History Main / EveryYearTheyFizzleOut

** Arsenal FC. Despite always being in contention for the League title, they haven't won one since the legendary "Invincibles" season of 2003-2004, consistently finishing either 4th or 3rd in the League, complete with impressive wins at times when it didn't matter...and frustrating losses and draws at times when it ''did'' matter. Nowadays, Arsenal has the rather derisive moniker of being "strong against the weak and weak against the strong". Unlike Liverpool, they don't have a rich Champions League history; before they reached the 2006 final against Barcelona, Arsenal had never progressed beyond the quarter-finals. This lack of Champions' League pedigree is a source of frustration to both the fans and manager Arsène Wenger, who could probably win another double armload of Premier League titles and still consider himself a failure if they didn't add a Champions League championship. And just when it looked like they would finally win the league in the 2022-23 season, they suddenly lost steam fast to the point of Manchester City finishing ahead of them by 5 points, snatching their third title in a row.

* EveryYearTheyFizzleOut/NFL
* EveryYearTheyFizzleOut/NHL

!!Examples:

[[folder:NFL]]
[[AC:[[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeagueQuarterbacks Quarterbacks]]]]
* Creator/PeytonManning, the former TropeNamer; historic regular seasons throughout his NFL career, heartbreaking losses in the playoffs, yet he was always near the top of the best quarterback list and received a ton of endorsements.
** The rep began to cling to him in his career with the University of Tennessee. He was forced into action in his freshman year, and no fair-minded fan thinks his one loss as starter (to #10 Alabama) that year was a disappointment. But after that, he lost every year to a certain team in Gainesville, Florida, and their EvilGenius coach.
** Before 2007, this reputation was certainly not helped by Tennessee winning the national championship in 1998, one year after Manning graduated, behind unheralded quarterback Tee Martin. Who's Tee Martin? [[AppealToObscurity Exactly.]][[note]]He does have some name recognition in college football as a ''coach'', but none at all as a player.[[/note]]
** After winning his first Super Bowl, though, he slowly gained that reputation back, having made the playoffs every year since, winning 12+ games in all but one of those seasons, nabbing 2 NFL MVP awards, and even making it to Super Bowl XLIV, where his Colts were favored against the New Orleans Saints. And yet, during that streak from 2007-2010, the Colts went one-and-done in the playoffs 3 out of 4 years and lost in the Super Bowl the one year they won any playoff games.
** Moving on to the Denver Broncos, he continued that reputation in the AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens, when he threw an interception that sealed the Ravens' comeback.
** He finally won a playoff game with Denver in 2014 against the San Diego Chargers, and then won the conference against the New England Patriots, but his number one offense was not good enough to beat the Seattle Seahawks' number one defense in Super Bowl XLVIII. This overwhelming loss triggered a ''lot'' of talk about Manning's legacy and his reputation as a choker in key postseason games.
** In the 2014-15 playoffs, Manning went one-and-done in the playoffs for the ''ninth'' time in his career, losing 24-13 to his former team in Denver with a very pedestrian performance, stretching his postseason record to a mediocre 11-13.
** Manning finally managed to erase the past with the 2015-16 season. Although hampered by injuries during the entire season, Manning and the Broncos' highly touted defense ground their way into the playoffs. They then beat the legendary-franchise Steelers and their multiple-Super Bowl-winning and future HOF QB Ben Roethlisberger; beat the legendary-franchise Patriots and their multiple-Super Bowl-winning and future HOF QB Creator/TomBrady; and, in Super Bowl 50 beat the favored Panthers and their MVP QB Cam Newton 24-10 to capture Manning's second Super Bowl win and bring his playoff record to 14-13. He officially retired from the NFL a few weeks after as the first, and until [[Creator/TomBrady 2021]] ''only'', QB ever to win Super Bowls with two different teams as a starter[[note]]Earl Morrall and Jim [=McMahon=] both won with two teams, but each won only once as a starter and once as a backup[[/note]], ensuring that his legacy is more than intact.
* Since Manning won his Super Bowls, the "Perennial Choker" label has had several contenders. Brett Favre seems infamous for this. Despite breaking darn near every major NFL passing record, as well as actually winning a Super Bowl, it seems that whenever the season is on the line (such as the 2007 and 2009 NFC Championships), it's almost certain that Favre is going to throw a game-ending interception. While he's not the only quarterback that's had this problem, none have been as viciously mocked or criticized for this as Favre; this may be due to Favre also holding the record for interceptions. Not to mention the detractors (who increased greatly in number after his repeated "[[TenMinuteRetirement retirements]]") finding it hilarious for his career at three different teams[[note]]Packers, Jets, and finally the Vikings[[/note]] to end with an interception. Still, Favre ''does'' have a Super Bowl win. Unlike the four other major contenders noted below....
* First, Donovan [=McNabb=] was a top contender, who lost 4 NFC title games and his only Super Bowl. [=McNabb=]'s losing streak was so bad that fans started calling him [="McChoke"=]. Despite his seven losses in the post-season, though, he at least has a winning record of 9-7.
** In fairness, that one SB appearance was against the [[TheJuggernaut defending champion 2004 New England Patriots]]. [=McNabb=] never stood a chance.[[note]]And even then, he managed to torch the Patriots' top-ranked defense for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns. It still wasn't enough because he also threw three interceptions, including a back-breaking one on the Eagles' final drive.[[/note]]
* Second, Dan Marino holds or has held almost every major NFL passing record, but only won the AFC Championship once in 1984 (his second season), and like [=McNabb=] he lost his only Super Bowl. His 8-10, .444 record in the postseason is the worst winning percentage of any QB with more than ten playoff appearances.
** Again in fairness, that one SB appearance was against the [[TheJuggernaut 1984 San Francisco 49ers]]. Marino never stood a chance.
** Triskaidekaphobes note another contributing factor to why he never won a Super Bowl title: [[ThirteenIsUnlucky he wore No. 13 his entire career]] -- his number was retired by the Dolphins after his career was over.
* Third, Philip Rivers seems doomed to claim Marino's title of "The Best QB to Never Win It All". He finished his 17-year career with a 5–7 record, only making the AFC championship once and lost. This trope seemed to follow Rivers when he got traded to the Indianapolis Colts, as he would lose a playoff game in his only season with the team.
* Fourth and finally, Matt Ryan. His 4–6 record is as ignominious as Rivers' (worse percentage, fewer appearances); most infamously, he and his Atlanta Falcons committed the worst choke in Super Bowl history (and potentially in NFL and even ''sports'' history[[note]]it's not the largest lead an NFL team has ever blown (at the time, that honor went to the Houston Oilers blowing a 32-point lead against the Buffalo Bills, see below, though that would be surpassed in 2022, see later in this paragraph), but the particular importance of the game, the speed at which the turnaround happened, and the sheer absurdity of some of the game-changing mistakes have led to it being a candidate for the worst in history nonetheless[[/note]]), squandering a 28–3 lead in his only SB appearance. Later, in 2022, as QB for the Indianapolis Colts, he also beat the record for the largest lead ever blown in NFL history, losing to the Minnesota Vikings 36-39, despite having a 33–0 halftime lead.
* Though he has a Super Bowl win on his resume from 2010, Aaron Rodgers seems to be gaining this reputation in the back half of his career, as despite having some of the best regular-season stats of all time, Rodgers has a 7–9 playoff record, including four conference championship losses and two all-time choke jobs in 2014 and 2021. While Rodgers isn't the only factor, and there's no question he's also had some epic games in the playoffs (even in a few of the losses, such as his legendary 2009 shootout with Kurt Warner), there have also been too many times where, even if there were other factors that contributed to a loss as well, Rodgers himself didn't bring his best game and it showed.[[note]]For instance: the immediate cause of the aforementioned 2021 playoff loss was special teams failures, but those failures wouldn't have been decisive if the Rodgers-led offense hadn't fallen off a cliff after the first quarter.[[/note]] (In fact, this aspect of his game was arguably present even in his Super Bowl-winning season, as the 2010 NFC Championship against the Chicago Bears was one of the worst statistical games of Rodgers' career; fortunately for him, the Bears' offense had some issues of their own that day, allowing the Packers' defense to carry the day despite their lackluster offensive performance.) This is not helped by his increasingly surly and unpleasant attitude in recent years, as it's led to speculation that this very attitude is part of the problem (as well as generally [[BrokenPedestal shattering fans' perceptions of him]], making people more willing to look at his games with a critical eye).

[[AC:Teams]]
* The Dallas Cowboys, despite being the winningest NFL team for regular season games, and one of the most successful Superbowl teams in NFL history, had not won a playoff game for years until their home win in the 2010 wildcard round. This has become increasingly worse for Cowboy fans in the last two years with the Cowboys being easily one of the most dominant teams in the league, but choking in the first round (first time was against the Seahawks with a gimme field goal being botched and the second time they lost outright to the heavy underdog Giants). The Cowboys finally got a postseason win over Philadelphia in the NFC wild-card round.
** That playoff win had Cowboy fans licking their chops at thoughts of a Super Bowl the next year, since Cowboys Stadium was scheduled to host the event. Instead, they got the ultimate humiliation: not only did the Cowboys fail to make the playoffs altogether, but in October, while they saw a head coach fired midseason for the first time in franchise history, the Texas Rangers - long ridiculed by Cowboy fans for their losing ways - went to the World Series for the first time ever.
** And this isn't the '''first''' time that could apply for the Cowboys. During a stretch between 1966 and 1970, the Cowboys were one win away from advancing to the NFL (pre-merger) Championship game (losing to Cleveland in the divisional playoffs in 1968 and 1969), after narrowly losing to Green Bay the two preceding years in surprisingly close matches that cost Dallas a shot at appearing in the first two UsefulNotes/{{Super Bowl}}s. The year they finally broke through, 1970 (the NFL's first post-merger season), they lost the exceptionally sloppy Super Bowl V to the Baltimore Colts with kicker Jim [=O'Brien's=] game-winning field goal; resulting in the Cowboys' being dubbed "Next Year's Champions" (a moniker they would finally shed in Super Bowl VI against the Miami Dolphins).
** One more instance of this trope hitting the Cowboys was the early 1980s. Between the 1980 and 1982 seasons, Danny White ([[ReplacementScrappy replacing the retired Roger Staubach]]) led Dallas to 3 straight NFC Championship appearances only to lose all three, first to Philadelphia, then San Francisco following a thrilling conclusion with young quarterback Joe Montana throwing the winning pass to a leaping Dwight Clark, and finally [[TheRival arch-rival]] Washington in a game where Danny was knocked out early. These games, combined with the Cowboys' decline soon after, relegated Danny White to the status as being known as [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg the Dallas quarterback between Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman]], despite having stats that surpassed Aikman and rivaled Roger's.
** Another instance of this trope in regards to Cowboys [=QBs=] has to be Tony Romo, who was the team's starter from 2006 to 2015. After a series of HORRIBLE starting quarterbacks after the injury-induced retirement of legend Troy Aikman (Chad Hutchinson, Quincy Carter, Vinny Testaverde, and a washed-up Drew Bledsoe), Tony Romo burst onto the scene in 2006, showing incredible talent and drive and reigniting a fizzled interest in the Cowboys franchise, with a decent ability to scramble, a Favre-like gunslinging style of play, and a strong arm capable of deep passing plays. However, the crucial moments of each of his starting seasons (sans 2010, which he missed most of due to a broken clavicle) ended with heartbreaking losses due mostly to blunders on the part of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbcVy1PbNk8 Romo himself.]] The first time Tony Romo won a playoff game was 2009; he wouldn't lead the team to another playoff win until 2014, when the Cowboys won in the wild card round but lost in the divisional round. That proved to be his last playoff win; he missed most of the 2015 and 2016 seasons to injury. In the latter season, rookie Dak Prescott emerged as a potential franchise QB, and Romo decided to hang up his cleats and head for the broadcast booth.
** However, the Cowboys would still fall victim to this trope in the Prescott era. In his rookie year, Prescott led the team to a 13-3 record only to lose to the Packers in the Divisional Round. The team had up-and-down seasons throughout the era, but like previous seasons they would fall short. They fired Jason Garrett after the 2019 season, replacing him with former Packers coach Mike [=McCarthy=], who was infamous for his conservative play calling. They did finally score their first and only win against Tom Brady in the Wild Card round of the 2022-2023 Playoffs, but would once again lose in the Divisional Round against the 49ers, ending with [[https://youtu.be/qAukunmhZPM?t=173 one heavily derided play involving star RB Ezekiel Elliot at center]]. 2023 saw the Cowboys clinch the NFC East and the conference's 2nd seed in the '23-'24 playoffs. Dallas completely faceplanted at home to the ''7th-seeded'' Packers, losing 48-32 in a contest that really wasn't that close; adding insult to injury, this was the first time since the 2020 expansion of the playoff format that a 2 seed had ever lost to a 7 seed.
* The Minnesota Vikings are one of two teams that have made it to the Super Bowl four times... and lost all four. They haven't gone back to the Super Bowl since 1977; the team has lost in all six of its NFC title game appearances since that year. Since the '70s, they've picked up a reputation for hiring other teams' castoffs, which hasn't helped them any (most notoriously, they hired Brett Favre for his last two years). TheNewTens had three playoff appearances ending terribly (2012: slaughtered by the Packers; 2015: losing to the Seahawks on a field goal that was compared to ''Film/{{Ace Ventura|PetDetective}}''; 2017: with the chance of playing the Super Bowl at home, trounced by the Eagles in the Conference Finals).
* The early-90s Buffalo Bills make every other entry on this page look like clutch players. They won 4 straight AFC Championships and attending 4 straight Super Bowls (the only NFL team to ''ever'' make it to the Super Bowl four years in a row), the only four in their history. To this day, they're 0-4 in Super Bowls. And they later went on a 17-year playoff drought, after being eliminated by the "Music City Miracle". Most notably, in 2004 they entered the last week of the season needing to beat Pittsburgh to get in to the playoffs, with Pittsburgh having already locked up their seed and resting their starters. ''They lost at home to Pittsburgh's 2nd and 3rd string by a touchdown.''
** A common FunWithAcronyms joke: "Boy I Lose Lots of Superbowls" or "Boy I Love Losing Superbowls".
** When they finally got back to the playoffs in 2017, they basically stumbled in after multiple other AFC teams more-or-less forfeited their spots through poor play and/or bad decision-making at the coach or executive levels, despite their own best efforts to piss the spot away.[[note]]Partway through the season, they benched unremarkable but serviceable veteran quarterback Tyrod Taylor for a fifth-round rookie named Nathan Peterman. Peterman debuted by throwing five picks in one half; Taylor came off the bench for the second half and everyone thought the Bills were cooked.[[/note]] Once they get in, they face the Jacksonville Jaguars in what can only be described as one of the worst games of January football ever played, and despite the Jags desperately trying to lose, the Bills wilt first and get eliminated 10-3.[[note]]Ironically, the Jags scored a combined 65 points in their next two games, knocking off the Steelers 45-42 in the divisional round and narrowly losing to the Patriots 24-20 for the AFC Championship.[[/note]] In 2019, a stalwart defense and great strides by second-year quarterback Josh Allen helped the Bills make a surprise run at their second playoff berth in three years--but they promptly blew a 16-point lead to the Houston Texans in the Wild Card Game and lost in overtime. They did perform somewhat better in the 2020 playoffs, winning their Wild Card (vs. Indianapolis Colts) and Divisional (vs. Baltimore Ravens) matches, but ultimately fell short of the Super Bowl, losing the AFC Championship to the Kansas City Chiefs.
** In 2021, they entered the playoffs on a four-game winning streak and blew out their hated rivals in New England, only to fall short in the divisional round to their new rival Kansas City in overtime after they had taken the lead with only ''13 seconds left in regulation''.
** In 2022, the team entered the playoffs as the #2 seed and widely predicted by experts to finally get over the hump and win the Super Bowl. They proceeded to only barely defeat the Miami Dolphins, who were starting a ''third-string rookie quarterback'', 34–31 in the Wild Card Round before being utterly dominated at home in a snowstorm by the Cincinnati Bengals in a humiliating 27–10 Divisional Round defeat. (To be fair to the Bills, they were absolutely put through the emotional wringer leading up to that post-season as their teammate Damar Hamlin ''nearly died'' on the field just a few weeks earlier, so it's not entirely surprising that they weren't on their "A" game.)
** In 2023, after some early season struggles the team managed to rally and once again enter the playoffs as the #2 seed. However, after taking care of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round, the team lost ''again'' in the Divisional Round to [[RuleOfThree Kansas City]] 27-24, this time on their own turf. To rub salt in the wound, Buffalo had the chance to tie it near the end of regulation, only for kicker Tyler Bass [[HistoryRepeats to miss the kick wide right]], just as Scott Norwood did at the end of Super Bowl XXV. The game was quickly dubbed "Wide Right II" by the media.
* The Cincinnati Bengals held the longest postseason victory drought in the league, but have been perpetual contenders for a while. Since drafting Andy Dalton and AJ Green in 2011, they managed to make the playoffs for an impressive four years in a row--leading to four less-impressive postseason defeats in a row. They only managed to win in 2022 over the Las Vegas Raiders, 31 years after their next-closest win, ending the at-the-time longest playoff drought in all of North American sports. And then made the ''Super Bowl'', but lost there to the Rams. They would return to the playoffs the following season, and got a hair away from their second consecutive Super Bowl appearance... and would end up losing the AFC Championship thanks to a last-minute field goal by the Kansas City Chiefs, the same team the Bengals defeated to get to the Super Bowl the previous season.
** The fifth loss is surreal. The Bengals started 8–0, finished 12–4 and in the Wild Card Playoff game hosted against their hated rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bengals rally from a 15–0 deficit to take a 16–15 lead, then proceed to intercept the ball on the Steelers' next possession. It looked like the Bengals were well on their way to their first postseason win since 1990, only for Bengals halfback Jeremy Hill to fumble the ball on the next play. The Steelers get the ball back, but with less than 90 seconds to go and the Steelers starting from their own 11-yard line, the Bengals look like they're going to hold the Steelers off... that is, until the Bengals defense gives up ''thirty yards'' on personal foul penalties, bringing the Steelers offense into easy field goal range, where they won 18–16, [[YankTheDogsChain extending the Bengals long playoff drought]] while making them the first NFL team ''ever'' to lose five straight in the opening round.
* The Houston Oilers. Ever wonder why they were nicknamed "Choke City"? It's because they made the postseason during a seven year stretch between 1987 and 1993, but had three exceptional collapses during the postseason between 1991 and 1993.
** First, the 1991 Divisional playoff game against Denver. The high-powered offense of the Oilers shot out to a 21–13 halftime lead, and late in the game a punt pinned the Broncos back to their 2-yard line, where trailing 24–23, John Elway led a late-game drive punctuated by two fourth-down conversions to set up the winning field-goal in what some dubbed "The Drive II" (same spot on field, and almost five years after "the Drive").
** The second would be the most infamous. The Oilers raced to a 35–3 lead over the two-time AFC champion Buffalo Bills in the AFC wild-card game, when [[PutMeInCoach backup quarterback]] Frank Reich (though he started the game and his poor play was a big reason why the Oilers had a 32 point lead in the first place) led a succession of drives culminating in five unanswered touchdowns. The Bills would go on to win 41–38 in overtime. Until 2022 and the Colts blowing a 33–0 lead in a regular season game (see Matt Ryan's entry under "Quarterbacks" above) this stood as the biggest blown lead in NFL history, and still holds the record for biggest blown lead in a playoff game.
** The last one came in the Astrodome after the Oilers had gone on to clinch the #2 seed and a first-round bye. They went on to face the Kansas City Chiefs where, after starting the fourth quarter holding on to a slim 10–7 lead, the Oilers became the victim of another comeback, this time orchestrated by Joe Montana that culminated in a 28–20 loss.
** Their current incarnation, the Tennessee Titans, isn't much better, losing a Super Bowl ([[DownToTheLastPlay after the tying touchdown came up one yard short]]) and having short stretches in the playoffs ever since. Except in the 2019 season, when they lost in the conference finals to the Chiefs.
* The Houston Texans took ten seasons and four quarterbacks in the same year to make their first playoffs. When they first started, it was expected they would be terrible because of their expansion status. But after awhile, they put together talented players and their finishes in the late 2000's were disappointing.
** The fact that ESPN analysts often picked them as "a team to watch out for" and "playoff-bound" did not help matters, as their disappointing finishes rewarded them with nicknames such as "Forever 8–8" and "Next Year's ''Divisional'' Champions", a combination of an insult and a reference to the Cowboys' years of being this trope in the 60s.
** Furthermore, two seasons before they finally made the playoffs, they had gotten themselves into a great position for a wild card berth with an upset win in the final week of the season, only to be pushed out by the final game of the night when, for the second consecutive week (having faced and beaten the top overall seed in the AFC the previous week), the New York Jets defeated a team that had already clinched its best possible playoff position and was resting starters.
** The [=DeShaun=] Watson era saw the team go to the Playoffs twice, neither of which had them make the AFC Championship game. This is especially the case in the 2019-20 Playoffs where despite dominating the Chiefs early on they would surrender the 24-0 lead and lose 51-31. By the time of their next Playoffs appearance in 2023-24, Watson had been traded to the Cleveland Browns and a new QB and HC combo would lead the Texans to a [[CurbStompBattle thrashing]] of the Browns in the wild card at home (though Watson did not play in said game due to being injured), only to be [[CurbStompBattle thrashed themselves]] by the #1 seed Ravens in the divisional.
* The Pittsburgh Steelers between 1994 and 2004 (all under Bill Cowher) advanced to the AFC Championship game five times and lost four of those (and would have lost the 1995 game against Indianapolis had receiver Aaron Bailey not dropped a last-second Hail Mary). The really frustrating fact about this? All five of those games, the Steelers were the home team. Which makes it all the more ironic that the one Cowher-era Super Bowl win (XL) came after the Steelers swept the top three AFC seeds ''on the road''.
** One major factor is that, prior to Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers never found the right quarterback after Terry Bradshaw retired, cycling through mediocrities like Neil O'Donnell ([[NeverLiveItDown still loathed in Pittsburgh]] for his Super Bowl XXX performance), Mike Tomczak, Kent Graham and Tommy Maddox on an almost-yearly basis. Kordell Stewart had [[HopeSpot two solid seasons in 1997 and 2001]] but was otherwise erratic, with a tendency to throw interceptions at crucial points (he threw ''three'' interceptions in the '97 AFC title game against Denver, and did so again in 2001 against the Patriots). Despite having solid running backs in Bam Morris and Jerome Bettis, and a consistently good defense, the lack of a consistent quarterback under Cowher proved a fatal handicap.
** The modern day rendition of the Steelers, Led by "The Killer B's", '''B'''en Roethlisberger, Antonio '''B'''rown, Le'Veon '''B'''ell and [[SixthRanger Chris]] '''[[SixthRanger B]]'''[[SixthRanger oswell]] (oh, and [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Martavis Bryant]] on his good days), the Steelers consistently boast one of the strongest teams in the NFL, with a dynamic offense and a capable defense, they have been considered strong contenders in the AFC title, if not the Super Bowl title. Unfortunately, they've been [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter bumping their heads against the AFC elite]] who would go on to win their respective Super Bowls or suddenly upset by dark horses.
*** First, losing to the Baltimore Ravens in 2014, The eventual champion Denver Broncos in 2015, and their longtime postseason nemesis [[TheJuggernaut the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots]] the following year in 2016. Injuries have played a heavy part in this - in 2014, Bell was injured in the last week of the regular season vs. Cincinnati; in 2015, Bell landed on IR halfway through the season and Brown suffered a concussion in the Wild Card Round, also against Cincy; and 2016, Big Ben spent the second half of the year nursing a shoulder injury and [[RunningGag Bell]] injured his groin in the Wild Card Round and aggravated it in the AFC Title contest; the latter would wind up benched in the first quarter of that game. Bryant was also suspended for this season, and with Roethlisberger's injury and a cobbled-together collection of second-tier wideouts opposite Brown, his numbers dropped by over 30% from the year before, which led to the team basically going back to a run-first scheme after two years of pass-heavy playcalling.
*** The Steelers have been able to advance further and further in the postseason each year they made it and 2017 had their best team and season yet. Most of their pieces in place, two dazzling rookie sensations in [=JuJu=] Smith-Schuster and T.J. Watt, [[HopeSpot An impressive 13-3 record]]... but a horrifically poor defensive performance caused them to bow out early to the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional Round [[note]]The same Jaguars team who only scored ten points against the Bills suddenly exploded for ''45'' (38 on offense), and many cite the Steelers' increasingly leaky and [[GlassCannon mediocre defense]] which was missing All-Pro Linebacker Ryan Shazier as their AchillesHeel; sure enough, the Jaguars exploited that big-time weakness.[[/note]]
*** Things got worse in 2018, which saw Bryant PutOnABus, Bell effectively leave the Steelers for the year (no injury, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere just left]]), and replaced by newcomer James Conner. Despite an overall shaky performance early, the Steelers sprinted out to a 7-2-1 record...only for years of team baggage and locker room distractions taking a toll, creating a late season collapse. Pittsburgh proceeded to lose four of their final six games, culminating in a final crash at 9-6-1, losing the AFC North division, and ''the playoffs'' entirely. The Steelers have failed to make the postseason for the first time in ''five years''. The subsequent 2019 offseason has Bell signing with the New York Jets, and Antonio Brown being traded to the Oakland Raiders, officially [[EndOfAnAge bringing an end]] to the Killer B's in Pittsburgh without a championship. Then for one final boot to the nuts, the Steelers lost Ben Roethlisberger for the rest of the 2019 season with an elbow injury.
*** The 2020 season started off better for the Steelers, as they began the season 11-0 thanks to strong defensive play and a promising rookie wide receiver in Chase Claypool and the return of longtime starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, resulting in the best start in franchise history. This did not go without criticism from outside fans, as the team was accused of being helped by officiating and having a somewhat weak schedule[[labelnote:*]]The AFC North's interdivisonal opponents that season were from the NFC East, a division which in general had a historically awful season, with its playoff representative finishing with a 7-9 record. They also faced a vastly regressed Texans team and a Jaguars team who clinched the worst record in the league, as well as an injury-battered Denver Broncos team.[[/labelnote]], as well as not being considered a good team, some calling the Steelers the "worst 11-0 team ever", especially after almost losing to a very shorthanded Baltimore Ravens team. However, the Steelers would face a disastrous collapse, starting with a loss to the Washington Football Team (now Commanders),[[labelnote:*]]which ended up as the NFC East winner[[/labelnote]] followed by a loss to a Bills team who was having its best season in a long time, and then lost unexpectedly to struggling division rival Cincinnati, costing the Steelers the top seed in the AFC. And despite being favored in their Wild Card game against the Browns, who they had just barely lost to the previous week while playing backups at several key positions in order to give their starters a break (since they were locked into their playoff seeding regardless of the game result), they would end up on the wrong side of a double-digit loss ''with'' Roethlisberger, at home, to the team they had previously dominated for years, culminating in yet another postseason disappointment under Mike Tomlin.
*** In 2021, despite a rickety offense and a injury ravaged Defense that gave up historic numbers on the ground, The Steelers managed to backdoor to a 9-7-1 record, and even took an early lead over the heavily favored Chiefs in the Wildcard Round, only the get destroyed the rest of the way and lost by 21. Not that big of a disappointment as previously (if anything, it was viewed as a fine coaching job by Tomlin to get such a heavily flawed team to the postseason), but still the same result as previously. It ended up [[EndOfAnEra the final game of Ben Roethlisberger's career]] as Steelers Quarterback and he officially retired weeks later, ending an 18-year tenure with the Steelers.
* The Cleveland Browns went to three conference championships in four years (1986-87, 1989) and lost every time. To the same team. Who went on to lose the Super Bowl every time. (And the fans know a good season is an exception, given the Browns are one of two teams who [[EpicFail managed to get a 0-16 season]].)
** Before UsefulNotes/{{LeBron|James}} [[HesBack came back]] and willed the Cavaliers to an NBA title in 2016, the City of Cleveland itself could qualify. The Cavs' title was the city's first professional sports title since 1964.[[hottip:*:In the major leagues, that is. One week before, the second-tier American Hockey League was won by the Lake Erie Monsters - to a sold out audience showing Clevelanders wanted to celebrate something!]] During that time, it seemed like the city's primary role was to provide a Moment of Awesome for another team before ''that team'' fizzled out.
** Joke: Do you know why UsefulNotes/{{Toledo|Ohio}} doesn't have a professional football team? Because then Cleveland would want one too.
** There was the 2007 season where they reversed the trend, went 10-6, and STILL didn't make the playoffs thanks to one Vince Young, quarterback of the Tennessee Titans at the time, along with the fact that the AFC's crop of teams was just ''that good'' that year.
** In 2019, the Browns had high expectations and opened as the favorites to win the AFC North and had high odds to win the Super Bowl, thanks to a promising rookie season from quarterback Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr. being traded from the Giants, and a brand new head coach in Freddie Kitchens. However, they did not meet expectations, due to Baker Mayfield regressing, the offensive line having more holes than a chunk of Swiss cheese, the inexperience of Freddie Kitchens, the team being undisciplined, injuries to key contributors, and both sides of the ball regressing overall. After a disappointing 6-10 season that ended with a loss to the Bengals (who had already clinched the worst record in the league), Freddie Kitchens was fired after only one season and was replaced by former Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski.
** Stefanski's tenure, however, [[SubvertedTrope got off to a promising start]], surprising many people by not only clinching their first winning season since 2007, but also earning a playoff berth for the first time since 2002 (in a field that was arguably even ''more'' stacked than the 2007 field) and then ''winning'' their first playoff game since 1994, the latter of which was done with a shorthanded roster and coaching staff plus a limited amount of practice days due to COVID-19. They went out in the divisional round in a competitive loss to the Chiefs. Unfortunately it went downhill from there, as Mayfield would be injured early in the 2021 season, which caused them to fall short of the playoffs in that season. This ''could'' have been a blip on the radar if not for the team's owners and management seemingly going into panic mode and deciding to aggressively shop the QB market, even though most people agreed that Mayfield's 2021 struggles were likely due to playing through a serious injury all year. The team ended up trading for scandal-ridden Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson (and giving him an unprecedented contract to lure him to Cleveland after he initially rejected them), which effectively cost them their 2022 season as Watson was suspended for 11 games and was clearly rusty (having sat out all of 2021 as well) by the time he came back.
** The Browns finally made it back to the playoffs in 2023, overcoming a season-ending injury to Watson that saw them starting three different substitutes, the latest being a 38-year-old Joe Flacco who they signed off the couch... and promptly got [[CurbStompBattle stomped on]] by Watson's old team, the Texans and their young QB-HC combo. And just to add insult to injury, they would then watch their former QB Mayfield -- the guy they pushed out in favor of Watson -- win his own Wild Card game with his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
* The San Diego Chargers. At least they're not as bad as they were in [[AudienceAlienatingEra 1997-2003]].
** It's not just the Chargers. Every professional sports franchise in San Diego suffers through this. In forty-plus years of playing, the city has claimed only one championship, the 1963 AFL Championship by the Chargers. The Padres are 0-2 in the World Series and all basketball teams that come to this town (Rockets, Conquistadors, and Clippers) have had short lives. It's so bad in San Diego, that someone made [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_sports_curse a wiki page detailing their misery.]]
** And then the Chargers left town after the 2016 season to return to their original home of L.A., where their fortunes haven't improved: the Chargers spent their first three seasons playing in a ''soccer stadium'' that was typically either half-empty or filled with the opposing team's fans and have been treated as a red-headed stepchild compared to the Rams, L.A.'s ''other'' football team (and the one with a greater claim to the local fanbase, having spent nearly 50 years in Southern California before decamping to St. Louis, and then returning in 2016). While the Chargers have accrued a marginally respectable .577 winning percentage since the move, they've only managed one playoff appearance and, in 2020, gained the dubious honor of being the first team in NFL history to lose three consecutive games in which they had held a lead of 17 points or greater. And in the 2022 season they became the first team to have a +5 turnover margin in a playoff game and lose.
* The Detroit Lions. It was basically this trope that led Barry Sanders to retire from the game, even though he was within one good season of passing Walter Payton, and barring injury, could've put the all-time rushing record out of even Emmitt Smith's reach. The Lions followed up two of their best seasons, 1991 (going 12-4 and getting their only playoff win since 1957 to date, over an up-and-coming Dallas squad) and 1995 (in which Herman Moore and Brett Perriman became the first teammates to finish 1-2 in total receptions) with 5-11 records the following year. Barry didn't walk away because of any issues with coach Bobby Ross, as was speculated at the time, but because the front office absolutely failed to make the necessary moves to improve the team (especially on defense), and the lack of a winning culture that drained him of his love for the game. Needless to say, it went FromBadToWorse under the Matt Millen administration, which saw the Lions' ButtMonkey status not only cemented, but fellow perennial cellar-dweller Arizona make the Super Bowl for the first time (a feat the Lions have yet to accomplish).
** And it just keeps getting worse. With a healthy Matt Stafford and Calvin Johnson, the Lions made the 2011 Playoffs, only to get [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] by the Saints in New Orleans. They followed up with a 4-4 first half in 2012, followed by an 0-8 second half. In 2013 things seemed to be back on track, with a 6-3 start and control of the NFC North race... only for the Lions to drop five of their next six and eliminate themselves from playoff contention with one week to go.[[note]] This includes a horrible (for them) finish against the Baltimore Ravens, where they are trailing 18-16 with under a minute left and all three timeouts left, meaning all they have to do is drive down the field, kick a field goal, and win. Instead, Matthew Stafford ''immediately'' throws an interception, at which point the Lions just threw in the towel, as they didn't even try to stop the clock when the Ravens ran it out, even though they could have. [[/note]] The only thing Lions fans hate worse than the constant losing is getting teased with the possibility of winning only to see the team fall short.
** In 2014, the Lions had a defense, a new coach, and ''finally'' a proper #2 receiver to take some heat off of Calvin Johnson. They made the playoffs with an 11-5 record, their best in decades, and found themselves behind four against the Cowboys in the Wild Card round driving down the field. A deep pass results in a a defensive Pass Interference call that would put the Lions at the 30-yard line with a good shot at a touchdown - and then the flag was picked up and the penalty called back. The Lions would lose the game. Johnson would retire after the 2015 season, at the time citing health issues but later admitting his frustration with the Lions' competitive woes also played a role in his decision.
** Entering Week 14 of the 2016 season, the Lions were 9-4, in position to take the NFC North for the first time in decades. The Packers and Vikings were both 7-6, and seemingly in no position to challenge them. Naturally, they lost their next three games, including a for-the-division regular season finale against the Packers, and limped into the playoffs as a 9-7 Wild Card team. Getting clobbered by the Seahawks was basically inevitable at that point.
** 2017 had the Lions finishing with the same 9-7 from the previous season, but this time it wasn't enough for playoff contention - had they not lost to the already eliminated Bengals in their 15th game, they could have a shot at the postseason. Matthew Stafford would be traded to the Los Angeles Rams after the 2020 season, yet again citing the Lions' issues, and immediately won Super Bowl LVI in his first season with his new team.
** 2022 saw coach Dan Campbell and quarterback Jared Goff, both of whom joined the team the previous season (Goff via the Stafford trade mentioned above), finally find their footings with Lions, allowing them to finish 9-8 ([[{{Irony}} and knocking the Packers out of the postseason in the process]]), though much like in 2017, this record wasn't enough for playoff contention, thanks to not only starting the season 1-6, but also a heartbreaking loss to the Panthers in Week 16 that set back the Lions' postseason chances.
** 2023 saw the Lions win their division for the first time in three decades and make the playoffs with a 12-5 record and win the Wild Card and Divisional rounds to make it to only their second NFC Championship game in franchise history. A dominant first half against the [=49ers=] gave them a 24-7 lead at halftime, and it seemed almost assured that Detroit would make it to the Super Bowl for the first time ever. But in the second half, almost everything that could go wrong did. Dropped passes, two failed 4th down conversion attempts (both times within easy field goal range, so the Lions could've easily picked up 6 points), and a lost fumble on offense. An insane dropped interception that instead bounced off the defender's face mask and into the [=49ers=] receiver's hands to set up a touchdown. San Francisco ended up winning 34-31, meaning those two field goals Detroit chose not to kick were the difference in the game.
* Between 2000 and 2010, the Philadelphia Eagles advanced to the playoffs eight times. During that span, they advanced to the NFC Championship game five times, but lost four of those, and lost their only Super Bowl appearance. The worst part was that three of those years happened in a row, including two years ''where they were the number 1 seed.'' A particularly ''painful'' example was the 2002 season, when the top-seeded Eagles hosted the NFC Championship game against longtime league punching bag Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team whom the Eagles had defeated many times before, including eliminating the Bucs in the postseason two years running in 2000 and 2001 pretty handily. Philly raced out to a quick 7-0 lead, only to be outscored ''27-3'' the rest of the game as the Bucs won 27-10 in a absolute stunner that broke the hearts of Eagles faithful. To make matters worse, the Buccaneers went on to win their first Super Bowl, something the Eagles have waited on for years. After losing Super Bowl XXXIX to the Patriots in 2005, they made the playoffs twice more, and their win in 2009 against the Giants would be their last victory in ''any'' playoff game[[note]]they did make three Wild Card playoffs but lost all of them: a blowout against the Cowboys in 2010, an off-putting failure against the Packers in 2011, and an even worse defeat against the Saints in 2014 thanks to a literal last second game winning field goal[[/note]] until 2018, which ended in [[EarnYourHappyEnding their victory over those same Patriots that beat them the last time.]]
** The Philadelphia Eagles had picked up something of a reputation, along with a mild AFC counterpart the New York Jets, for a team that is, almost every season, picked to go deep in the playoffs if not win the title, no matter how they finished the season before, but only left with the trophy once, in Super Bowl III in 1969.[[note]]Although certainly not helping in that regard is that their division, the AFC East, has the Patriots, who were a death sentence to the championship hopes of most teams during the Tom Brady era.[[/note]]
** However, after said Super Bowl they haven't given that same output. Predicted to pick up in 2018 right where they left off and be one of the best teams in the league, Wentz entered after Foles split the first two games of the season. But things weren't going the way they planned, injuries were derailing them, and despite many thinking they'd get it together, the losses just didn't stop. And after what was looking to be a franchise redefining loss, [[CurbStompBattle 48-7]] at the hands of the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome, they were on the brink of becoming the worst defending Super Bowl champions in NFL history. And facing the hardest remaining strength of schedule in the NFL following that, they were heavily predicted to complete said collapse. After Week 14, the Eagles were facing a Rams team in LA twice as scary as the one that ended Wentz's MVP-caliber season a year prior. Before that, Wentz was sidelined yet again with a stress fracture in his back, and [[https://twitter.com/jasonmyrt/status/1073255492171038720 it was revealed this had been prior and players were aware of the situation]]. Foles came in to face the Rams, who were ''13.5 point favorites'' against Philly. And yet, they handed LA their first home loss of the season and that changed everything. They rallied back and made the playoffs, got lucky to beat the Chicago Bears in their place and were back in the Superdome against that same Saints team...except this time just falling short. Afterwards, Foles left in free agency to join the Jacksonville Jaguars. Only time will tell if Wentz will ever see his 2017 level of success again or not... and if he does, he won't be doing it with the Eagles, having been traded to the Colts during the 2021 offseason and then traded again to the Commanders in the 2022 offseason. However, the Eagles have surged back behind Wentz' successor, Jalen Hurts, making the playoffs in 2021 (Hurts' first full year as a starter) and going all the way to the Super Bowl -- ultimately going down in a close loss to a powerhouse Kansas City Chiefs team -- just one year later.
* Under head coach Mike Smith and quarterback Matt Ryan, the Atlanta Falcons have had five straight winning seasons and playoff appearances in four of them. In the first three of those playoff appearances (two wild cards, one divisional) a first appearance loss. The fact that in each loss, the team that beat them would go on to the Super Bowl, probably doesn't help, nor does the fact that they were the favored team in each of their losses.
** In the 2012 playoffs, the Falcons just narrowly subverted the trope by winning the Divisional Playoffs with a field goal after the Seahawks overcame a 20-point deficit with less than a minute left in the game. However, the Falcons ended up double subverting the trope by falling short in the NFC Championship against the 49ers.
** This has lead to Matt Ryan receiving the "overrated" and "choker" label by his detractors: A common response used in any response to people talking about Matt Ryan being one of the league's top quarterbacks on ImageBoards is "Playoff wins: 0". Kind of ironic, when you remember his days at Boston College, where he was known as a clutch QB (Hence the nickname, Matty Ice).
** After an awful 4-12 2013 season, the Falcons were back in the playoff hunt in 2014...[[MetaphoricallyTrue technically speaking.]] A Week 16 win over the New Orleans Saints gave them the season sweep and thus, the tiebreaker over the Saints should the teams and their now-identical records both win in the final week--thus eliminating the Saints, since Atlanta's opponent, the Carolina Panthers, had a record ''half'' a game better than the Saints and Falcons (due to a tie earlier in the season) and would also have the tiebreaker over the Saints; thus, no outcome of the Falcons-Panthers game could possibly result in the Saints making the playoffs with a win even though they could pass either ''one'' of those teams. Of course, the Panthers won, and coach Mike Smith was fired after the disappointing 6-10 season and third-place finish. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes, that's right, the Falcons' division-winning record had they won that game would've been]] ''[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer 7-9]]''.
** Perhaps most painfully in 2015. After firing Mike Smith in favor of Dan Quinn, the Falcons raced out to a 6-1 start on a series of nail-biting wins... only to blow five straight games in a similarly nail-biting fashion.
** In 2016, things seemed to really be looking up for the Falcons, finishing 11-5 and coasting through the NFC Playoffs to advance to their second Super Bowl, where they were on the wrong side of history again, as they became [[MedalOfDishonor the first team ever]] to hold a 25-point lead in the Super Bowl and ''lose''. They led the New England Patriots ''28-3'' in Super Bowl LI, before New England exploded for ''[[MiracleRally 25 unanswered points]]'' late in the second half to force overtime, and then added a touchdown to win the game 34-28 in an incredible stunner.
** After that, in 2017, they managed to put together a 10-6 season that got them a Wild Card spot in the playoffs. They advanced to the Divisional Round by knocking off the Los Angeles Rams, but would end up losing to the Philadelphia Eagles, who were en route to their first Super Bowl win ever.
** In 2018 and 2019, the Falcons were anemic at best, finishing both seasons with a 7-9 record and missing the playoffs.
** In 2020, the Falcons found themselves on the wrong side of history again as they became the first team in recorded history to score 39 points in a game while not committing any turnovers and lose the game. As a result, following an 0-5 start, team owner Arthur Blank decided he had seen enough and fired both head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff. This did little to help the Falcons' fortunes, as they stumbled their way to a 4-12 record, finishing last in their division. Four of those losses came when they went into the fourth quarter with the lead.
* The 2000's Baltimore Ravens. Since their first Super Bowl win in 2001, it became nothing but seasons of "almosts" in the Charm City. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, the Ravens made the playoffs NINE TIMES, including five consecutive appearances, while consistently fielding one of the league's most prolific defenses led by stars Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. The last postseason collapse (2011-12 AFC Championship Game) perhaps being the most painful chapter yet, thanks to Lee Evans[[note]]''Dropped the game-winning touchdown that would've sent the Ravens to the Super Bowl.''[[/note]] and Billy Cundiff [[note]] ''Missed the game-tying Field Goal that would've sent the game into overtime''[[/note]], with an assist from the officials[[note]] ''Failed to call an obvious pass interference penalty on the play between those epic failures.''[[/note]]. Baltimore finally had the breakthrough in 2012, going on a crazy playoff run to win Super Bowl XLVII (47).
** The four straight AFC Championship losses have caused the Ravens to be labelled as the SpiritualSuccessor to the early 90s Buffalo Bills mentioned above [[note]] The 2012 AFC Championship loss ended ''eerily'' similar to one of the Bills' Super Bowl losses...[[/note]]. Some consider it an insult...[[InsultToRocks to Buffalo]], that is. At least the Bills ''made'' the Super Bowl... As did the Ravens the following year. The difference there is the Ravens got the job done.
** Following their Super Bowl XLVII win, the Ravens missed the playoffs the next year with an 8-8 record. They rebounded a bit the following year, claiming the last Wild Card spot, but lost to the Patriots in the divisional round. The Ravens then proceeded to miss the playoffs for three straight years (their longest streak since the 2000 season) largely floundering until the arrival of Lamar Jackson in 2018. Jackson, the 2019 league MVP, got the Ravens back to the playoffs, but the Ravens went one-and-done in 2018 and 2019 before Jackson finally got his first playoff victory in the 2020 Wild Card... only for the Ravens to promptly get crushed 17-3 in the Divisional one week later.
** In the 2023 season, the Ravens proved themselves one of the most dominant teams in the league, boasting both a top defense and a dominant offense that ultimately resulted in a league-best 13-4 record and the best point differential of any NFL team for that season, along with dual threat QB Lamar Jackson having an MVP year. And it wasn't a case of beating up on lousy teams either; as they had notched blowout victories against playoff-bound teams like the Texans, Dolphins, Lions, and NFC #1 seed (and eventual Super Bowl contender) 49ers. After getting a 1st round bye and then crushing the Texans again in the divisional round, all that stood between the Ravens and the Super Bowl were the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, who had been struggling on offense for much of the regular season, and had to come to Baltimore for the AFC Championship. Unfortunately for the Ravens, the Chiefs' defense was ''also'' having a historically good year, and the offense had ironed out many of the kinks (such as leading the league in dropped passes) that had plagued it during the regular season. The Chiefs jumped out to a ten-point lead at the half, while the Ravens' offense imploded on itself; ultimately turning the ball over 3 times, giving up 95 penalty yards, and scoring only a single field goal in the last few minutes of the game. Meanwhile, the Ravens' defense prevented the Chiefs from scoring, but ''didn't'' prevent them from maintaining posession for nearly two thirds of the game, killing any chance of a Ravens comeback and resulting in a 17-10 Chiefs victory.
** Given the fact that the Ravens were the '95 Browns transplanted, every victory or close call for Baltimore only twists the knife for Cleveland that much more.
* The Denver Broncos (and their longtime quarterback John Elway) were former examples of this trope, having been to and lost 4 Super Bowls in the 1970s and 80s. Elway, to his credit, endured and persevered despite these setbacks (as well as a period of struggling in the 90s) and was finally able to lead his team to back-to-back Super Bowl championships at the tail end of his career. Unfortunately, they made it back to the Super Bowl for the 2013-2014 season, only to lose the game and become the first team in NFL history to lose 5 Super Bowls. (Though they bounced back in 2015, winning their third title in what proved to be Creator/PeytonManning's final NFL game.)
** The Broncos are particularly notable in that they have been absolutely ''annihilated'' in every Super Bowl they've lost, never losing by less than 17 points. This includes the largest margin of defeat in any Super Bowl, a 55-10 creaming by the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIV.
* Don Shula was an NFL coach from 1963-95 and retired with the most wins by a head coach in NFL history; to go with two Super Bowl titles (the first of which famously concluded the Miami Dolphins' perfect season). However, his first decade as a head coach was this in spades.
** Following his 2nd season, the Baltimore Colts (the team he coached first) was expected to easily defeated a Cleveland Browns team that was two years removed from owner Art Modell firing original head coach and namesake Paul Brown. Instead, the Colts were shut out by Cleveland 27-0 in the last championship that city celebrated until 2016.
** The next season, the Colts finished tied for the Western Conference crown with Green Bay and had to play a special tie-breaker playoff without star quarterback Johnny Unitas and backup Gary Cuozzo; forcing Baltimore to use [[PutMeInCoach Tom Matte]], one of their running backs, at quarterback. During regulation, the Colts held a 10-0 halftime lead while managing to knock out Green Bay's star quarterback Bart Starr. However, the game went into overtime following a controversial field goal ruling (video footage showed the ball going wide of the right upright).[[note]]This would lead to changes the following season; such as a redesigned goal post and officials being placed under the goal post.[[/note]] The Packers would win 13-10 in overtime on a field goal that left no doubt as to its success.
** In 1967, the Colts would finish tied for the best record in the NFL at 11-1-2 but still managed to miss the playoffs due to two games with the divisional rival Los Angeles Rams. Following a Week 5 game at Baltimore that ended in a 24-24 deadlock; the teams played again on the last week of the season in Los Angeles for the Coastal Division crown and lone spot left to be settled. The Rams would end up blasting the Colts 34-10 to leave Baltimore the odd team out in the postseason.
** The following year, the Colts advanced to a 13-1 record under journeyman quarterback [[PutMeInCoach Earl Morrall]] (replacing Johnny Unitas, who missed most of the year with an elbow injury). They then advanced to UsefulNotes/SuperBowl III as the heavy favorites over the AFL's New York Jets. Unfortunately, Morrall ended up playing the worst game of his career; throwing three 2nd-quarter interceptions (topped by a flea-flicker pass in which Morrall missed wide-open receiver Jimmy Orr). By the time Shula yanked Morrall in favor of the ailing Unitas, the score was 13-0 in favor of the Jets -- who ultimately upset Baltimore 16-7.
** Shula left the Colts after 1969, and took the Miami Dolphins to the playoffs for the first time in their short history in his first season. The next year, the Dolphins advanced to UsefulNotes/SuperBowl VI against the Dallas Cowboys (themselves seeking to shed the "Next Year's Champions" nickname). Dallas would humiliate Miami 24-3, leaving the Dolphins as the first team to not score a touchdown in the Super Bowl.
* The San Francisco 49ers have formed this reputation within TheNewTens and the early part of TheNewTwenties. The team went to the NFC Championship in each of their Playoff appearances in the timespan but always came up short.
** The 2011 season saw first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh end the team's AudienceAlienatingEra of much of the [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000's]] by finishing with a 13-3 record. They would host the NFC Conference Championship game against the unlikely New York Giants team, who they would lose to in overtime thanks to two very costly mistakes by Kyle Williams. The Giants would eventually win the Super Bowl.
** 2012 season thankfully saw the 49ers carry their momentum from the previous season. Though the 49ers would lose QB Alex Smith, who was on track of having his best season, back-up QB Colin Kaepernick would greatly pick up the pace for the season. After stomping over the Packers in the Divisional round and beating the Falcons in the NFC Championship, the 49ers made their 6th Super Bowl appearance and first since 1994 where they would ironically face Jim's brother, John Harbaugh and Baltimore Ravens. Despite the Niners having a ferocious come back in the second half of the game, The Baltimore Ravens would win the Super Bowl against the 49ers.
** Once again, Harbaugh's 49ers would still carry that same dominance into the 2013 season. After a rough start, the 49ers would go on a tear at the end of the season with a 12-4 record, but finish the division behind the upstart Legion of Boom-led Seahawks. The Niners would travel to Seattle after defeating the Packers and the Panthers and played in their third consecutive conference championship. However, late-game mistakes including a game-ending interception would cost the Niners the game, sending the rival Seahawks to the Super Bowl where they would eventually win.
** The 2014 season was a step down from the previous seasons, as they would suffer a late-season collapse, finishing 8-8 and not make the Playoffs, which resulted in Jim Harbaugh being fired. The team would continue to struggle in the 2015 and 2016 seasons, as the head coaches in those years each only lasted a year.
** The Kyle Shanahan era had a rough start in 2017 and 2018 but greatly rebounded in 2019 where they clinched the top seed in the NFC with a 13-3 record and went on to play in Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs. Though they led 20-10 in the fourth quarter, the 49ers would squander the lead after the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs made a late rally to win 31-20. Not helping matters was Kyle Shanahan making questionable play calls while leading late in the game, which also happened three years prior in [[HistoryRepeats the Falcons' historic collapse against the Patriots]].
** Following an injury-ridden 2020 season, the Niners would return to the playoffs after rebounding from a 3-5 start. The team would go on an unexpected postseason run, upsetting the Cowboys and the top-seeded Packers on the road. In the NFC Championship against the rival Rams, they held a 17-7 after the third quarter only to once again be on the butt-end of a fourth quarter rally. The Rams would spoil a sweep from the 49ers and would go on to win Super Bowl LVI.
** Like the previous season, the 49ers had a middling start, initially beginning the season 3-4. After acquiring RB Christian [=McCaffrey=] from the Panthers, they would go on to win the rest of the regular season and ended as the second-seeded team in the NFC Playoffs. After injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo, the team turned to rookie Brock Purdy, who was [[PickedLast the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft]]. However, the league would see a surprising emergence of Purdy late in the season, as he would lead the team to the NFC Championship against the Eagles. However, the game was a disaster for the Niners, as Purdy would be injured early on and the team sent in [[PutMeInCoach fourth-string journeyman QB Josh Johnson]], only for him to get a concussion and Purdy going back in, though he couldn't make a pass. Not helping matters was the usual dominant defense making uncharacteristically mistakes that kept much of the Eagles drives alive. The Eagles would dominate the Niners [[CurbStompBattle 31-7]] and return to the Super Bowl.
** The 49ers marched into the 2023 Season with a vengeance with Purdy and their star-studded lineup returning as well as a few new pieces added in Free Agency with the intention of taking it all. San Fran started out hot with a 5-0 start and finished the season 12-5 and nabbing the top seed in the NFC Playoffs with Brock Purdy and Christian [=McCaffrey=] having all-pro seasons. San Francisco survived Green Bay and Detroit en route to Super Bowl LVIII where the Niners would rematch Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. It was deja Vu as the 49ers once again held a ''ten-point lead'' over the Chiefs (though in the second quarter this time), only to squander it in an astonishingly similar way as in Super Bowl LIV from years before as Kansas City rallied and won in overtime 25-22. Kyle Shanahan ''once again'' was criticized for his questionable playcalling, appearing to [[HereWeGoAgain learn nothing from prior defeats]] [[HistoryRepeats by abandoning the running game in the second half]], Shanahan making history as the first coach to blow multiple-score leads in the Super Bowl three seperate times.
* The New York Jets have been something of a case throughout their history. Their only title win came in Super Bowl III, and they haven't made it back to the Super Bowl since then, no matter what kind of team they field. This has resulted in their being dubbed the "New York Jest".[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Because they're a joke.]][[/note]] In recent memory, their stretch from 2008 to 2011:
** In 2008, they were led by Brett Favre, started 8-3, they were considered a favorite to win the Super Bowl that year, and were doing things like scoring 56 points against the Cardinals, beating the Rams 47-3, and stomping the previously undefeated Tennessee Titans 34-13. Unfortunately, Favre suffered an injury, didn't tell anyone, and decided to play through the injury. Therefore, his performance suffered, the Jets lost four of their last five games, and floundered their way out of playoff contention.
** In 2009, the Jets got all the way to the AFC Championship Game, where they got out to a 17-6 lead over the Colts. They were outscored 24-0 from there and lost 30-17.
** In 2010, the Jets started out 9-2 and actually had one of their best seasons in years, barring a 45-3 loss to the Patriots. How did they cap this off? By practically no-showing the AFC Championship Game against the Steelers, going into halftime down 24-0. They outscored Pittsburgh 19-0 in the second half, but they still managed to find another way to lose.
** In 2011, the Jets stood at 8-5 and had winnable games left on their schedule. What did they do? They were destroyed by the Eagles 45-19, got embarrassed by the Giants 29-14 in a game they had practically staked their entire season on, then were eliminated from playoff contention by losing 19-17 to the Dolphins, a team they could have beaten. The Giants loss was particularly nasty, as the Giants went on to win the Super Bowl that year, the same thing the Jets kept swearing they'd do all season.
** In 2015, the Jets stood at 10-5 in the final week of the season, in a "win-and-in" scenario facing former head coach Rex Ryan and the 7-8 Bills in Buffalo. Jets QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, who was having a Cinderella season at Quarterback, turned into a pumpkin in the final stretches of the game, throwing ''three consecutive interceptions'' on the Jets' last drives of the game, resulting in a 22-17 loss, knocking the Jets out of the postseason. Predictable cries of ''[[StatusQuoIsGod "Same Old Jets"]]'' rung out across the NFL scape, and adding another chapter to the Jets history of futility.
** In 2022, the Jets were a surprising team thanks to the emergence of key rookie players, starting the season 7-4 and looking to break their postseason drought. In true New York Jets fashion, they would promptly collapse late in the season and lose the rest of the games in the season, once again not making the postseason.
** As a bonus, the long-suffering fans know team management will do something to crush their hopes, most notably [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZxNeFLuY98 bad draft choices]].
* The coaching career of Chuck Knox plays out as this; with some fans blaming his ultra-conservative, run-oriented offensive philosophy (nicknamed [[PunnyName Ground Chuck]]) for much of Knox's post-season struggles; along with (particularly in his first stint with the Los Angeles Rams) a revolving door at quarterback:
** After winning NFL Coach of the Year honors in his first year as a head coach in leading the Rams to a 12-2 mark and NFC West crown while getting the last good season out of former San Diego Chargers quarterback John Hadl[[note]]the National Football Conference MVP[[/note]]; the Rams (now led by one of the few black quarterbacks of TheSeventies in James "Shack" Harris after Hadl was traded to Green Bay) advanced to the NFC Championship game vs. the defending NFC champion Minnesota Vikings only to lose that title game and a trip to Super Bowl IX 14-10; aided by a potential game-tying 3rd quarter drive derailed by a controversial illegal procedure flag on guard Tom Mack (Minnesota intercepted the ball two plays later).
** 1975 saw the Rams return to the NFC Championship game led by a strong defense that gave up 9.6 points per game (2nd fewest in NFL history) and solid quarterback play from a young [[PutMeInCoach Ron Jaworski]][[note]]replacing the injured James Harris late in the year[[/note]]; this time playing at home vs. the wild-card Dallas Cowboys (who had eliminated the Vikings on the famous "Hail Mary" pass). However, the Cowboys' momentum showed up in full force in a 37-7 blowout to punch Dallas' ticket to Super Bowl X.
** 1976 saw the Rams survive a quarterback controversy between Harris; Jaworski and [[TakeAThirdOption rookie Pat Haden]]; clinching their 4th consecutive NFC West title and for the 3rd year in a row playing in the NFC Championship game, only to be defeated by the Minnesota Vikings yet again 24-13
** 1977 was thought by many to be the Rams' best shot at a Super Bowl. With Haden replacing an aging Joe Namath early in the year the Rams finished the season with their 5th consecutive division title and hosting an NFC Divisional playoff game. However, this time they went one-and-done in the Divisional round vs. the aging [[RuleOfThree Vikings]] in a game known as the "Mud Bowl" 14-7; culminating in owner Carroll Rosenbloom firing Knox[[note]]This trope would continue to plague the Rams for another year under successor Ray Malavasi, as the Rams lost yet another NFC Championship at home; this time to the defending Super Bowl champion Cowboys. Los Angeles would finally get over the NFC Championship hump in 1979 in a 9-0 win over Cinderella team Tampa Bay, but went on to lose Super Bowl XIV to the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-19[[/note]]
** Knox left for Buffalo after his ouster in Los Angeles; and after two mediocre seasons the Bills returned to the playoffs with an 11-5 record and AFC East crown in 1980; only for the Bills to lose the AFC Divisional playoff to a team that was a polar opposite in offensive philosophy: the high-scoring San Diego Chargers, who edged Buffalo 20-14 off a late touchdown pass from Dan Fouts that bounced off Buffalo defender Charley Romes into the hands of Ron Smith. Romes atoned for his error the following post-season by recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff of 1981's AFC wild-card game vs. the New York Jets and returned it for a touchdown; but after the Bills won that game, Buffalo was knocked out by the Cincinnati Bengals 28-21 after a desperation Joe Ferguson pass fell incomplete on 4th down late in the game.
** Knox left Buffalo after the 1982 season when he couldn't come to an agreement on a new contract; taking the helm in Seattle for the 1983 campaign, a season which saw the Seahawks make the playoffs for the first time in team history; followed by defeating Denver and Miami to advance to the AFC Championship game vs. the Los Angeles Raiders at the Los Angeles Coliseum that had been the site of much post-season disasters for Knox's Rams teams. Los Angeles would trounce Seattle 30-14 en route to winning Super Bowl XVIII while Knox would never advance that far again (Knox's Seahawks advanced to the post-season in 1984, 1987 and 1988 but the 1984 AFC wild-card game vs. the same Raiders marked Seattle's last playoff win until 2005; and Knox left in 1991 to return to the Rams but suffered three sub-par seasons before being fired as the Rams departed for St. Louis following the 1994 season).
* After their Super Bowl victory in the 1983 season, the Los Angeles and then Oakland Raiders fell headlong into this trope. It took eight playoff berths for them to reach the Super Bowl again, in large part due to a revolving cast of mostly mediocre quarterbacks. Along the way, they made two conference championships and lost both in embarrassing fashion (a 51-3 shellacking in 1990 at the hands of the Bills, and a 16-3 snoozer against the Ravens in 2000). [[BerserkButton And then there's the Tuck Rule Game.]] The cherry on top was their Super Bowl appearance in 2002. After putting together the best team they'd had since their Super Bowl victories, and finally finding a proper quarterback in Rich Gannon, the Raiders finally got over the hump - and proceeded to get demolished by the [[ButtMonkey sad sack Buccaneers]], led by the coach they'd traded away that offseason, who brought the scheme for their high-powered offense with him. Afterwards, they've avoided this trope by the interesting strategy of not making the playoffs at all.
** Nor was that the first time they ran into this problem. From 1963 to 1975 the Raiders won the most games of any team in the league, with zero championships to show for it. They got smashed to pieces by the Packers in Super Bowl II, upset by the Joe Namath Jets, lost their star quarterback after he smashed his hand against a Chiefs defender in 1969, and then played the Steelers in the playoffs five years in a row and lost four of them - one of which was the Immaculate Reception game. Winning a championship in 1976, and then two more in 1980 and 1983, takes a lot of the sting out of it, but it was still a brutal stretch.
* Marty Schottenheimer finished his NFL coaching career with 205 wins. However, of those 205 wins, only ''five'' have come in the playoffs. Over the years, Schottenheimer built up a reputation for leading teams to great success in the regular season, only to bottom out in the playoffs:
** In his first playoff appearance in 1985 as head coach of the Browns, Cleveland built up a 21-3 first half lead over the Dolphins in an AFC Divisional playoff game. Miami would come back and win the game 24-21.
** The following season saw the Browns post a 12-4 record and home-field advantage through the playoffs. Sadly, they didn't make it past the AFC Championship Game, thanks to "The Drive:" The Browns were leading 20-13 when John Elway led the Broncos to a game-tying 98-yard touchdown drive. Denver would win in overtime on a field goal.
** 1987 saw the Broncos and Browns meet once more in the AFC Championship Game. This time in the fourth quarter, the Broncos were winning, but the Browns managed to get to Denver's eight-yard line. Ernest Byner then proceeded to fumble the ball, sealing the game for Denver.
** After one more playoff loss in 1988, Schottenheimer left the Browns and was later hired by the Chiefs. From 1990-1994, the Chiefs made the playoffs, but never advanced past the AFC Championship Game. The Chiefs had home-field advantage for the playoffs in 1995 and 1997, only to bow out in the first round to the Cinderella Colts and division rival Broncos, respectively.
** After leaving the Chiefs in 1998, Schottenheimer resurfaced in Washington in 2001. The team finished 8-8 in what would be Schottenhemier's only season with the team; he was let go in favor of University of Florida head coach Steve Spurrier.
** Schottenheimer would later take up head coaching duties with the Chargers in 2002. San Diego made the playoffs under him for the first time in 2004. They would lose to the Jets on a missed field goal from Nate Kaeding. In 2006, the Chargers finished the season at 14-2...and then lost to the Patriots in an AFC Divisional game. What made this loss really sting was that the Chargers had an eight-point lead when safety Marlon [=McCree=] intercepted Tom Brady...[[EpicFail and then proceeded to fumble the ball while attempting to return it.]] The Pats would get a new set of downs, eventually take the lead and win the game after Nate Kaeding once again missed a field goal that would've tied the game. After the season, issues between Schottenheimer and the Chargers front office led to the former getting fired. It would turn out to be Schottenheimer's last job in the NFL. In 2011, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and in 2021, he passed away at the age of 77.
* After losing to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI, the St. Louis Rams sunk into mediocrity for over a decade, but when Stan Kroenke took control of the team and moved it back to Los Angeles, he began to beef it up considerably, and in 2017 the Rams had their first winning season since 2003, and landed in the playoffs for the first time since 2004. Their 2018 season would turn out even better, tying with the New Orleans Saints for the best win-loss record in the league, and they even landed in the Super Bowl... where they failed to score a single touchdown (or anything beyond a single field goal) in a pathetically low-scoring game (13-3, a Super Bowl record) against the Patriots, [[HistoryRepeats the very same team that beat them 17 years earlier]]. The following season, they finished 9-7, but missed the playoffs. After being knocked out in the divisional round against the Green Bay Packers in the 2020 season, the Rams would finally break through during the 2021 season by returning to the Super Bowl and defeating the Cincinnati Bengals to win their first Vince Lombardi Trophy since Super Bowl XXXIV despite having to overcome injuries to some of their star and depth players.
* For that matter, the New England Patriots had two flavors of this. The first was in the Drew Bledsoe period (1993-2001), where despite playing five winning seasons in eight years, better than any period in the franchise's history up until that point, the Pats were frequently eliminated early in the playoffs, and their one trip to the Super Bowl in the 1996 season earned them a lopsided confrontation with Brett Favre's Packers. This period ended with the emergence of Creator/TomBrady, who led the team to three Super Bowl victories in four years. The ten years between their victories in Super Bowls XXXIX and XLIX, however, featured a lot of missed opportunities, despite the team's superb play and immensely talented roster. The 2005 and 2006 seasons featured a divisional loss and an AFC championship loss, the 2007 season ended in a tremendous upset by the underdog Giants over a hitherto undefeated Patriots team, the 2008 season saw Brady out with an ACL injury, and despite an 11-5 record (a five game drop playing two of the worst divisions ''ever'' in NFL history, the AFC West and NFC West) they missed the playoffs after losing conference tiebreakers to the Dolphins and Ravens. In 2009, the Pats were again eliminated early. In 2010, Brady had the best season, statistically, of his career with a third NFL MVP award, but the team was eliminated in the divisional by the Jets. In 2011, they finished 13-3 and made Super Bowl XLVI, [[HistoryRepeats losing again to the same team, the Giants.]] 2012 and 2013 featured AFC championship losses to the Ravens and Broncos, respectively, so when the 2014 season rolled around, the Pats, led by the now 37-year-old Brady, were hungry for a win. In a CoolVsAwesome matchup with the Seattle Seahawks, the Pats prevailed on a last-minute interception at the goal line by Malcolm Butler, and the dynasty was given a new lease on life. The Patriots reached the Super Bowl in the 2016 through the 2018 seasons, winning two, and Brady was decorated as Super Bowl MVP twice more and NFL MVP for the third time at age 40.
* The Green Bay Packers aren't the first name one might associate with this trope given that they ''have'' made three Super Bowl appearances in the past 30 years, and won two of them... but they've also had ''17'' additional seasons where they made the playoffs but failed to advance to the Super Bowl, including a few [[NeverLiveItDown pretty bizarre post-season losses]]. While no team can be expected to make the Super Bowl ''every'' time, 17 misses in 30 years is a ''lot'', especially given the kinds of records they've had in the regular season some of those years. Brett Favre's penchant for throwing interceptions at the worst possible time is no doubt part of this (see his entry under "Quarterbacks"), but this tendency didn't end with Favre's departure -- since they won Super Bowl XLV, Aaron Rodgers' Packers would go the NFC Championship four times (2014, 2016, 2019, 2020), and lose every time.
** In the 2003 season, there was "4th and 26". Leading by a field goal with under two minutes to go in the Divisional Round, the Packers had the Eagles pinned deep in their own territory, needing just one more defensive stop in a favorable situation to win the game. Somehow, they let the Eagles complete a 28-yard pass to keep the drive alive. The Eagles kicked the game-tying field goal and went on to win in overtime.
** In the 2007 NFC Championship, the Packers got the ball to start overtime, needing only a field goal (as this was before the overtime rule changes) to advance to the Super Bowl. Instead, Favre threw a bad interception to Corey Webster, and the Giants would kick a winning field goal to go to the Super Bowl.
** The most painful loss came in the 2014 game, where, thanks to Mike [=McCarthy=]'s conservative playcalling and special teams miscues, they blew a 19-7 lead and lost to the defending champion Seahawks in overtime.
** In 2020, the Packers faced the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game. While they kept it competitve for the most part, a series of mistakes at key moments -- including giving up a long touchdown right before halftime, a conservative decision on what would turn out to be the Packers' final drive, and a questionable penalty [[note]]the general consensus is that it was a penalty by the letter of the law, but it was also inconsistent with how the game had been called up to that point[[/note]] late in the fourth quarter doomed them.
** The 2021 Packers answered the previous year's defeat by putting up one of the team's best-ever postseason defensive performances in the Divisional round, holding the high-flying San Fransisco 49ers offense to just six points. Unfortunately, this performance would be entirely wasted; the offense put together one good drive and then struggled to move the ball for the rest of the game, and a special teams meltdown (which accounted for a whopping ''10-point swing'' in what turned out to be a 3-point game) sealed their fate.
* After winning Super Bowl XLIV in 2010, the New Orleans Saints would have several winning seasons, only to be on the receiving end of some of the most memorable plays in their playoff losses, including the following: "Beast Quake" against the 7-9 Seahawks in the 2010 Wild Card, "The Catch III" against the [=49ers=] in the 2011 Divisional, [[HistoryRepeats "Beast Quake II" against the Seahawks]] in the 2013 Divisional, "The Minneapolis Miracle" against the Vikings in the 2017 Divisional, and "The NOLA No-Call" against the Rams in the 2018 NFC Championship, which is the most painful loss in Saints history[[note]]this is due to the fact for once, it wasn't the Saints' fault; as the name suggests, the Saints lost this one thanks to one of the most universally agreed-upon blown calls in officiating ''history''[[/note]]. Drew Brees, the Saints's longtime quarterback, ended his career on a downer note when he threw three interceptions against the eventual Super Bowl LV Champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, whom the Saints had swept in the regular season.

[[folder:NHL]]
* The Ottawa Senators had been perennial division leaders in the mid-'90s through the middle of the 2000s, with two conference #1 seeds and a President's Trophy (awarded to the team that finishes with the most points). They're only second to the Detroit Red Wings in regular season wins for a decade. No Stanley Cup has been won by Ottawa as of yet[[note]]the current franchise, anyway. The original Senators were very successful, winning the Cup 11 times between 1903 and 1927, before the franchise struggled financially in TheGreatDepression, moved to St. Louis in 1934, and folded the next summer.[[/note]]. They also boast the dubious distinction of winning the most playoff rounds for a team without a Stanley Cup for a decade.
** And when the Senators did make it to a Stanley Cup Final in 2007, the game-winning goal in the cup-losing game was [[EpicFail booted into their own net by the goalie]]. Even more embarrassing, after winning the first three rounds that year in five games they were beaten by the Anaheim Ducks...[[IronicEcho in five games]].
** The 2000-01 postseason was an extreme example; after winning every single regular season game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and ending up 2nd overall in the conference, the two teams faced off in the first round of elimination, with Ottawa heavily favoured to win. Instead, they were ''swept'' 4-0.
** The Senators made tremendous strides in the 2016-17 season, finishing with 98 points and advancing all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, and [[HopeSpot pushing the defending Stanley Cup Champion Penguins to a Game 7]], but the Senators' dreams were dashed in ''double-overtime'' as they lost 3-2. And somehow, the Senators followed that by becoming the worst team in the league for two seasons in a row (and for bonus humiliation, both times the ensuing draft lottery pushed them down to the fourth pick! Then again, their 2019 draft pick got traded to Colorado...for a player that they traded to the Blue Jackets).
* The St. Louis Blues went to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first three seasons (largely due to the fact that from 1967-68 to 1969-70, the playoff format forced one of the Finals opponents to be one of the six 1967 expansion teams), only to be swept all three times (most famously in 1970, when Bobby Orr scored the game-winner in overtime). The Blues then had a consecutive playoff appearance streak of 25 seasons (1979-80 to 2003-04), but never made it back to the Finals in that time period, getting closest in 1985-86 (lost to the Calgary Flames in 7). Then the streak was broken in the post-lockout season of 2006, with the Blues having the league's worst result. Years of futility aside from a quick playoff run in 2009 (sweep by the Canucks' hands) later, the team was finally rebuilt into a contender in 2011 under coach Ken Hitchcock. A contender that couldn't beat the two strongest teams of the west, the Kings and Blackhawks (or in 2015, a surging Minnesota Wild team that prevented a Blackhawks rematch; and in 2016 the San Jose Sharks, as the Blues beat the 'Hawks in round 1, and then returned to the Conference Finals after 15 years). Hitchcock was fired following struggles in 2016-17 - and the Blues still fell in round 2, this time to the Nashville Predators. After Hitchcock's replacement Mike Yeo was axed in November 2018 in favor of assistant coach Craig Berube, the Blues were last in the NHL in early January... then rebounded to not only make the playoffs, but return to the Finals for the first time in 49 years (in some historic resonance, against those same Bruins from last time) and downright win their first title ever!
* [[http://grantland.com/the-triangle/a-celebration-of-canadian-hockey-futility/ Canadian teams in the playoffs since 1993 also qualify.]] The Senators, Flames, Oilers, Canucks and Canadiens have all made it to the final round, (and as far as Game Seven for the Flames, Oilers, and Canucks[[note]]twice![[/note]]) and promptly lost, [[SeriousBusiness breaking the hearts]] of a nation. RockBottom was in 2016, when ''all seven Canadian teams missed the postseason''.[[note]]The only other time Canada was shut out before, in 1970, there were only 2![[/note]]
** 2017 was a fizzling out in the opposite direction of 2016's shutout. Five of the sixteen seeded teams (out of seven Canadian teams, with only the Canucks and Jets missing out) were Canadian, and with the Canadiens, Senators, and Oilers coming into the playoffs hot (2nd or better in their respective divisions, with the top three of the Atlantic Division only ''narrowly'' avoiding being an all-Canadian sweep[[note]]The Toronto Maple Leafs were tied in points with the third-place Boston Bruins, but lost out due to the Bruins having three more wins in regulation or overtime[[/note]]) many Canadian fans thought this would be the year that the drought would end. However, three of the teams (the Canadiens, Leafs, and Flames) bowed out in the first round, with the Oilers losing to the Ducks in round 2 after a Game 7 that nearly went to Overtime, leaving the Senators as the only Canadian team to reach the Conference Finals. Despite a valiant effort, the Sens would lose Game 7 to the Penguins in a double OT heartbreaker, leaving Canada without a Cup yet again.
** Despite 2017's strong pre-playoff showing, 2018 was not kind to Canadian teams. The aforementioned Canadiens, Senators, and Oilers suffered abysmal seasons despite their wild successes the previous year and all ended up near the bottom of their respective Conferences, while the struggling Canucks (see below) continued imploding like they had the previous few years. With the Flames also falling short of the playoffs by a considerable margin, only the Leafs and the Winnipeg Jets (both of whom, to their credits, were comfortably near the top of the Eastern[[note]]The Leafs placed 3rd in their Division and 4th in the Eastern Conference, being tied in points with the Washington Capitals but lost the tiebreaker by having four fewer wins in regulation or overtime, as well as a respectable 7th place League-wide[[/note]] and Western Conferences[[note]]The Jets were second in their Division, Conference, and the entire League, falling three points short of the President's Trophy-winning Nashville Predators[[/note]] respectively) would make the playoffs in 2018. The Leafs would bow out in the first round to the Bruins in 7 games, while the Jets would ultimately fall to the white-hot Vegas Golden Knights in 5 games during the Western Conference Finals.
** 2019 had three strong Canadian teams entering, only to outright fail in Round 1: the Flames who had the best results in the Western Conference fell in just 5 games to the Colorado Avalanche, the Jets only lasted one more game against the Blues, and the Leafs were downed yet again by the Bruins in Game 7 (a poor showing that ended 4-1).
** 2020, which for COVID-19 reasons had the whole postseason in Canada, had all teams but Ottawa qualifying; three fell in the preliminary round[[note]]Calgary and Winnipeg played each other, guaranteeing that one Canadian team would lose[[/note]], two in Round 1, and then a resurgent Canucks team fell in seven to the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round.
** 2021 finally had Canada catch a break, even with harder conditions as COVID-related restrictions forced the seven teams to only play each other until the semifinals. And in spite of being an underdog against Vegas, Montreal broke Canada's 10-year finals drought (as well as the Habs' own 28 years away from the decisive series). But the Habs couldn't end the country's Cup drought, losing in five games to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
** 2022 had the Leafs failing to win a round for the fifth straight year, a Battle of Alberta rematch ensuring one would fall in round 2 - Calgary - and in spite of a stacked team Edmonton fell short and suffered a sweep by the Colorado Avalanche in the conference finals.
** While 2023 saw the Leafs finally win a playoff series for the first time since 2004, they ended up being downed in five games in Round 2 by the Florida Panthers, while Vegas put an end to the seasons of the other two Canadian teams that qualified -- Winnipeg in Game 5 in Round 1, and Edmonton in Game 6 in Round 2. Making matters worse, 2023 also marked the 30th year of the country's Cup drought, and these failures eunsured the drought would continue.
* The San Jose Sharks weren't always like this. In fact, they were pulling off upsets to top seeds throughout the 90s and early 2000s like the Red Wings and the Blues. Although the Sharks only missed the playoff thrice since the 1993-94 season [[http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/goes-brown-history-sharks-playoff-heartbreak/ but had many years failing to make it to the Stanley Cup Final, along with only thrice reaching the conference finals.]] They, too, won a President's Trophy, in the 2008-2009 season...and promptly lost to the eighth-seeded Anaheim Ducks. The absolute nadir may have come in 2014, as the Sharks became only the fourth team in league history to lose a playoff series after leading 3-0. Even worse, they lost to the in-state rival Los Angeles Kings, who went on to win it all. The Sharks then proceeded to fail to make the playoffs the following year, marking the first time in over a decade that they missed the postseason. They got their revenge in knocking out the Kings in 2016's First Round 4 games to 1, ''and'' managed to finally get to the Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately for them, they got defeated by the red hot Pittsburgh Penguins in six games, continuing their streak as playoff bridesmaids. 2017 saw the Sharks reverting back to their usual fizzling ways, getting bounced in the first round by the young Edmonton Oilers in six games. 2018 had them beaten in round 2 by the surprisingly good Vegas Golden Knights after beating Anaheim, while 2019 had the Sharks getting their revenge on Vegas in the first round and returning to the conference finals... only to lose to the Blues, who hadn't been to the finals in almost fifty years. Things would crash in 2019-20, as the Sharks finished dead last in the Western Conference, third last overall, and had already traded their first round pick to Ottawa, who picked third overall with it.
* On the other side of California there are the Anaheim Ducks, who ''have'' won the Stanley Cup, but ever since the 2007 title have been frustratingly inconsistent. Before the 2012 lockout, 2 non-qualifications, 2 first-round defeats, and a round 2 defeat (but in a series so [[UnnecessaryRoughness aggressive]] Anaheim and Detroit fans feel it cost the Red Wings the 2009 title). After the lockout, three straight Pacific Division titles, the last two with the West's best result, and thrice losing in seven games after building a 3-2 lead (one further every playoff: Round 1 to Detroit, Round 2 to Los Angeles, and Round 3 to Chicago). The fourth year, despite a bad start they finished atop the Pacific, and again fell in seven games, this time in ''[[https://twitter.com/MsJenNeale/status/724795178582581248 Round 1]]'' (to Nashville, the team who beat them in the last pre-lockout appearance...). It just seems Anaheim can't handle game 7s (only won 3, the last in ''2006'' when they were still the Mighty Ducks). 2017 had the Ducks finally winning a game 7, beating the Oilers who had just kicked the Sharks out... only to lose the conference finals in six, again to the Nashville Predators. After overcoming an injury-riddled season, 2018 had them suffer a sweep against the Sharks, the lowest point being an ''[[CurbStompBattle 8-1 loss]]'' in Game 3. The Ducks finally bottomed out in 2019, which included a 12-game losing streak, missed the postseason, and have yet to build a good team again.
* The Washington Capitals [[http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-storied-tradition-of-capitals-collapses/ have an unfortunate legacy of crashing and burning]] that has plagued them ever since their first puck dropped in 1974. They hadn't even made it past the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for 20 years, from 1998 through 2018 (where they not only made it past the second round but ultimately won the Cup), with an ugly tendency to lose to teams they were fully expected to beat - especially their arch-nemeses, the Pittsburgh Penguins, whom they have faced eleven times in the playoffs and beaten ''twice''. They are three-time President's Trophy winners,[[note]]Meaning they had the best record of any team in the NHL in three separate seasons, two of which were in a row[[/note]] but that was little comfort to fans who continued to see them drop out of the playoffs almost every single year they made it.
** Caps fans whose first heartbreaks have come in the Ovechkin era have suffered nowhere near older Caps fans who remember the futility of the 80s Caps teams to reach the third round (the most crushing loss being the infamous Easter Epic in 1987) or the 90s Caps teams' inability to get past the Lemieux-led Pittsburgh Penguins (including a few blown 3-1 series leads). And when they managed to get to the Cup Finals in 1998? Ran into the buzzsaw of the Detroit Red Wings juggernaut.
** 2018 finally saw the Capitals win a Stanley Cup after a whopping 44 years in the league. For bonus points, they beat the Vegas Golden Knights, a team that made it to the finals in their inaugural year when the rest of the teams in this list are lucky to get to the playoffs in most of their existences.
** However, 2019 marked a return to heartbreak as they proceeded to be eliminated in the first round by the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that hadn't been in the playoffs in a decade. [[SarcasmMode On the bright side, however]], their elimination did help complete a historic moment... that being [[MedalOfDishonor the first time in over 50 years that]] [[EpicFail every single division leader was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs]]. The following two seasons had the Capitals beat in easy 4-1 series, in 2022 they gave a fight to the Florida Panthers but still became the first team to lose a playoff round to them in 26 years, in 2023 they missed the playoffs outright, and in 2024 they found their way back into the playoffs and promptly got swept by the President's Trophy-winning New York Rangers in Round 1.
* The Philadelphia Flyers. Since joining the NHL as part of the 1967 expansion, they have only missed the playoffs eight times (and just twice since 1995) and reached the final eight times, but have only won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1974 and 1975. Part of the problem is that unbelievable consistency prevents them from bottoming out and having the ability to select a slur of high draft picks; their arch-rival Pittsburgh Penguins were built on the first overall pick in 2003 (Marc-André Fleury), second overall in 2004 (Evgeni Malkin), first overall in 2005 (Sidney Crosby), and second overall in 2006 (Jordan Staal). Not to mention how the Penguins had a meteoric rise in the 1980s after drafting a young Mario Lemieux...
** The Flyers "bottomed out" in the mid-1990s, with 5 years straight out of the postseason, and spending heavily to acquire the rights to Eric Lindros from Quebec (which was the first of a series of trades that built the Nordiques into the Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche). They did eventually build back up, led by the "Legion of Doom" line[[note]]Lindros, John [=LeClair=] and Mikael Renberg[[/note]], but after being swept by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1997 Finals, they settled back into the Eastern Conference pack. They got a bit lucky in 2010, having Montreal knock off the heavily favored Capitals and Penguins, before losing to Chicago in the Finals.
* The Detroit Red Wings were this for about a decade, having rebuilt from the "Dead Things era" to make back-to-back Conference Finals and making the playoffs in 9 of 10 seasons (the 1989-90 season was rife with internal strife, resulting in [[AudienceAlienatingEra management trading away several young stars for washed-up veterans]]), but never getting over (swept by the New Jersey Devils in the 1995 Finals, nearly trading away captain and star Steve Yzerman to Ottawa). Finally, in 1997, the team got over on new arch-rival Colorado and then swept the Flyers to win their first Cup in 42 seasons, and the first of four Cups in 11 seasons. Still, it seemed to be feast or famine for the Wings; prior to 2006-07, they either won the Cup or ended in the first or second round.
** The Red Wings were consistent contenders despite their playoff struggles, appearing in 25 consecutive post-seasons starting in the aforementioned '89-90 season-- a record that was the longest streak in North American sports history at the time. This, however, came crashing down in '16-'17, where the Wings ended up placing third-last in their Conference and missing the playoffs by a large margin. 2018 would prove that this was not a short-lived hiccup, as they would place fourth-last in their Conference, falling a whopping 24 points short of playoff contention, and 2019 saw them miss out on the playoffs by the same margin (while dropping to third-last in the East again, with Buffalo edging them out by two points).
** 2020 saw them bottom out completely, finishing with only '''39 points''' in a season that was ultimately cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.[[labelnote:For context]] The league's second worst team, the Ottawa Senators, finished with 62 points.[[/labelnote]] [[FromBadToWorse To add insult to injury,]] they were only given the fourth overall pick in the draft lottery, with the number one pick going to a team that made that year's expanded playoffs. Fortunately, the Red Wings would start improving following that season, which led to...
** 2023 and 2024 followed similar trajectories: the Red Wings perform strong throughout much of the season and by February, are widely poised to clinch a wild card spot... followed by an abysmal March that leads to them being eliminated from playoff contention yet again. 2024 is perhaps the one that stings the most, as the Red Wings recovered from that March to return to wild card contention, but everything that went wrong for them did, and they would be eliminated after their final game as the Washington Capitals eeked out a win against Philadelphia to secure the final wild card spot.
* Another "Original Six" team, the Boston Bruins, were this for even longer in a slightly shorter drought of 37 seasons. While on the longest playoff streak ever (29 seasons, 1968-96), after winning the 1972 title, the team had legends such as Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque, and Cam Neely reach 5 Stanley Cup finals and lose them all. Then after the streak was broken in 1996, the Bruins started a decay that even made Creator/TheSportsGuy [[http://espn.go.com/page2/s/simmons/011026.html give up on them]]. Luckily, a rejuvenation under coach Claude Julien starting in 2007 turned the Bruins back into contenders, [[http://grantland.com/features/a-black-gold-day-boston-finally/ including a Stanley Cup in 2011]] and two more finals in 2013 and 2019.
** However, the Bruins fell ''hard'' into this in 2022–23. In the regular season, they set NHL records for wins and points and tied the record for road wins. Then, they took a 3–1 lead over the Florida Panthers in the first round of the playoffs. Cue three straight losses, two of them at home in overtime, and a shocking playoff exit.
* The Vancouver Canucks have fairly consistently made the playoffs, usually by winning their division, from 2000-01 onwards, but always fall short in the playoffs. Even getting Roberto Luongo, a guy many consider to be the best goaltender in the world, didn't improve their efforts.
** Luongo himself is a perfect example of this: a dominant goaltender during the regular season, yet crumbles in the playoffs. Part of this is because Luongo infamously runs hot or cold, with very little in between-- when he's on his game, which is most of the time (hence his mostly positive reputation), he's considered one of the best goalies of all time, and with good reason. When he's ''off'' his game, which has a bad tendency to happen when his team needs him most (see: the playoffs), he stops pucks about as well as a block of Swiss cheese.
** In 2011, it [[GoneHorriblyWrong Went Horribly Wrong]] when the Canucks won the President's Trophy but lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Boston Bruins and [[SeriousBusiness riots ensued in Vancouver.]] The following year, they retained the President's Trophy only to lose 4-1 in the first round to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings.[[note]] Although Los Angeles would go on to knock out each of the top three teams in the western conference before going on to the finals. They were 12-2 in the playoffs at that point and finished 16-4 in the playoffs. So this is less a case of the Canucks collapsing than the Kings catching fire.[[/note]]
*** 2011 deserves special mention in terms of the sheer '''magnitude''' of the Canucks' flaming out. While the Cup Finals did go to Game 7, this doesn't quite tell the full story. The Canucks were simply unable to score, to the point where they broke the record for lowest number of goals scored in a seven-game Cup Final, and actually scored less than the record holder for a '''six''' game Final, scoring a horrific ''eight'' goals over the course of the series and averaging just over a single goal per game (to put this in perspective, the Bruins scored as much in Game 3 alone than the Canucks scored over the course of the entire 7 game series), winning two of the games by a score of 1-0 purely on the back of Luongo managing a shutout after stopping more than 30 shots each. But Luongo himself (see above) proved wildly inconsistent as well, with Boston averaging more than 3 goals a game (the aforementioned Game 3? An 8-1 rout, [[EpicFail where Vancouver still managed to outshoot Boston despite only scoring once.]] Vancouver decided not to pull Luongo the entire game, even after the Bruins scored four times in 15 minutes). In games where the Bruins scored, they averaged '''nearly five goals''' per game, almost all against Luongo (Game 6 being a prime example, where the Bruins scored against Luongo three times in the first nine minutes, forcing a goalie switch after just eight shots. [[OverlyLongGag And then they scored against the backup goalie a minute later]]). Overall the Canucks were outscored by a total of 23-8, a wild departure from the rest of their playoff run.
** Then in 2013 they won their division and finished third in the West... only to be ''swept'' by another team on this page, the Sharks.
** In 2014, the team that was once Cup favorites had pretty much self-destructed, trading away both of their starting-caliber goalies for a draft pick and an AHL goaltender, firing their GM, and failing to so much as make the playoffs in the juggernaut Pacific Division. [[HopeSpot It paid off in a way]], as in 2015 they returned to be contenders and finished second in the Pacific... until they were defeated in the first round by the Calgary Flames, who had made the playoffs for the first time in six years. 2016 had them bottom out again, and in 2017 they not only bottomed out with the second-worst record in the league ([[DamnedByFaintPraise avoiding the bottom spot by virtue of an utterly disastrous season from the Colorado Avalanche]]), they were one of only two Canadian teams to miss the playoffs (the other, the Winnipeg Jets, were one position away from qualifying). By 2018, the implosion was complete, ended up second-worst in the Western Conference (this time, spared the bottom spot, just barely, by the Arizona Coyotes) and 26th overall, and with the Sedin twins retiring at the end of the season it now seems likely that they'll stay there for the foreseeable future, with only a mild improvement in 2019. Though 2020 had the Canucks resurging in the extended playoffs, winning two rounds before bowing to Vegas in 7. Only for in 2021, the Canucks to end last in a division that had the six Canadian teams they outlasted the previous year!
* Player version: Brian Savage, most notably of the Montreal Canadiens. Savage always went on an early season tear, only to disappear throughout the season. As the NHL season typically began in October, he earned the nickname "Mr. October" because of it.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs are quite possibly the league's most infamous example. The Leafs are the only Original Six team to have never won a Cup since the NHL first expanded in 1967 (despite being the winners of the final Stanley Cup awarded in the Original Six era), and have never even returned to the Cup Finals since (the longest Cup Finals drought in NHL history, with a 12-year lead over the Arizona Coyotes who also have an active drought). With the Blues quenching their Cup drought in 2019 (the last of the original expansion teams to win the championship, meaning that until they won, they were tied with the Leafs), the Leafs now have the longest active drought in the League, and, as of 2019, are only two years behind the longest drought in League history, that belonging to the New York Rangers (see below).
** The Leafs had several chances to make the Cup Finals in TheNineties, reaching the Conference Finals in 1993, 1994, and 1999 as well as an appearance in 2002. Despite this, they failed to advance (losing to the Kings in 7, Canucks in 5, Sabres in 5, and Hurricanes in 6 respectively).
** Following the lockout in 2005, the Leafs collapsed spectacularly, failing to make the playoffs for the following seven seasons, during which they had an uncanny tendency to either have a strong start to their season before collapsing in the final months before the playoffs, or [[HopeSpot come back from a poor start to the season to ultimately fall short]]:
*** 2006: After a strong start to the season, the Leafs suffered two lengthy losing streaks in January and February, falling two points short of contention.
*** 2007: In a reversal of fortune, the Leafs had a rough start to the season before surging towards the end, eventually falling one point short [[DownToTheLastPlay when the New York Islanders won a shootout in their final game against the New Jersey Devils to move past them for the final playoff spot]].
*** 2008: The Leafs had an overall poor season, ending up at the bottom of the Northeast Division on the back of having the second-worst penalty-kill in the league for the season (as well as allowing the most powerplay goals)[[note]]The Kings technically had a worse overall PK percentage, but had significantly fewer overall penalties[[/note]] and one of the worst overtime/shootout records in the league.
*** 2009: The Leafs had another overall poor season, allowing the most goals and having the worst penalty-kill in the league. Despite this, the Leafs were technically among the last teams to be eliminated from playoff contention before a sub-.500 March put an end to their playoff hopes.
*** 2010: The Leafs bottomed out, finishing last in the Eastern Conference[[note]][[DamnedByFaintPraise avoiding the bottom spot in the league by virtue of a disastrous season by the Oilers]][[/note]] on the back of a league-worst power play and penalty kill and setting a franchise-worst start to a season by losing their first eight games (and winning only once in all of October).
*** 2011: The Leafs battled back from a poor November and December to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot, but ultimately fell short when the Sabres had a wildly successful March and April to claim the final spot in the Northeast.
*** 2012: The Leafs led the Northeast Division for some time and looked like they were finally going to break their playoff drought. [[YankTheDogsChain Then they had a spectacularly bad February, including a stretch of losing 10 out of 11 games before two more losing streaks in March dashed their playoff hopes, ultimately finishing 13th in the East.]] The coach was fired, [[IncompetenceInc the owners]] issued an apology letter, and disgruntled fans started chanting [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH8fi9zK7UA "LET'S GO BLUE JAYS!]]" at home games.[[note]]This was during a 22-year playoff drought by the Jays following the 1993 title. Add the Raptors, who rarely even made the playoffs until TheNewTens, and even then were infamous for fizzling out until they won the Championship in 2019, and Toronto is a ''really'' unlucky place for teams not named Toronto FC or Argonauts.[[/note]]
** In 2013, the playoff drought finally ended. [[HopeSpot Despite no one counting on the Leafs passing Round 1, they still pushed it to Game 7, and were leading the final game 4-1 halfway into the third period.]] The Bruins then proceeded to score three times in less than ten minutes (two of which, including the game-tying goal, happened within 31 seconds of play, and both occurred with less than a minute and a half left in the game) to force overtime, before scoring the series-ending goal a few minutes into the first overtime period, [[MedalOfDishonor leaving the Leafs as the first-ever team to lose a Game 7 after having a three-goal lead in the third period]].
** In 2014, the Leafs peaked at 3rd place in the Eastern Conference, and despite a mediocre November were performing well... until March and April, where they went 2-12 in their final 14 games, finishing 12th in the East and missing the playoffs again.
** 2015 may have set a new low. After a fairly solid first few months, Toronto completely fell apart after the start of the New Year, winning only '''nine''' games in the second half of the season (and won only once away from home, as well as only once in the entirety of January), eventually going from near the top of the Eastern Conference to ''second-worst'' by the time the season ended. The Leafs tied their franchise-worst point total since the league expanded to a 82-game season, the Leafs broke a 13-season streak of consistently selling out for their home games, and team President Brendan Shanahan decided to "scorch the earth", firing most of the team's staff to rebuild for future seasons.
** 2016, to no one's surprise, saw the Leafs bottom out, finishing last overall. For once, this made the fanbase optimistic for a change since there was nowhere to go but up, and the Leafs ended up winning the draft lottery.
** 2017 saw the Leafs squeaking into the playoffs for only the second time since 2004, and defying expectations by standing toe-to-toe with the President's Trophy winning Capitals before ultimately falling in 6 games in a series where every game was decided by only a single goal and five of the six games went to overtime. With a young team with plenty of room to grow already proving capable of pushing a top-seeded team to their limits, Leafs fans grew cautiously optimistic about their team's long-term prospects.
** 2018 and 2019 saw the Leafs make the playoffs, placing third in the Atlantic Division. Both seasons would end the same way, however, with a Game 7 loss in the first round against the Bruins. The Leafs are generally agreed to have shed their regular season choking ways... [[HereWeGoAgain only to be right back to fizzling out in the postseason]]. This was neatly demonstrated in 2020, where the Leafs twice tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets in the qualifying round but then were trounced 3-0 in the decisive fifth game.
** In 2021, due to travel restrictions in the wake of the [=COVID-19=] pandemic, the league's divisions were temporarily modified so that all 7 Canadian teams competed in a "North" Division. During the regular season, the Leafs ran away with what was largely seen as the weakest division in the league, and looked to have an easy path to the semifinals at the start of the playoffs. Cue the Leafs choking away a 3-1 series lead to the Montreal Canadiens, who had the lowest regular season points total of the 16 playoff teams, en route to yet another first-round exit.
** 2022 had what many thought to be the best Leafs team ever, finishing with the fourth overall record in the league, a 60-goal, 107-point scorer and Hart Trophy winner in [[MyNaymeIs Auston]] Matthews, and a 97-point scorer in Mitch Marner. The opponent being the defending champions Tampa Bay Lightning ensured it wouldn't be easy. Still, the Leafs entered Game 6 with the chance of finishing it all, and entered the third period ahead, 3-2. The Bolts tied and eventually won in overtime. Game 7 in Toronto is a very close 2-1 defeat. To make it more painful, the team started the season surpassing the record 54 year drought of the New York Rangers, and ensured the suffering would last longer.
** 2023 finally saw the Leafs avenge their first-round exit in 2022 (against the same Lightning team that beat them that year) in overtime in Game 6 to reach the second round for the first time since 2004 -- only to get sent home by the eighth-seeded Florida Panthers in five games, leaving fans to wonder whether the end result was any better than the numerous first-round exits of the Auston Matthews era.
** The Leafs have the dubiously desired title of "the most profitable losing team in sports": despite the fact that they haven't won the Stanley Cup, or even gotten close to it, in 50+ years, home games are always sold out, and the wait time for season tickets in the worst seats in their home of Scotiabank Arena is 7-10 ''years'', with longer wait times for better seats. Scotiabank Arena (originally Air Canada Centre) was built to try to accommodate ''more'' fans due to the previous Maple Leaf Gardens being considered too small for the ''huge'' fanbase the Leafs enjoy.
* The New York Rangers appear to be suffering from this; since the 2005 lockout, they've only missed the playoffs thrice. The problem is that each time into the postseason there always seems to be something to trip them up. 2006: Well, they just got back into the playoffs for the first time since 1997 - takes some of the sting out of a 4-game sweep by [[TheRival the Devils]]. 2007: Swept the [[ButtMonkey Atlanta Thrashers]], fought well against the President's Trophy-winning Buffalo Sabres before bowing out in 6. 2008: Knocked the Devils out in 5, knocked out by the Penguins in 5 (would have been a sweep if goalie Henrik Lundqvist didn't put up a shutout in Game 4). 2009: Was up 3-1 in the 1st round series against the Capitals, then coach John Tortorella lost his cool in Game 5 because some fan heckled him too much and he squirted a water bottle over the glass, netting him a suspension for Game 6 and the Rangers lose the series. 2010: Missed out on the playoffs by one point. 2011: Lost to the Caps again, this time in 5, though as an 8-seed with an anemic offense (8 goals total in those five games) that's a tall order. 2012: Finally started to get it together with a division title and the #1 seed in the East, needing 7 games to beat each of the Senators and Capitals, lost to [[TheRival the Devils]] in 6 on an overtime goal. 2013: [[HereWeGoAgain Went 7 against the Capitals]] before winning, lost to Boston in the second round (would have been a sweep if Chris Kreider didn't score an overtime winner in Game 4). 2014: Entered the Eastern Conference playoffs as the #2 Seed, needed 7 to beat the Flyers in the First Round, needed 7 again to edge the Penguins in the Second Round, [[HopeSpot got past the Montreal Canadiens in 6 for the Eastern Conference title...]]drop the Finals against the LA Kings in 5 games ([[RunningGag it would have been a sweep if]] the Rangers hadn't gotten some "puck luck" in the 3rd period of Game 4 to preserve a 2-1 lead). 2015: Got the President's Trophy, dispatched the Penguins in 5, edge the Capitals on a Game 7 overtime goal, get to Game 7 again in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning where they had home ice and had never lost a Game 7 at home- oh, wait, forget it, Tampa beats them 2-0. 2016: Things start to backslide with a first-round exit in just five games to the Penguins where the Rangers never seemed to have it. 2017: Beats a strong Canadiens team in 6, falls to the Ottawa Senators also in 6 with the decisive game at home. 2018: Despite placing near the middle of their Conference (though this was due to a terrible season for the bottom half of the Atlantic Division more so than on their own merits), missed the playoffs by a wide margin in a losing season and placed dead last in the Metropolitan Division. Another bad season in 2019 made fans and analysts sad that Lundqvist will probably retire without winning the Cup or jump ship seeking it. (even a return to the playoffs in the extended 2020 postseason went bad, given the Rangers were swept by the Carolina Hurricanes) 2021 had both Lundqvist leaving ''and'' the Rangers missing the playoffs, with the added pain of #1 draft pick Alexis Lafrenière having an underwhelming season. 2022 made up for the disappointment, specially in goalie Igor Shesterskin emerging as a superstar, with the Rangers going to the conference finals and winning the first two games against the Tampa Bay Lightning, only for the defending champions to resurge and take the following four.
** Since they share ownership with the above mentioned Knicks, with both teams choking frequently despite good players and "an unlimited budget", owner James Dolan is usually listed among the worst of his kind.
** In the past, it was the Curse of 1940. The Rangers won the Cup that year, which was also when the mortgage on their home Madison Square Garden[[note]]the 3rd one - the current 4th building called MSG opened in 1968[[/note]] was paid off so management celebrated by burning the mortgage document in the Cup itself. The Rangers would not win the Cup again for 54 years. Fans of the New York Islanders (who won the Cup four straight times in the early 1980s), the New Jersey Devils (whose home arena seated 19,040 at the time), the Philadelphia Flyers (who just hate New York teams as a matter of course), and any other team could and would taunt Rangers fans with chants of "19-40!"
* The Pittsburgh Penguins were this between the 2009 and 2016 Stanley Cup titles, despite a deep roster led by superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Every year the Pens would have steamrolled through the regular season, only to die in the playoffs to a lower seed. First, losing to the 8-seeded Montreal Canadiens in the Semis in 2010, ''blowing a 3-1 series lead'' to lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2011, losing to the 5th-seeded Flyers in 2012. Things seemed to be looking up for the Pens for the 2013 playoffs, as the Conference's top seed advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2009, only to completely no-show the series as the 4th-seeded Boston Bruins ''[[CurbStompBattle utterly demolished them in four games]]''. The final straw, however was the 2014 playoffs. After acing the regular season (again), in the Quarterfinals they struggled greatly against the heavy underdog Columbus Blue Jackets in six games, then ''yet again blew a 3-1 series lead'' to the New York Rangers in the Semifinals to lose. The fans (and the organization, apparently) were so fed up with the disappointments, and Head Coach Dan Bylsma, despite being the most successful coach in Penguins history and also coached the Pens to their 2009 title, was fired. The following year, the Penguins begun well only for injuries and bad luck to take its toll, and the team entered the final round threatened to miss the postseason for the first time since 2006 (luckily, a win over an abysmal Buffalo Sabres team earned the Penguins the final Eastern spot, with the Boston Bruins breaking a playoff streak instead). They barely managed to squeak into the playoffs only to bow out to the same team that had eliminated them a year prior: the Rangers (only this time, it was in five games during the first round and the Rangers won the President's Trophy in the 2014-2015 season). Then 2016 broke the underwhelming years, with a half-way coach change leading to a Penguins surge and an eventual second title to Crosby and Geno, with 2017 leading to another Cup win. They would fail to secure a triple-crown in 2018, however, bowing out with a second-round exit after 6 games against their arch-rival, the aforementioned Capitals (who would ultimately win the Cup for themselves). The following four seasons were round 1 exits, starting with a sweep, then 2023 saw their ''16-season'' playoff streak come to an end in embarrassing fashion: they just needed to beat the worst two teams in the league to make it in, but proceeded to blow it against the Chicago Blackhawks in a 5-2 loss, giving the New York Islanders the window of opportunity they needed to take the final wildcard spot, and 2024 would again see them miss the playoffs thanks to a rough last few games to allow their [[RunningGag arch-rival Capitals]] to capture the final wildcard spot.
* The Montreal Canadiens, in the years following the 2004-05 lockout, have become a team that's infamous for frequently dominating their division in the regular season but falling apart in the playoffs. In fact, despite frequently being a top-seeded team, they've only reached the Conference Finals twice since they last won the Cup in 1993 (losing to the Flyers in 2010 in a 4-1 rout after beating the Capitals and Penguins in a pair of seven-game series, and again to the Rangers in 2014), and are one of only three Canadian teams to not reach the Cup Finals since 1993 (the others being the aforementioned Leafs, and the Winnipeg Jets who only just moved back to Canada in 2011-2012). More often than not, the Canadiens have bowed out to bottom-seeded teams in the quarter- or semi-finals. 2021 ''did'' see the Canadiens return to the finals, in spite of them having the lowest point total among all 16 postseason teams; unfortunately for Montreal, the Tampa Bay Lightning made short work of them, with the Habs only avoiding a sweep thanks to an overtime winner in Game 4. Montreal would proceed to bottom out in 2021-22 thanks to key departures and long-term injuries, going from Stanley Cup Finalist to the first team mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
* Ever since drafting Steven Stamkos in 2008, the Tampa Bay Lightning took a while to get their footing, which happened around 2014 (the only playoff run before was quite deep, losing in the 2011 Eastern Finals to the eventual champions Boston Bruins). There, the absence of goalie Ben Bishop led them to be swept by the above mentioned Canadiens. In 2015, the Bolts finally went all in and got to their second ever Cup finals, only unlike the 2004 title, Tampa built a 2-1 lead before the Blackhawks won three and got the Cup. It was then followed by a conference final, missing the playoffs by ''one point'', and another conference final which saw them blow a 3-2 series lead to the Capitals (who then went on to win the Cup).
** However, all of this pales in comparison to the Bolts' infamous postseason collapse in 2019. Tampa went into the playoffs looking [[TheAce practically invincible]], having convincingly tied the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings' regular season win record at 62 and only falling shy of the all-time point record by a measly 3 points.[[note]]by virtue of losing more games in regulation as opposed to in overtime, when the losing team still gets a point[[/note]] All signs pointed to the Lightning being a 20-man wrecking crew come the postseason, with practically everyone predicting that they'd steamroll their way to an easy Stanley Cup. Game 1 arrives, [[HopeSpot and the Bolts take a convincing 3-0 lead in the first period]], seemingly proving everyone right. But then what happens? They choke ''hard'', blowing said lead and ultimately losing Game 1 by a score of 4-3. It would prove to be the last time the Bolts would ever hold a lead throughout the rest of the series, and as a result they ended up becoming [[MedalOfDishonor the first-ever President's Trophy winner to be swept out of the first round of the playoffs]]. [[FromBadToWorse Even worse]], this utter humiliation came at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who, up until that moment, ''[[EpicFail had never won a playoff series in their nearly 20-year existence]]''. Many have called it the single biggest collapse not just in NHL history, but quite possibly in ''any professional sport ever''. Regardless of how well the Bolts may do going forward, it's already quite clear that this spectacular failure [[NeverLiveItDown will haunt the team for the rest of its existence]].
** Fortunately for the Bolts, they bounced back in the best way possible, with ''three'' straight Stanley Cup Finals. 2020 saw the Bolts getting their revenge on the Jackets and ''finally'' raising the Cup after beating the Dallas Stars four games to two; surprisingly, they did this with barely any help from Stamkos, who operated on a turn muscle early in the year and only returned for a few minutes halfway through the Finals. Regression didn't happen in 2021, as they returned to the championship series and dominated the Montreal Canadiens four games to one for their second straight cup. 2022 saw them reach their third straight Finals after squeaking by the Maple Leafs, completely destroying the Presidents' Trophy-winning Florida Panthers in a four-game sweep, and getting past an upstart New York Rangers squad -- but this time, they met their match in a powerhouse Colorado Avalanche team and fell in six games.
** A subplot to the Lightning's three straight Finals appearances is the fate of former Ducks superstar Corey Perry, who made the Final all three years with three separate teams and ended up on the losing side of all three series. Were it not for his Cup with the Ducks in 2007, it would be one of the most depressing individual postseason stats of all time.
* The Calgary Flames are notoriously a "feast or famine" team in the regular season. They either dominate their Division and/or Conference, or (with few exceptions) they miss the playoffs entirely. They are, however, very consistent in performing poorly in the playoffs, especially after their Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2004. Since then, the Flames have bowed out in the first round in all but two of their playoff appearances (the exceptions being 2015, where they defeated the Canucks before the Ducks comfortably defeated them in 5 games, and 2022, where they barely squeaked by the wildcard Dallas Stars before losing in 5 to the rival Edmonton Oilers). 2006 saw them place first in the Northwestern Division before being eliminated by the Ducks in Game 7, while 2019 saw them place first in the entire Western Conference (and second in the League behind the aforementioned Lightning) before being upset by the Colorado Avalanche (who only barely made the playoffs and were expected to be eliminated with little fanfare) in five games. In 2020, the Flames would win their qualifying round series against the Winnipeg Jets only to lose in the first round to the Dallas Stars, punctuated by the final game in which they led 3-0 and lost '''7-3'''. Calgary would also miss the playoffs in an all-Canadian North division of 2021 - where those same Jets qualified! 2022 had Calgary reemerging but not ready, struggling to beat the Stars in 7 games while an outstanding 9-6 win over ArchEnemy Edmonton Oilers was followed by four straight defeats (the last in overtime at home!).
** Back when the Flames were based in Atlanta, the team made the playoffs in six out of their eight years in that city, but failed to advance past the first round in each appearance.
* The Nashville Predators have only missed the postseason four times since their first playoff berth in 2003-04, yet have only seen one playoff run last beyond the second round. They spent much of the mid-to-late '00s being a doormat to the Red Wings and Sharks. In the early-to-mid 2010s, when they weren't losing to the Blackhawks en route to Stanley Cups, they were getting bounced in the second round by the likes of the Presidents' Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks in 2011, Cinderella-run Phoenix Coyotes in 2012, and Stanley Cup finalist San Jose Sharks in 2016. The Preds finally made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017, only to lose in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins. They won the Presidents' Trophy in 2018 only to bow out to the Winnipeg Jets in the second round, then won their division again in 2019 only to be upset by the Dallas Stars in the first round. They settled back into mediocrity afterwards, such as losing in the 2020 playoff bubble to the Coyotes -- who hadn't won a series (or ''been in the playoffs at all'') since their last post-season matchup.
** Perhaps the lowest point in Predators playoff history came in 2022 where, despite having resurgent seasons from their long-slumping top talents and the most offensively-productive defenseman since the 90's, the Preds saw their defensive structure fall apart in the second half of the regular season, their Vezina-finalist goalie suffer an injury in the last two weeks of the regular season, and a blown four-goal lead against the second-worst team in the league (surprise, [[RunningGag it's the Coyotes again]]) to drop from a tough-but-winnable matchup against the Calgary Flames to a near-impossible matchup against the Colorado Avalanche who effortlessly swept them en route to winning the Stanley Cup.
** Even the 2017 run qualifies, as goaltender Pekka Rinne -- who was lights out for the first three rounds and only allowed three goals on home ice in the Finals -- was completely demolished on Pittsburgh ice in the Finals. Ironically, one of the three goals he allowed at home was the Stanley Cup winner, the first goal of Game 6 with less than 90 seconds remaining in the third period.
** Predators General Manager David Poile, who also built most of the '80s and '90s Washington Capitals rosters, has likewise gained a reputation of being able to construct rosters that make the postseason but are incapable of deep playoff runs. Poile has the most regular season wins of any General Manager, but has only made it out of the second round of the playoffs twice: once with the Capitals in 1990, and the 2017 run with the Preds.
* The Carolina Hurricanes won the Cup in 2006, but following that has never come close to those highs, including getting swept in all three of their Conference Finals appearances (2009, 2019, and 2023) since. In particular, the "Bunch of Jerks" era of the late 2010s to early 2020s is infamous for dominating advanced statistics but failing to translate that into wins beyond the first two rounds of the playoffs.
* The 2024 Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins all will forever be associated with a 15-minute series of events during the former two's Game 82 on April 16. During that 15-minute timeframe, the three aforementioned teams were out of the playoffs, and the Washington Capitals secured the last Eastern Conference wildcard spot. Timeline:
** 9:33pm Eastern in Montreal: Down 4-3 to the Canadiens and needing at least one point to remain in playoff contention, David Perron of the Red Wings scores a goal with 3.3 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 4-4, assisted by Shayne Gostisbehere.
** 9:34pm Eastern in Philadelphia: Tied at 1-1 and needing a regulation win to remain in playoff contention, the Flyers pull goalie Samuel Ersson with 3:11 left in regulation.
** 9:34pm Eastern in Montreal: End of regulation. Red Wings earn one point, Flyers are eliminated from playoff contention. Detroit needs the Capitals to lose in regulation to secure the final wildcard spot.
** 9:35pm Eastern in Philadelphia: T.J. Oshie of the Capitals scores an empty-net goal with 3 minutes left in regulation, assisted by Nic Dowd; the score is now 2 Capitals, 1 Flyers. Samuel Ersson of the Flyers is pulled again following the goal in an effort to secure a regulation win for Philadelphia.
** 9:44pm Eastern in Philadelphia: Game over. Capitals secure the last Eastern Conference wildcard spot, eliminating the Red Wings and the Penguins, despite April 16 being a day off for the latter.
** 9:48pm Eastern in Montreal: Patrick Kane scores the game-winning shootout goal; Red Wings win 5-4, their third overtime/shootout win in four days and their second straight MiracleRally win against the Canadiens in as many days. The win, however, is now meaningless for Detroit as they have already been eliminated from playoff contention.
** The Penguins would play their Game 82 the following night, April 17, and at least they knew they had been eliminated from playoff contention, as they fell to the home New York Islanders, who had already clinched third place in the Metropolitan Division, 5-4, so had the Flyers and Canadiens won the previous night, the Penguins would still be eliminated with the loss anyway, with the Flyers capturing the last Eastern Conference wildcard spot in that scenario.
** This entire ordeal is now HarsherInHindsight for the Capitals. After securing the last Eastern Conference wildcard spot, they would be swept by the President's Trophy-winning New York Rangers in Round 1.

[[folder:Professional Gaming]]
* In ''VideoGame/Dota2'', when it comes to The International, in terms of professional organizations, Team Secret is possibly the biggest example in its pro scene. Its first iteration consisted of Puppey, Fly (then known as Simba), [=N0tail=] (then known as [=BigDaddy=]), [=KuroKy=], and [=s4=]. They had some good success but wasn't enough for Puppey, who would kick Fly and [=N0tail=] for Evil Geniuses's zai and Arteezy. They were considered to be the most star-studded roster ever made in Europe and had shown it, having won the last four [=LANs=] before The International 2015. They only finished 7th-8th after being beaten by Virtus.pro, a disappointing showing for the all-star team.
** So, in the [=post-TI5=] shuffle, Puppey restarted his team, acquiring pubstar [=w33ha=], and longtime veterans [=MiSeRy=], pieliedie, and [=EternaLEnVy=] to make another star-studded roster. This iteration had even more mixed success, apart from a 2nd place finish at The Frankfurt Major and a victory at The Shanghai Major. Unfortunately, Puppey [[HistoryRepeats once again kicked two players,]] this time in [=w33ha=] and [=MiSeRy=] for Arteezy to once again return and bring Universe this time. [[EpicFail This went as abysmal as one would've expected,]] with Secret finishing ''last'' both at The Manila Major ''and'' at [=TI6=]. What's more embarrassing was that Universe left the team before The Manila Major even ended, returning to EG. For added humor and irony, [=w33ha=], [=MiSeRy=], both on Digital Chaos, and Universe managed to make it to the top 3 with their teams, with DC triumphing over EG in the Lower Bracket Finals to finish 2nd.
** [=Post-TI6=], Puppey restarted his team once more, making a final roster for [=TI7=] of MP, [=KheZu=], [=MidOne=], and [=YapzOr=], the latter two of which would form a core trio alongside himself. This was a quiet time for the team, and had mixed results as well overall, having to qualify for [=TI7=] through the qualifiers. They finished 9th-12th, eliminated by eventual winners Team Liquid.
** For the 2017-18 DPC, MP and [=KheZu=] left, with Ace and Fata joining in. They would win both seasons of Dreamleague held during the season and finished 4th overall in the standings. They had a much better showing at [=TI8=] but ultimately lost to Team Liquid once again, finishing 5th-6th.
** 2018-19 DPC: zai returns to Secret, and Nisha joins. They managed to finish 2nd at The Kuala Lumpur Major, and 1st at The Chongqing Major, along with wins at ESL One Hamburg 2018 and Katowice 2019. They have qualified for Dreamleague Season 11, and are looked on right now as the best team in the world, surpassing Virtus.pro. Time will tell if this transitions to a dominant performance at [=TI9=].
* Virtus.pro are dangerously becoming this when it comes to TI. While they finished 5th-6th at [=TI5=], they weren't considered to be favorites, and actually had a good underdog run, culminating in their upset of Team Secret. They didn't qualify for [=TI6=], dropped their roster after that, had an absolute resurgence in the Fall season by signing Lil, Solo, [=RAMZES666=], [=9pasha=], and [=No[o]ne=] in the lead-up to [=TI7=], now considered as favorites, would only finish 5th-6th, falling to eventual winners Team Liquid, were considered the best team in the world in the 2017-18 DPC after swapping Lil for Na'Vi's [=RodjER=], were considered to be the shoe-in to win it all, and would [[RuleOfThree finish 5th-6th once again,]] this time at the hands of Evil Geniuses.
* For [[VideoGame/CounterStrike CS:GO]] from 2015 to the start of 2018, it was the Danish team of Astralis (then once known as Team Dignitas/Team [=SoloMid=]). Let's see: 3rd-4th at ESL One Katowice 2014, 3rd-4th at ESL One Cologne 2014, 5th-8th at Dreamhack Winter 2014, 5th-8th at ESL One Katowice 2015, 3rd-4th at ESL One Cologne 2015, 5th-8th at Dreamhack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015, 3rd-4th at MLG Major Columbus 2016, and 5th-8th at ESL One Cologne 2016. See a pattern? They were once infamously known for performing very well in the Majors...until they reach the semifinals, where they ''always'' lose. Fans have called this "The Semifinal Curse" for their constant tendency to just choke when they make it to the semifinals. This was averted for a time when they made the pioneering decision to hire a sports psychologist to help with their issue of mentality and won the Atlanta Major, but would be played straight for the rest of the year, where they would once again fall to eventual winners Gambit Esports at the Krakow Major, [[HistoryRepeats finishing 3rd-4th.]] This was eventually (and finally) averted for the second and possibly last time after the Boston Major, where after Kjaerbye's sudden departure and the acquisition of Magisk, would go on an absolute tear for the rest of the year, culminating in a dominant performance at the FACEIT London Major, where in the Champions Stage would go ''undefeated'' all the way to their 2nd Major victory, cementing their era. It would be further cemented with their win at the ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, where they not only won the event itself but with this their fourth ESL/Dreamhack victory, won the $1 million prize of Intel Grand Slam Season 1 as well. One hell of an aversion right there.
* In professional ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', the entire North American region is [[MemeticLoser infamous for being a chronically-underperforming major region]], but an exception to this (ironically making them the most qualified for this phenomenon) is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud9 Cloud9]]. Active since 2013, [=Cloud9=] has been the most consistently-performing team in the NA-based League Championship Series, reaching playoffs in almost every split since its inception, but in terms of international tournaments like the Mid-Season Invitational and Worlds, they generally only eek past the group stages, with the furthest they've ever gotten being reaching semifinals in Worlds 2018. This is still better than their local competition (the only other NA team to have ever gotten out of groups was Team [=SoloMid=] in Worlds 2014), but it's become a tragically recurring joke that "the last hope for NA is [=Cloud9=]", [[DamnedByFaintPraise which sadly never seems to mean much.]]

[[folder:Tennis]]
* In the 1990s, British player [[UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}} Tim Henman]] was the one all home fans followed and cheered for at {{UsefulNotes/Wimbledon}}, even going so far as to have a massive seating area for his fans (Henman Hill), despite being knocked out in the quarter- or semi-finals of every Wimbledon he entered. He admittedly wasn't helped by having to compete during the heyday of Pete Sampras, considered by many to be the greatest tennis player who ever lived, but even after Sampras retired, things didn't much improve for Henman.
* After Henman retired, Andy Murray took up the baton for British tennis fans, being known for years as the best tennis player to never have won a Grand Slam title; he reached four Grand Slam finals, including {{UsefulNotes/Wimbledon}} which no male British player had reached the finals of since 1938, only to lose all of them. He finally put an end to this by winning the 2012 US Open, and two Wimbledon titles after that.
* In a somewhat HilariousInHindsight example, UsefulNotes/RogerFederer used to be considered this. Tipped to be a future Slam winner as young as 16, he proved himself able to regularly beat the best in the world... in the small tournaments. At Grand Slams he lost in the first round as often as not and hadn't even reached a semi-final before his maiden title. With other young guys such as Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin proving that they could succeed where he failed, many people speculated that he was destined to be the talent who could never come good.
* In another HilariousInHindsight example, UsefulNotes/NovakDjokovic was also considered this when he followed up his maiden Grand Slam title in 2008 with a string of disappointing performances and even retiring halfway through matches with claims of being ill or fatigued. People began calling him "Choke-ovic" and saying that he lacked the mental fortitude to challenge the top players on the big stages. Then 2011 came around and, well, it's safe to say that no one's going to be using that nickname for him anytime soon... or ever.
** The only tournament where Djokovic still qualifies is the Usefulnotes/OlympicGames. He started off well, a bronze in 2008. Then, 4th in 2012, [[EpicFail first round in 2016]], 4th again in 2020, while also pulling from the mixed doubles bronze match (which was thought by many as [[NegatedMomentOfAwesome unfair to]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Stojanovic his partner]], who only once went past a Grand Slam quarterfinal). To match how rivals Nadal, Federer and Murray have gotten the gold in either singles or doubles, Djokovic needs to still be in top shape at 37 in 2024. His adamant refusal of COVID vaccination threw a monkey wrench into this, leading to his deportation from Australia in 2022 (though Australia ended its COVID restrictions later that year, and allowed him to return in 2023) and preventing him from entering the US (the last major country to lift COVID-related border restrictions) until May 2023.
* Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic, and Grigor Dimitrov were all touted as the "Next Generation" of ATP players in the 2010s who would go on to become the next dominant top players. However, while these players had some success at the Grand Slam level (with Nishikori and Raonic each making a Slam final, and Dimitrov making two Slam semifinals) and could occasionally beat the long-dominant "Big Four" of Roger Federer, UsefulNotes/RafaelNadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray, they ultimately fell short of breaking through the Big Four's monopoly of the Slams due to a combination of injuries (especially for Nishikori and Raonic) and inconsistent performances (especially for Dimitrov) and are now called the "Lost Generation" instead.
** This trope is also starting to creep into the new crop of "Next Gen" young players. Nick Kyrgios used to be hyped up as the most promising of these players after beating Rafael Nadal to make the 2014 Wimbledon quarterfinals as a teenager, but after making the 2015 Australian Open quarterfinal, he didn't reach that point in any Slam until making the 2022 Wimbledon final (losing there to Djokovic). Kyrgios has also yet to make the top 10 in the ATP rankings.[[note]]Even crueler for him, his 2022 Wimbledon run didn't help him in the rankings. After Wimbledon's organizers announced that Russian and Belarusian players would be banned from the event after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ATP (as well as the WTA) ruled that no ranking points would be awarded.[[/note]] Even Alexander Zverev, the most successful Next Gen player with five Masters and two year-end championship titles to his name, has struggled to translate his Masters success to the major stage with only three Slam quarterfinals and four Slam semifinals reached so far. Lesson of the day: it sucks to be a hyped young prospect in [[OvershadowedByAwesome the Big Four era]]. Finally averted by Carlos Alcaraz, who won the US Open in 2022 and became the first teenager ever to become ATP No. 1 (both current and year-end), following it up with a Wimbledon win in 2023.
* On the women's side, Caroline Wozniacki used to be this, failing to win a Grand Slam singles title despite winning numerous titles and being ranked No. 1 for over a year. Then in 2018, she returned to No. 1 after a six-year absence from the top spot by winning the Australian Open over another former example of this trope: Simona Halep. At the time, she too had yet to win a Grand Slam in spite of making multiple Grand Slam finals, winning many other titles, and being ranked No. 1. But then came that year's French Open, by which time Halep had returned to No. 1, and this time she cashed in, claiming her first Slam title.[[labelnote:Postscript]]Sadly for Wozniacki, she developed rheumatoid arthritis soon after her Australian Open win, forcing her to retire after the 2020 Australian Open... until [[TenMinuteRetirement coming back in 2023]].[[/labelnote]]
* Speaking of Simona Halep, she spent over four years as a consistent top 5 player who won many titles but just couldn't seem to break through to win her maiden Grand Slam title. She lost from a break up in the final set of her first Slam final (to Maria Sharapova at the 2014 French Open) and then from a set and break up in her second and third Slam finals (to Jeļena Ostapenko at the 2017 French Open and the aforementioned Wozniacki at the 2018 Australian Open), leading several people to accuse her of being too mentally weak to win big, until she reversed the script by winning from a set and break ''down'' against Sloane Stephens in the 2018 French Open final.
* Anna Kournikova was considered by many to be the surprise package at the 1997 Wimbledon tournament, getting through to the semi-finals despite not being seeded. Afterwards, while she had a successful doubles career (winning two Grand Slam Doubles Tournaments and reaching the #1 ranking in 1999), her singles career was much less successful with her never winning a major and only reaching a career high ranking of #8.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WNBA]]
* The Chicago Sky of the WNBA were founded in 2005. They didn't qualify for the playoffs in their first seven seasons, due to getting into the playoff race every year, only to trip at the finish line. In 2013, they finally got their first playoff berth, only to get swept by the defending championship team, the Indiana Fever. In 2014 they surprised with a finals run, that still resulted in a sweep by the Phoenix Mercury. After coming up short in the playoffs in 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020,[[note]]The Sky did not qualify for the playoffs in 2017 and 2018[[/note]] the Sky finally broke through in 2021, winning their first championship, largely in part due to Chicago native Candace Parker, who joined the team in the offseason.
* The Atlanta Dream are the youngest team in the league but are a good example nevertheless. In 2010, they made it to the WNBA Finals and got swept. In 2011 they made the Finals again and got swept again.[[note]]In fairness to the Dream, they were facing the Minnesota Lynx, who had rookie juggernaut Maya Moore and had completed one of the biggest turnarounds in WNBA history.[[/note]] They were prevented from making a three-peat ''by losing to eventual champion Indiana in the first round''. They made it back to the Finals in 2013, only to get swept by the Minnesota Lynx who beat them in 2011. One more finals loss and the Atlanta Dream will become the Buffalo Bills of the WNBA.
* Before Atlanta, there was the New York Liberty. Six years, four Finals, one miracle shot deemed best playoff moment in league history, no championships.
[[/folder]]

** Carl Edwards is ''the'' defining example of this, as part of his larger tendency to fizzle out. After finishing third on a tiebreaker in 2005 (same points as Greg Biffle, but Biffle won six times to Edwards' four), he ultimately missed the 2006 Chase and wouldn't win another race until 2007. In 2008, he won nine times but finished second to Jimmie Johnson after Johnson basically blew away the other Chasers, with even Edwards' three wins in the last four races not being enough to overcome Johnson's lead. He then limped into the 2009 Chase and ''again'' went nearly two years without a win. 2011's heartbreak was followed by a series of cascading disasters over the summer of 2012, which took him completely out of the Chase, and he once again went nearly two years without a race win.

* Some times the roles were reversed. In fact, ever since the "Ten Year War" (the period from 1969-78 when Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler coached against one another), Michigan and Ohio State have alternated between periods of potentially great seasons ruined by losing to the other school. It started with Michigan's 24-12 win in '69 against an OSU team that many thought was the greatest college football team ever. After that, the only regular season games Michigan lost from 1970-75 were to the Buckeyes. The Wolverines rebounded by winning the last three games of the Ten Year War. The John Cooper years (1988-2000) were especially frustrating for Ohio State, as the Buckeyes went 2-11 against the Wolverines; the biggest loss there was probably 1995, when a 31-23 loss to Michigan cost OSU the Big Ten championship, allowing Northwestern to go to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 46 years.

** The Buckeyes are notable for postseason futility against the Southeastern Conference[[note]]They haven't fared much better in regular season games against the SEC, recording only 1 win in school history against an SEC team other than eternal losers Kentucky and Vanderbilt.[[/note]] - highlighted by the aforementioned [[CurbStompBattle 41-14 loss to Florida]] in the 2006-07 national title game and a loss to LSU the following year. They did defeat the Arkansas Razorbacks in the 2011 Sugar Bowl... which was officially vacated (along with all of their other wins for the 2010-2011 season) due to OSU putting 5 ineligible players on the field. They finally found success against the SEC in the inaugural College Football Playoff, upsetting top-seeded Alabama in the 2015 Sugar Bowl en route to winning the national championship the next game.
** Since winning the first College Football Playoff, the Buckeyes have fallen short of winning another title. In their two following appearances they lost to Clemson both times, the first one being a 31-0 shut out by the Tigers in 2016 and the second one in 2019 being a much closer matchup, with the Tigers winning again. The Buckeyes finally got their revenge on the Tigers the following year by a wide margin, but would go on to predictably lose to an incredibly dominant Alabama team in the championship.

** Finally, this entire ordeal is now HarsherInHindsight for the Capitals. After securing the last Eastern Conference wildcard spot, they would be swept by the President's Trophy-winning New York Rangers in Round 1.

** However, 2019 marked a return to heartbreak as they proceeded to be eliminated in the first round by the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that hadn't been in the playoffs in a decade. [[SarcasmMode On the bright side, however]], their elimination did help complete a historic moment... that being [[MedalOfDishonor the first time in over 50 years that]] [[EpicFail every single division leader was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs]]. The following two seasons had the Capitals beat in easy 4-1 series, in 2022 they gave a fight to the Florida Panthers but still became the first team to lose a playoff round to them in 26 years, in 2023 they missed the playoffs outright, and in 2024 they found their way back into the playoffs and promptly got swept by the President's Trophy-winning New York Rangers.

** Finally, this entire ordeal would become HarsherinHindsight for the Capitals, as they would be swept by the President's Trophy-winning New York Rangers in Round 1.

** However, 2019 marked a return to heartbreak as they proceeded to be eliminated in the first round by the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that hadn't been in the playoffs in a decade. [[SarcasmMode On the bright side, however]], their elimination did help complete a historic moment... that being [[MedalOfDishonor the first time in over 50 years that]] [[EpicFail every single division leader was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs]]. The following two seasons had the Capitals beat in easy 4-1 series, in 2022 they gave a fight to the Florida Panthers but still became the first team to lose a playoff round to them in 26 years, and in 2023 they missed the playoffs outright.

** In fact, ''any'' good NBA team during the TheNineties that wasn't the Bulls or the Rockets was this, thanks to Jordan's (and Olajuwon's, during Jordan's temporary retirement) reign. Examples aside from Utah and New York include UsefulNotes/CharlesBarkley's Phoenix Suns, Gary Payton's Seattle [=SuperSonics=], the underrated Charlotte Hornets with Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson, the Creator/{{Shaq|uilleONeal}}-and-Penny Orlando Magic, and Reggie Miller's Pacers, to name a few of the more prominent examples. There was a reprieve after Jordan's Bulls broke up after 1998, which opened up things for Tim Duncan's Spurs in 1999. But then the UsefulNotes/{{Kobe|Bryant}}–Shaq Lakers began their ascension to power in Los Angeles.

* William & Mary is one of three teams who were NCAA Division I members when the first men's basketball tournament was first held (1939) and are still D-I, but have never made the tournament. They've had their chances, making 9 appearances in conference tournament championship games, with an automatic bid on the line, but losing every single one. Since the college itself was founded in 1693 (the second oldest in the US after Harvard), college basketball analytics guru Ken Pomeroy has joked that they have a 300+ year streak of not making the tournament. The other two teams, Army and The Citadel, are more understandable, being military academies with strict admissions standards that limit their recruiting pool ''plus'' height restrictions that make it even harder to build a competitive basketball team,[[note]]The only reason future Hall of Fame center David Robinson was able to play at Navy was that he was 6'7" when he had his official pre-admission physical, which is 1 inch under the absolute limit. He grew to 7'1" by the time he graduated.[[/note]] though Army had a successful stretch in TheSixties and TheSeventies, making the NIT several times and boasting Bob Knight as a coach and Mike Krzyzewski as both a player and coach. Army actually got an NCAA invite in 1968, but Knight turned it down because he felt they'd have a better chance in the NIT (instead, they lost in the first round). They haven't come anywhere near NCAA contention since then.