Seattle Had a Year Like This Once, and the City Still Remembers the Pain

You ever feel like your entire sports city got cursed at the same time? Yeah, that's a real thing, and it happens more often than you'd think. A researcher just pulled the data on the worst simultaneous seasons across all four major sports in a city, and the numbers are brutal. We're talking about years where literally nobody made the playoffs, nobody won anything, and fans just had to sit in a bar and compare scars.

The 2025 Washington DC sports scene was absolutely catastrophic. The Nationals limped to 66-96, the Commanders crashed to 5-12 after riding high on a Conference Championship run in 2024, the Wizards bottomed out at 17-65, and the Capitals missed the playoffs for the first time since 2022-23 even though they had a winning 43-30 record. Four sports. Zero hope. But here's the kicker: DC wasn't even in the top five worst four-sport city seasons since 1950. They ranked 39th.

Some Cities Have It Way Worse

The data breaks down eight four-sport cities in America: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, DC, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Twin Cities, and Atlanta. The model averaged each team's end-of-year ranking percentile within its league, so a 29th-place finish in baseball is directly comparable to a 29th-place finish in football. One team per sport, because if you're a Mets fan, the Yankees aren't your problem.

Chicago fans? Try 2022, 2023, and 2024 back-to-back-to-back. Those ranked 17th, 27th, and 34th respectively. That three-year stretch explains why the entire city lost its mind at the Bears-Packers playoff game just a couple months ago. It wasn't just beating a rival. It was celebrating something, anything, after years of nothing.

But New York in 2017? The Mets, Giants, Nets, and Rangers in various combinations made the list six different times. Different rosters, same misery, different ranking spots. Even with all that talent in one city, 2017 was an absolute nightmare across all five boroughs.

Detroit's COVID Curse

If you want to see real pain, look at Detroit in 2019 and 2020. They ranked 3rd and 1st for worst four-sport seasons respectively. No team in either year had any shot at the playoffs. None. Tigers or Pistons as the "best" team? That's what Detroit fans had to debate in their sad biker bars. At least the shortened seasons ended the misery faster.

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.