While losing a Super Bowl is heartbreaking for supporters, they may take consolation in the knowing that their team is one of the greatest in the NFL and has a good chance of winning it all next season. Some unlucky fan bases seldom see their club even enter the playoffs, let alone appear like a legitimate title contender.
The Carolina Panthers were the subject of much ridicule before and after their first Super Bowl victory in 2015. With a traditional conservative football culture that makes playing in Charlotte difficult (no black players, no women's teams), many thought there was no way this small-market franchise could ever become a real force. Despite these challenges, head coach Ron Rivera and quarterback Cam Newton have turned the team into a consistent winner, with five straight postseason appearances. After starting 3-4 this past season, Carolina is once again poised to challenge for another Super Bowl title.
Newton has been the driving force behind the team's success during his six seasons as the starter. The third-year quarterback has shown an ability to learn from his mistakes and quickly improve his game, which is rare for a player his age. He has also demonstrated leadership skills by helping guide the team through some tough times (see: 2012 season).
After posting three consecutive 11-5 records, including a perfect 12-0 regular season in 2015, the Panthers fell short of making it back to the Super Bowl yet again.
A defeat is a loss no matter how well the teams played, and a Super Bowl loss will undoubtedly make a conference winner feel like the worst team in the NFL. On Sunday night, either the Baltimore Ravens or the San Francisco 49ers will be added to the list of Super Bowl losers.
It's heartbreaking to lose in the Super Bowl, and watching that game will reopen old scars for dedicated fans. But don't despair. If you're going to lose, it might be a bit less painful to be recognized as one of the greatest losers of all time. 1 of 11 Honorable Mentions In Memory of the '98 Vikings
A defeat is a loss no matter how well the teams played, and a Super Bowl loss will undoubtedly make a conference winner feel like the worst team in the NFL. On Sunday night, either the Baltimore Ravens or the San Francisco 49ers will be added to the list of Super Bowl losers.
Losing is always painful, but nothing stings more in the NFL than battling all the way to the Super Bowl just to fall short. While the benefits of the Lombardi Trophy are numerous, the losers on Super Sunday do not go away absolutely empty-handed. They will still have plenty to cheer about during their time off, including having raised a lot of money for good causes. Finally, they will have proven that no matter how far behind you may be, there is always a chance to come back and win it all.
The Pittsburgh Steelers lost the Super Bowl last year to the New England Patriots. It was their third straight loss after winning the first three games of the season. As a result, many people did not expect them to come back this year. However, here they are again ready to battle it out for the championship. This shows that even though you may seem like you are going nowhere, you can always turn things around if you work hard enough at it.
If the Steelers had won the title last year, it would have been their second championship in four years. They also lost the 2009 season finale to the Chicago Bears by a score of 28-22. However, it doesn't sound like much has changed since then as they are once again facing off against their rival Patriots for the title. This means that both these teams have something to prove; whether it is to themselves or to others.
It's heartbreaking to lose in the Super Bowl, and watching that game will reopen old scars for dedicated fans. But don't despair. If you're going to lose, it might be a bit less painful to be recognized as one of the greatest losers of all time. 1 of 11 Honorable Mentions In Memory of the '98 Vikings: A Fan's Top 10 Worst NFL Championships Ever
Losing is part of sports, and losing well is even better. Losing with dignity is admirable while losing with shame is disgraceful. Here are the worst losses in NFL history:
10 1998 Minnesota Vikings: This one still hurts, almost 15 years later. The Vikings were defending champions and expected to contend right away after trading up in the draft to select Randy Moss first overall. Instead, they lost their first five games by an average margin of more than 30 points per game. The season was already over when Kevin Williams died of a heart attack during practice. It's been said that nobody wins the championship except the Patriots or Steelers. But nobody loses them either.
9 1960 Baltimore Colts: This one also hurts because it was so close. The Colts were loaded with talent but lost the last game of the season to the Browns by a score of 23-17. Don Shula's crew had winning seasons every year from 1956 to 1960. They just couldn't win the big one.
To win the Super Bowl, the entire organization must be committed from the top down. Millions of dollars must be spent, thousands of man-hours must be burned, and dozens of people must give their all, 24 hours a day, for years on end. Even so, they'll need a lot of good fortune.
The winning team will have all the same opportunities as every other team, but because of how they performed in the regular season, they'll be given some extra luck. For example, if they happened to be playing at the same time as one of the other teams was winning the coin toss, they would get to choose whether to receive the ball first or second. This is called being "penalty free". If they win the coin toss, then they're automatically awarded the choice of positions for the kickoff (or any subsequent kickoffs) as well. In addition, if they win the coin toss during normal play, they get to decide what side of the field they want to defend first. There are several more such chances given out by default; if you win the coin toss enough times, you'll eventually get to choose which defense to use.
Finally, there's the fact that the Super Bowl winner is the best team at the end of the season. They might not have been the best team at the beginning of the season, but by game time it doesn't matter: it's all about who lives up to their potential at the end of the year.
Only eight times in the last 55 years has a club that lost the Super Bowl returned to compete the following year. We polled runner-up coaches, players, and executives, as well as dug deeper into the data, to find out: Why is it so difficult to return? What types of things can cause a team to lose the championship game but still qualify for the post-season? And more.
Losing teams go back to the field the next season 85 percent of the time. Nine of 10 clubs that fall short of the title win will be back in the playoffs the following year. That's one of the main reasons why people say the NFL is too hard to play multiple seasons in; if this were baseball or basketball, where teams usually move on after one bad season, many more would have fallen by the wayside long before they ever got a chance to show what they could do.
That being said, there are some losing teams that do stay down for several years. The Raiders, Buccaneers, Jaguars, and Dolphins are the only franchises to appear in the Super Bowl after three straight losing seasons. Of those, only the Raiders have stayed up for good (they've made the playoffs every year since 1992).
In fact, only two losing programs have managed to turn things around quickly enough to still make the postseason the year after they fell short of the title.
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