MIAMI — If misery loves company, the Miami Dolphins had enough for a commiseration party, once. Fins fans were not alone in mourning an NFL playoff winless streak so long it was a memory challenge to recall the last postseason victory. It was Dec.
30, 2000, for Miami, by the way, 23-17 over the Indianapolis Colts. American Beauty won the best-picture Oscar that year. U2’s Beautiful Day won Grammy song of the year.
And Bill Clinton was near the end of his presidency — with a controversial Florida recount and ‘hanging chads” in the news to determine who’d succeed him. The Dolphins have not won a playoff game since, the 23-season drought now leading the NFL. And the company has left.
Buffalo had a 24-year drought and Cleveland’s was 22 years, but both finally won in the postseason in 2020. Detroit, once King of Misery with a 31-year postseason lapse, at last ended that just last season. Miami’s ongoing drought is not only now the worst in football, it is second worst among the combined 124 franchises in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB.
Thank you , Cincinnati Reds, for being even worse, with a 28-year void dating to that club’s last postseason advance in 1995. In this updated Fan Base Misery Index, we judge a team in its current city only. As an example, the Raiders’ franchise playoff-win drought is 21 years, but folks in Las Vegas have only suffered the past four years.
With that in mind: — Bottom five playoff-victory droughts in current consecutive seasons — 2.