The next season, defensive end Charles Martin bodyslammed quarterback Jim McMahon to the turf. This aggravated a previous shoulder injury the Bears quarterback had suffered and he was never really the same that season. Martin was suspended for two games.
Both of those incidents were signed off on by Gregg. It grew so heated that after beating the Packers in 1987 on a late field goal, Bears kicker Kevin Butler was seen looking towards the Green Bay sideline appearing to flip him off. Only a true villain can garner that sort of a response.
Cincinnati Bengals
Revenge is a powerful motivational tool, and Bill Walsh used it to fuel his eventual Hall of Fame career as a head coach in the NFL. The team that spurred him on was none other than the Cincinnati Bengals. It began in the 1970s. Walsh eventually became offensive coordinator and along with head coach Paul Brown crafted the scheme that would eventually become known as the West Coast offense.
It had tremendous success in Cincinnati. So when Brown stepped down as coach to retire, everybody thought Walsh was a shoe-in to be his replacement. Instead Brown delivered a shocker by promoting Bill Johnson instead. That stung extra hard because Johnson was the offensive line coach at the time. So, in essence, he was being promoted from being Walsh’s subordinate to his superior.
So it shouldn’t have been a real shock when Walsh resigned as offensive coordinator, seeking a new avenue to being a head coach in the NFL. This was a two-fold disaster for Cincinnati. First, the offense lost a lot of its punch and precision when he left. Second, Walsh came back to haunt them when they finally became Super Bowl contenders.
His San Francisco 49ers defeated the Bengals not once but twice for championships in 1981 and 1988, cruelly reminding fans of what could’ve been.
Cleveland Browns
If ever a franchise had a boogeyman they couldn’t escape, it was the Cleveland Browns with John Elway. Any self-respecting football fan has to know the history by now. In the late 1980s, the Browns had emerged as one of the top contenders in the AFC. They were favorites to reach the Super Bowl in 1986, holding homefield advantage going into the conference championship game.
Elway, who’d been dogged by criticism of not having playoff chops, didn’t start the game well. Things got worse when Cleveland took a 20-13 lead with less than six minutes left in the 4th quarter and Denver had been pinned at the 2-yard line on the ensuing kickoff. That meant Elway had to go 98 yards just to tie the game. A series of ridiculous throws later, he hit Mark Jackson for the touchdown.
Denver went on to win in overtime. A year later, the script was flipped. The Browns went into Mile High Stadium as the underdog, hoping to exorcise the demons of their previous loss. Elway made that a monumental task, throwing three touchdown passes including the go-ahead score in the 4th quarter. Cleveland almost tied it until running back Ernest Byner fumbled at the goal line to ice it.
Two years later, as if their pain weren’t severe enough, the Browns made it back one more time. One more time Elway was waiting and this time it wasn’t even close. He threw for 385 yards, three touchdowns and Denver blew them out 37-21. Cleveland hasn’t been to a conference championship since.
Dallas Cowboys
Should the Dallas Cowboys have seven Super Bowl titles instead of five? It’s a fair question. If not for two narrow defeats in 1975 and 1978 at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers, they might be able to say that. Instead, the Steelers became the White Whale for Dallas, that team they could never seem to get past. One would think it was because of that iconic Steel Curtain defense, right?
Not at all. The truth is the man who delighted in ruining the dreams of Dallas fans was quarterback Terry Bradshaw. Of the four Super Bowls he wound up winning, his two against the Cowboys were by far his best performances. He threw for a combined 527 yards with six touchdown passes and just one interception. In both games, it was a late pass from Bradshaw to Lynn Swann that put the score out of reach for Dallas.
It didn’t end there though. Bradshaw was also 3-1 against the Cowboys in the regular season as well, throwing five touchdowns to just one interception in those games. Bradshaw retired with a 5-1 record against America’s team. Nobody else even came close to that.
Denver Broncos
At one point in time Denver Broncos fans were predisposed to hate Philip Rivers. It wasn’t just the fact that he was the quarterback of the arch-rival San Diego Chargers. That was bad enough. It was also the fact that he came across as arrogant and loudmouthed. He often got into shouting matches with other Broncos players and seemed to take extra delight in beating them.
This era reached its rock bottom in 2008. The Broncos had the division title all but locked up with three games to go, but after two-straight losses, they needed to beat the Chargers to secure the crown. Rivers threw two touchdowns without a turnover and helped his team to a 52-21 victory to steal the AFC West. It was an utter humiliation for Denver, one that got head coach Mike Shanahan fired.
Rivers and the Chargers would thus rule over the division for the next three years until the Broncos finally began to rebound in 2011. It was a miserable time that most would prefer to forget. They can only hope that with the Chargers appearing on the upswing themselves that more Rivers headaches aren’t around the corner.
Detroit Lions
Ask any Lions fan who the biggest villain in team history is and this is almost certain to be the name that comes up. No man drew the sheer rage of Detroit despite the best of intentions more than Matt Millen did. As a player, the man had a terrific career. He won four Super Bowls as a middle linebacker and was considered a highly intelligent leader.
Sounds like a slam dunk for being a great executive, right? The Lions thought so. The problem is they plucked Millen out of a broadcast booth and instead of making him GM made him team president. That came with more than just football-related responsibilities. Then there was the issue of Millen’s personality.
He was the consummate team guy. When it came to making a decision, he would often choose to delegate in order to preserve unity rather than taking control himself. That might work great on the field, but in the front office it was a total disaster. Millen’s run was characterized by a series of poor decisions in the draft.
His most notorious was drafting a wide receiver in the 1st round from 2003 to 2005. Not only did he do this to the detriment of other positions of need, but he also missed out on several great players as a result. The Lions never had a winning season during his long reign and bottomed out his final year in 2008, finishing 0-16.
Green Bay Packers
Where would the Green Bay Packers championship fortunes be today if not for Larry Fitzgerald? That’s a legitimate question because the future Hall of Fame wide receiver had a direct hand in ruining their dreams not once but twice in the playoffs with epic performances. While most remember the one a few years ago, it actually started back in 2009.
In one of the greatest shootouts in postseason history, the Arizona Cardinals outlasted the Packers in overtime 51-45. Most remember how the game ended with Aaron Rodgers fumbling away the winning touchdown. Yet they forget how dominant Fitzgerald was. He burned the Packers all night, posting 82 yards and scoring two key touchdowns.
It was six years later though that he went from great opponent to full-fledged demon. Riding a wave of belief, thinking they were a team of destiny in 2015, the Packers had all the confidence in the world they could beat the Cardinals in the divisional playoff. They were almost right. There was just one problem. Take one guess.
Fitzgerald could not and would not be stopped in that game. He caught eight passes for 176 yards, his best performance of his career. This included two ridiculous plays in overtime that led to the winning touchdown.
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans don’t have a lengthy playoff history, but what they have has taken place entirely within the era of the New England Patriots dynasty. So like many teams their playoff disappointments can be traced to run-ins with that franchise. One might think this would make Tom Brady or Bill Belichick their obvious demons of choice.
In truth though, another unheralded Patriot player seemed to do his best work against them. In 2012, the Texans went into Foxborough on a hot streak. They’d gone 12-4 during the season and won their first playoff game. Unfortunately, they learned a hard lesson against the Patriots: you can’t make mistakes. Defensive end Rob Ninkovich proved that with a key interception of Matt Schaub that helped pave the way to a 41-28 win for New England.
Four years later it was more of the same. The Texans had momentum going into the game and again their offense couldn’t avoid critical mistakes. Ninkovich had a hand in their misery again, sacking Brock Osweiler during the game. It was another runaway as the Patriots won 34-16. He may not be a household name, but the man certainly knew how to run Houston the wrong way.
Indianapolis Colts
Tom Brady has tortured pretty much every team in the AFC over the course of his Hall of Fame career. One could call him the villain of the entire NFL. Let’s be real though. No team felt the sting of him more often than the Indianapolis Colts. They more than anybody can say Brady was the sole reason they have just one Lombardi trophy in the past 20 years instead of three or four.
It began in 2003. The Colts, led by MVP Peyton Manning had designs on a championship. Brady and the Patriots had other ideas in a 24-14 victory. The next year it wasn’t much better as he led an efficient 20-3 win over what was arguably the best Colts team of the Manning era. In five playoff meetings, Brady is 4-1 against the Colts with seven touchdowns.
His three-touchdown, 45-7 pasting of them in 2014 was the worst yet. For his career, Brady is 14-4 against the Colts. That’s more wins he has against any non-division opponent in his career. There’s no question that city is begging for the day he eventually retires.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Should the Jacksonville Jaguars have a Super Bowl championship already? They’ve come close a number of times, but it always seems like the same team is getting in their way. Strike that. It’s the same man getting in their way. That man is Bill Belichick. He more than anybody has had a direct hand in keeping the Jaguars from a Lombardi trophy.
It all started back in 1996. Jacksonville was the Cinderella of the ball, going 9-7 and starting a miracle run that saw them reach the AFC championship in just their second year of existence. The dream ended there though against the New England Patriots. The Jaguars offense, so dominant the previous two weeks, managed just six points. The Patriots defensive coordinator for that game? Yep. Belichick.
Fast forward to 2005. The Jaguars make the playoffs for the first time in six years. They don’t have long to celebrate as the Patriots knock them out 28-3. This time Belichick is their head coach. Two years later Jacksonville returns, this time upsetting Pittsburgh in the wild card round. Again they go to New England and again they can’t solve the Belichick puzzle, losing 31-20.
It would be another 10 years before the Jaguars finally got back to the playoffs. Yet, in a cruel twist of irony, it ended the same exact way. They reached the AFC championship, went to New England and were summarily dismissed 24-20. For proper perspective, Jacksonville is 0-10 against the Patriots when Belichick is involved.
Kansas City Chiefs
Make no mistake. The Kansas City Chiefs don’t hold a monopoly on being the team Peyton Manning terrorized during his Hall of Fame career. However, no team was haunted more consistently by him during the entire span of his run from 1998 all the way through 2015. It was that consistent of a tortured period.
It began in 2003. The Chiefs were one of the best teams in the AFC, going 13-3 that year. They hosted co-MVP Manning and the Colts at Arrowhead in the divisional playoff where they just couldn’t keep up in a 38-31 shootout. It took three years to get over that loss. The Chiefs didn’t reach the playoffs again until 2006.
Sure enough, their opener in the wild card round was a visit to Indianapolis. There Manning and an angry Colts defense overpowered Kansas City 23-8. People must’ve danced in the streets when the Colts finally released Manning in 2012. Now he could go somewhere else. Then he signed with the Denver Broncos and things only got worse.
As quarterback up there, Manning went 7-1 in his division showdowns with the Chiefs. Kansas City had to watch the Broncos reach two Super Bowls and win a Lombardi trophy in 2015. It doesn’t get more painful than that.
Los Angeles Chargers
The Chargers were one of the early elite teams of the old AFL in the 1960s, winning a championship in 1963. That began to change in 1966 when Al Davis stepped down as commissioner of the league and took over the Oakland Raiders as part owner and general manager. From that point on, he became the bane of their existence in San Diego.
From 1966 through 1978, the Chargers failed to make the playoffs once. During that same span, the Raiders made it 10 times, reached two Super Bowls and won a Lombardi trophy. They also held a record of 20-4-2 against San Deigo in that span. Amazing as it may sound, the worst was still to come.
The Chargers finally turned things around in 1979, led by head coach Don Coryell and quarterback Dan Fouts. These days most people say the best chance for that great team to win a championship was 1981 with that electric, record-breaking offense. The truth is their best chance was the year before. San Diego was in the AFC championship and at home.
That was their best opportunity, and the Raiders stole it from them in a 34-27 heartbreaker. It remains the only time the two teams have met in the playoffs. Oakland holds a decisive 63-52-2 edge in the all-time series with three Super Bowls to none. All of that can be attributed to what Al Davis built.
Los Angeles Rams
The Rams have a long history so there’s no shortage of candidates when it comes to villains. Anybody would agree though that’s it’s always the silent ones who are the killers. There was no man who made life miserable for Los Angeles fans than Bud Grant. This may come as a slight shock to younger fans. That’s only because they haven’t brushed up on their history.
Between the late 1960s through the 1970s, the Rams were one of the premier franchises in the NFL. From 1969 to 1979, they made the playoffs a total of eight times. Not too shabby. The problem is they just couldn’t seem to get past the same team. That was Grant’s Minnesota Vikings. Of their eight playoff exits during that span, Grant had a hand in four of them.
Minnesota beat them in 1974, 1976, and 1977. The most painful one had to be 1969. Many felt that should’ve been the Rams’ year. They had league MVP Roman Gabriel at QB and the Fearsome Foursome led by Deacon Jones on defense. They even held a 20-14 lead going into the 4th quarter of that game but gave it up in the final minutes to lose 23-20.
The next game would’ve been against the Cleveland Browns, a team the Rams had crushed the year before 24-6. Their road to the Super Bowl was wide open and Grant slammed it shut on them.
Miami Dolphins
There are plenty of reasons why Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl. Let’s face it. He wasn’t always at his best in the postseason, prone to making a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes. However, he also had the misfortune of having to go through some really tough opponents. Joe Montana and that great 1984 San Francisco team tops the list, but there was another.
The Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s were an AFC dynasty that reached four-straight Super Bowls, and it was often at the expense of the Dolphins and their Hall of Fame QB. No player made their life miserable during those matchups more than Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas. No matter what Miami tried, they just had no answers for him.
In three playoff defeats at the hands of the Bills between 1990 and 1995, Thomas accounted for 521 total yards and four touchdowns. That’s an average of 173.6 yards per game. It’s fair to wonder how different their playoff fortunes would’ve been had they not had to face him so frequently during that period.
Minnesota Vikings
Ask any Vikings fans to this day about the name Drew Pearson and the same phrase will come spewing from their mouths like an unstoppable avalanche. “He pushed off!” This is in reference to the now iconic playoff game in 1975 between Minnesota and the Dallas Cowboys. Many felt that should’ve been the year the Vikings finally won their first Super Bowl.
It’s not hard to see why. That team finished the regular season 12-2. They ranked 1st both in pass and run defense while boasting the 3rd-most points scored on offense in the NFL. It was a balanced juggernaut that had looked unstoppable all season. They just needed to get by Dallas in the division round and they’d have had a clear road to the Super Bowl for a rematch with Pittsburgh.
Then Pearson ruined it. The play came in the final seconds. Minnesota held a 14-10 lead. It was 4th down and all the Cowboys could do was fire one last pass down the field to try to score. Quarterback Roger Staubach said he dropped back, said a couple Hail Marys and launched it. What followed was one of the biggest controversies in playoff history.
Pearson, the Cowboys wide receiver ended up making the catch for the go-ahead touchdown. The problem is a split second before that it appeared he shoved Vikings cornerback Nate Wright int eh back, causing him to fall down. This gave Pearson a clear road into the end zone. The penalty wasn’t called and the touchdown stood, thus cementing Pearson as a hated man in Minnesota.
New England Patriots
Many might’ve expected Eli Manning to be the choice here, right? Makes sense. He’s the gritty quarterback who ruined the New England Patriots perfect season in 2007 and then stole another Super Bowl title from them four years later as well. If not for him Tom Brady would have seven rings instead of five. However, Manning was merely a gear in the Patriot-killing machine that was Tom Coughlin.
It starts with being the head coach of those New York Giants teams, which puts him on equal footing with Manning. While the QB played great in those games, so did the Giants defenses and that must be attributed to the coaching. What many fans lost in the euphoria of the Brady era tend to forget is Coughlin was a problem for this franchise years before even that.
Back in 19987, the Patriots had made the playoffs for the third-straight year. Unfortunately, it would mark the last time until 2001. In an eerie case of foreshadowing, it was Coughlin’s Jacksonville Jaguars who dispatched them in the wild card game 25-10.
New Orleans Saints
The one good thing that John Mecom Jr. did was bring the New Orleans Saints into existence. That was the extent of his positive contributions to the NFL. After that, it became a series of mismanagement blunders that saw his team go 18 years without a winning season. That’s it. His team was the first to lose to the hapless Buccaneers and had five seasons where they won three games or less.
Is it a coincidence that the Saints made the playoffs for the first time in their existence just one year after Mecom sold the team in 1985? That proves more than anything the man was never interested in building a winning team and was more focused on making money. So he must’ve been thrilled selling the franchise for $64 million after purchasing them for $8.5 million.
Perhaps his legacy can be centered around his utter failure to build a strong enough roster around quarterback Archie Manning. How different would things have been had he actually made the effort rather than coasting most of the way? No one will ever know.
New York Giants
First class franchises need a first class villain. So how about one of the greatest coaches in NFL history for the New York Giants? Vince Lombardi is a tale of what-ifs and revenge. From 1954 to 1958, he was the offensive coordinator for the Giants and helped them to win the NFL championship in 1956. By 1959 though most felt he was past due to get a team of his own.
Looked down on by many for his Italian heritage, the Green Bay Packers proved the beneficiaries. Desperate for a proven coach who knew how to win, they made Lombardi both their head coach and GM. His impact was instantaneous. Tragically for the Giants, this would become their undoing as the 1961 and 1962 seasons would prove.
Both times they would reach the NFL championship game. Both times it would be the Lombardi Packers waiting and both times New York was run off the field. In those two meetings, Green Bay outscored the Giants 53-7. All told Lombardi went 5-1 in his career against his former team. It makes one wonder how different things could’ve been had they promoted him instead.
New York Jets
The New York Jets have developed an unfortunate habit of being the whipping post for Hall of Fame quarterbacks over the past few decades. It’s been mostly Tom Brady since the dawn of the new millennium, but facts are facts. He was merely for the original “Jet Killer.” That was Miami Dolphins icon, Dan Marino.
Just look at the stats for an idea of how much Marino loved to play New York. In his career, he threw for 8,651 yards and 72 touchdowns against them. Both were the highest numbers he had against any one team. There were times where it appeared like he was toying with them and in truth he probably was. He was that good.
Going into 1998, Marino was 17-9 against them in his career. If not for four-straight wins his final two years, it would’ve looked so much worse. The high point of his villainy had to be the 1994 season. Going into their rematch, the Jets were 6-5 and still in the playoff hunt. They had the lead late in the game until Marino uncorked the now iconic “Fake Spike” play that saw Miami score the go-ahead touchdown.
That loss would be the first of five-straight to end the year and was a catalyst for the run of misery between 1995 and 1996 when the Jets went a combined 4-28.
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders seemed to revel playing the bad guy role during much of their existence. This earned them plenty of enemies over a span of decades, but none seemed to take that dislike to a more personal level than Marty Schottenheimer. He was never shy about it, even dubbing every time his team played them “Raider Week.”
Schottenheimer was always a man big on respect and he felt the Raiders were too arrogant for their own good and seemed to revel in knocking them down a peg or two at every opportunity. This he did with a ruthless precision. From 1989 to 1998 encompassing his entire run in Kansas City, Schottenheimer held a staggering record of 18-3 against the Silver and Black.
This included a 10-6 triumph in 1991, the first playoff meeting between the two teams in 31 years. The Raiders made the playoffs just three times during that span, due in large part to their inability to get past the Chiefs. It didn’t end there though. Schottenheimer resurfaced in 2002, this time as head coach of the San Diego Chargers, another Oakland division rival.
His record against them during that run: 8-2.
Philadelphia Eagles
Some of the greatest villains in any part of the entertainment business are the ones who become part of a betrayal. Terrell Owens fits that description better than most, and no team felt his sting more than the Philadelphia Eagles. He was a man that was supposed to deliver them a Super Bowl. In fairness, he almost did with a superb performance against the Patriots in 2004.
That would prove to be his high point in Philly though. In a remarkably short time, he began to alienate everybody from his teammates to his coaches and the fans with his over-the-top antics on and off the field. It grew to be so bad that he was suspended by the team. He never played another down for them and was released after just two seasons.
Rather than get far away from the controversy, Owens chose to feed it instead by signing with the Dallas Cowboys. There is no team on the planet Eagles fans hate more, and this led him to become public enemy number one in that city.
Pittsburgh Steelers
When a team raises the idea of criminal charges against a player, you know that guy is a villain. No rivalry was more intense or cutthroat than that of the Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s. Not only did it feature a wealth of Hall of Fame talent, it also may have been the most physical and in many cases dirtiest rivalry there ever was.
No player epitomized that mentality better than Raiders safety George Atkinson. The two-time Pro Bowler seemed to revel in taking liberties with Steelers receivers whenever the two teams played, none more so than future Hall of Famer Lynn Swann. He delivered some fierce shots on him during their many clashes, but there were two that stood out the most.
In the 1975 AFC championship, Swann caught a pass over the middle of the field. Atkinson came flying in for the tackle and craned him around the head. Swann was knocked out for the rest of the game. That move had been legal. What happened a few months later? Not so much, and it only served to fuel Atkinson’s villain status in Pittsburgh.
In the teams’ rematch on the opening day of the 1976 season, he went after Swann again. This time though, there was no hiding his intent. Atkinson clubbed the receiver with a forearm to the side of the head. It was not legal, far away from the play and again knocked Swann out with a concussion. He missed the next two games. Head coach Chuck Noll even called for him to get kicked out of league.
San Francisco 49ers
Would the San Francisco 49ers have won a Super Bowl a decade before they actually got their first if not for Roger Staubach? That’s a legitimate question. In the early 1970s, the 49ers were a true contender. The problem is they kept running into the Dallas Cowboys during that time and couldn’t beat them when it mattered. The primary crusher of their dreams was Staubach.
In 1971, the 49ers reached their first NFC championship game. Staubach wasn’t spectacular but he threw for 103 yards, rushed for another 55 and engineered two TD drives to put the game out of reach 14-3. The next year though felt like San Francisco’s time. Staubach had been injured most of the season and was on the bench when two teams met again in the divisional round.
The 49ers built a 28-13 lead going into the 4th quarter. Their eyes were already on the next round. Dallas, with nothing left to lose, put Staubach in. In a span of mere minutes, he engineered three-straight scoring drives including two touchdown passes to stun San Francisco 30-28. That loss crippled the franchise. They wouldn’t make the playoffs again until 1981, two years after Staubach retired.
Seattle Seahawks
Nobody knew the name Mike Harden until opening day of 1988. That’s when he transformed from nondescript defensive back of the Denver Broncos to genuine object of loathing for Seattle Seahawks fans everywhere. It came when he delivered a vicious, illegal hit on wide receiver Steve Largent. The blow not only knocked him cold but also knocked out some of his teeth.
Harden was fined $5,000 for the incident and never expressed much remorse over the hit. It certainly had an impact on Largent. Though he only missed one game, the future Hall Famer had his worst season statistically since 1977. The 1982 year doesn’t count because it was a strike-shortened season. So one could argue Harden accelerated Largent’s decline.
That said, he didn’t get away with it. Later that same season, the two teams met for a rematch. Harden intercepted an overthrown pass and appeared to be running it back for a possible touchdown. At that moment Largent came out of nowhere to level him with a ferocious hit. Harden fumbled the ball and Seattle recovered. They won the game 42-14.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans can credit Hugh Culverhouse for bringing the franchise into the NFL….and not much else. In truth, he may be in contention for worst owner in league history and that’s not an exaggeration. The man was disliked almost universally, not just by fans but by players, coaches, executives and fellow owners.
He kept his employees in a constant state of fear. He’d fire people for mistakes that he himself had a direct hand in. Despite being one of the higher grossing franchises of the time, he was notoriously cheap when paying his players. If that weren’t enough, he was directly at fault for the infamous Bo Jackson debacle in 1986.
The Auburn running back had no desire to play for Tampa and requested Culverhouse not pick him. Instead, the owner tried to strongarm Jackson into accepting a cheap contract rather than taking a lucrative trade to move out of the #1 spot. They picked him anyway and Jackson went to play Major League Baseball instead. The Buccaneers got absolutely nothing from that #1 pick.
Yet it was Culverhouse’s lack of interest in winning that seemed to stick out most. This reflected in his treatment of quarterback Doug Williams. Despite leading the team to three playoff appearances including an NFC championship game, Culverhouse refused to pay him a $600,000 raise. As a result, Williams left for the USFL. Tampa Bay didn’t make the playoffs again until 1997.
Tennessee Titans
Most might think the Super Bowl defeat against the Rams in 1999 was the most painful moment in Tennessee Titans history. However, many would say that’s not true. Rather it was the loss to the Baltimore Ravens a year later in the divisional round that was the true devastator. That 2000 Titans team was considered by many to be even better than the one the previous year.
They’d gone 13-3 and boasted the #1 defense in the NFL. Steve McNair, Eddie George, Frank Wycheck, and Derrick Mason were all Pro Bowlers on offense too. This roster was stacked. Yet they never counted on the Ravens being the threat they were, and this was due in large part to the overarching presence of linebacker Ray Lewis.
The future Hall of Famer was at his peak in 2000. He was Defensive Player of the Year and making big plays left and right. Probably the biggest of his career came in that game. Trailing 17-10, the Titans appeared to be driving towards a tying touchdown. It was then Lewis provided the highlight of the season. McNair threw an out pass to George that was a little behind the running back.
As George juggled it trying to gain control, Lewis came out of nowhere and literally stole the ball out of his hands, returning it a 50-yard touchdown. That loss was so devastating that Tennessee failed to make the playoffs the next season. Eight year later it was the same story.
A 13-3 regular season.
A first round matchup against Lewis and the Ravens.
Score just 10 points and commit a backbreaking turnover late in the game to lose it. Brutal.
Washington Redskins
You know a guy is a true villain when your coaching staff basically invents a new offensive scheme for the sole purpose of making it easier to play against him. That’s what the Washington Redskins had to do in the 1980s against Lawrence Taylor. There seemed to be no team the New York Giants all-time pass rusher played better against.
Much of this was rooted in his family history. Taylor’s father was apparently a big Redskins fan and had no problem letting his son know it. So anytime the Giants played Washington, LT would bring his best stuff. He had 19 sacks in his career against the Redskins and often saved them for some of the biggest moments.
He ended the career of Pro Bowl running back Joe Theismann when he graphically broke his leg on Monday Night Football. Then the next year he had six sacks against them in the regular season and together with his defense shutout Washington in the NFC championship 17-0, going on to win the Super Bowl.