NFL Top 10

#10: 1990 New England Patriots

Long before the days of Tom Brady, the Patriots finished the season with a 1-15 record. The team gave up 29 rushing touchdowns, and only scored 4. The team garnered very little interest. There was speculation the team might move out of New England. The losing caused low morale and overall lack of effort. Footage is shown of the Eagles game where Randall Cunningham runs in a TD with little effort from the defense. Victor Kiam, an entrepreneur and Remington shaver peddler, owned the team at this time. He sold the team in 1991, and the team did not post a winning season until 1994.

#9: 2001 Carolina Panthers

In their second season (1996) the expansion Panthers won the divisional playoffs. While they lost the conference championships, this was impressive nonetheless. The team got very bad very quickly. The team mascot even had to step in at one point and get them a touchback. George Seifert, who previously led the 49ers to two Super Bowl victories, was put at head coach. The 1-15 season Panthers is often seen as a reason why he is not in the Hall of Fame, although his previous seasons with the Panthers were impressive. In 2001, the Panthers won handily on opening day, then lost everything else. Next season, an unknown John Fox was brought in. He brought the team to conference championship wins.

#8: 1989 Dallas Cowboys

In 1989 the Cowboys new owner Jerry Jones fired legendary coach Tom Landry, replacing him with Jimmy Johnson, a University of Miami coach with an impressive record. 1989 marked the first year of Troy Aikman, who was their first draft pick. Johnson also drafted from Miami. At the time, Herschel Walker was the best player on the Cowboys. Johnson traded him in what become known as "The Great Trade Robbery", the largest player trade in NFL history. Johnson traded 5 players, each with a draft pick attached to them. Johnson planned to cut all of the players and cash in on the draft picks. He didn't want coaches to get attached to these players, or start them even though they were better than what they had. The Cowboys went 1-15 because of this.The Cowboys scored the fewest points in the league that year. The poor defense meant Aikman was often on the tail end of serious punishment. The later seasons fared much better for the Cowboys due to the draft picks and Aikman's first class lesson in the school of hard knocks.

#7: 1996 New York Jets

Interviewee High Douglas (Jets Defensive End 1995 - 1997) jokingly says he would go to games wondering how much they would lose by today. No team turned the ball over more, and in a franchise worst the Jets surrendered 454 points. 2 years before, Dan Marino pulled a classic fake trick on the Jets and faked a spike of the ball for an amazing comeback win. The team never fully recovered from this point, and lost 33 of their next 37 games. The team hadn't won anything since Super Bowl III, and aging owner Leon Hess wanted change. He gave head coach Rich Kotite full control of the team, resulting in a 1-15 season. Rich even had trouble using the headset to call in plays. The year before, the Jets posted a 3-13 season. They passed up one of the leaders in defensive tackle sacks, Warren Sapp, in favor of Kyle Brady, much to fan dismay. Sapp ended up getter drafted by the Tampa Bay Bucs and was a part of their win at Super Bowl XXXVII. Rich was seen as undisciplined and ended up resigning. Bill Parcells was brought in and led to team to brighter days, making the 96 Jets "a punch line."