Biggest sporting decline

[MDK]

Simple question. What team or person has had the biggest decline? The cheap pop would be to say lol Chelsea, so lol Chelsea.

I don't know much about anything other than football, so my choices are either Luton or Hungary. In the early 90's Luton were in the old first division and now they have only just got out of non-league. And Hungary would have been world cup winners were it not for the miracle of Bern but they've qualified for their first tourney since 1986.

As for individuals I would say Eduard Streltsov as a big one. He was the Soviet Pele but he got nicked for raping a daughter of the Politburo and sent to a gulag for a while.

Outside of footy I can only really think of Tiger Woods who has had a fall from Grace.

[GA!]

Stockport County: 'Man City were our rivals, now it's Curzon Ashton'. In fifteen years, they have dropped from mid-table Championship to the Conference North - where they're now in their second season down there, and are 12 points away from even qualifying for the play-offs.

Grimsby Town's fall was quite significant, going from the Championship to Conference in nine years without ever entering administration (thus no points deductions; we only had piss poor management of reduced finances stemming from ITV Digital's failure, which effected most teams anyway, to blame). It would've been eight years if Luton hadn't been deducted 30 points in the 2008-09 season where, incidentally, Rotherham and Bournemouth overtook us despite each starting on -17.

 

Greece going from 2004 European Champions to being dead last in the 2016 qualifiers is quite a fall.

 

In Formula 1, McLaren were never the greatest constructor (no constructors title since 1998) but the season they just had considering Alonso and Button drove for them shows how inept they are these days.

 

 

[Mick]

Well, the Detroit Lions main heyday was in the 50s, winning 3 NFL championships, and aside from a victory in the short-lived Playoff Bowl (which isn't officially counted), they've won a single playoff game since 1957. I really can't think of another NFL team that can match that. 

[DMN in the House]

2 minutes ago, Mick said:

Well, the Detroit Lions main heyday was in the 50s, winning 3 NFL championships, and aside from a victory in the short-lived Playoff Bowl (which isn't officially counted), they've won a single playoff game since 1957. I really can't think of another NFL team that can match that. 

Cleveland. Always Cleveland.

The Lakers took a pretty big fucking tumble as well, from back to back championships with a third Finals appearances, and 5 championships in 11 years, with 7 total Finals appearances to, well, what they are now.

[Mick]

Just now, DMN said:

Cleveland. Always Cleveland.

Close, but the Browns had a good run in the 60s, and they weren't too shabby in the 80s either. 

Basically, if any team has won 2 playoff games since 1991, they're doing better than the Lions . 

[Meacon Keaton]

Last year Peyton Manning threw for 4700 yards, 39 touchdown and 15 interceptions.

This year Peyton Manning (though hurt) threw for 2200 yards, 9 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions.

But he's also going to be playing in two weeks in the Super Bowl, so what do I know?

[MDK]

6 minutes ago, Meacon said:

Last year Peyton Manning threw for 4700 yards, 39 touchdown and 15 interceptions.

This year Peyton Manning (though hurt) threw for 2200 yards, 9 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions.

But he's also going to be playing in two weeks in the Super Bowl, so what do I know?

I know naff all about YankieBall, but how does that happen? Was it injury or a bad team or what?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

The West Indies cricket team.

 

They demolished everyone throughout various decades of the 20th century (Worrell, Weekes, Walcott in the '50s, Greenidge and Richards in the '70s and '80s and then the team that I remember in the '90s that had Ambrose, Walsh, Hooper, Lara, Richardson, Chanderpaul, Adams etc. They were brilliant.

 

Now, they're a horrible test team and have been for years.

 

Now for some happy memories of how fantastic Ambrose was.

 

 

 

 

[MDK]

20 minutes ago, ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster said:

The West Indies cricket team.

 

They demolished everyone throughout various decades of the 20th century (Worrell, Weekes, Walcott in the '50s, Greenidge and Richards in the '70s and '80s and then the team that I remember in the '90s that had Ambrose, Walsh, Hooper, Lara, Richardson, Chanderpaul, Adams etc. They were brilliant.

 

Now, they're a horrible test team and have been for years.

 

Now for some happy memories of how fantastic Ambrose was.

 

 

 

 

When I was a young'un the biggest fear was the Windies. White Privilege and all that, but when you grew up surrounded by Jamaicans, you took a lot of shit when it came to cricket.

[Meacon Keaton]

31 minutes ago, MDK said:

I know naff all about YankieBall, but how does that happen? Was it injury or a bad team or what?

He was hurt for half the season, but when he played, it was very, very poorly. At the end of last season, his arm was more or less a string of spaghetti hanging from his shoulder. Turns out that it wasn't all the different at the beginning of the new season. Luckily he's on a team that plays incredible defense, which has more or less taken them to the championship game.

[METALMAN]

Michael Schumacher.

[MDK]

:/

[Matt]

Top of the Premier League on January 1st 2000 and in a champions league semi final 3 months later to the verge of being liquidated and in the 3rd tier starting on -15 points by 2007 is a pretty big fall from grace.

 

Woods is a good shout though as are the Windies, they went from consistently one of the top 2/3 sides for generations to being whipping boys in the space of about 18 months.

[Noah]

Using a local example, my Rugby League club South Sydney had won a third of all Australian Rugby League league championships for the first 60 something years of Rugby League's existence in Australia.

4 years after they'd last won the title in 1971, the club nearly went bankrupt. It was only a massive fundraising effort that kept the club alive.

From winning their 20th league title to nearly going out of business in 4 years was a pretty big fall.

[FestiveJack]

11 hours ago, Matt said:

Woods is a good shout though as are the Windies, they went from consistently one of the top 2/3 sides for generations to being whipping boys in the space of about 18 months.

I feel like South Africa are on a similar decline right now.

[Benji]

Portsmouth have to be up there. Mid-table Premier League and FA Cup winners in 2008, mid-table League 2 team by 2014.

[TCO]

17 hours ago, metalman said:

Michael Schumacher.

I'll admit, I thought the exact same thing initially. My own morbid sense of humour, outweighed any sporting knowedge!

[Hajjhowe]

Brett Favre went from losing in OT in the NFC title game to ending his starting streak, career and being pretty awful after arguably the most efficient season of his career the year before.

[Colly]

Ski jump.

[Moses Julep]

Liverpool used to win trophies and now they never do so I'm going to say Liverpool.