Worst Season Ever

[Spence]

We continue our Worst Ever series by asking you for the worst season ever. In consideration for our membership, we won't go back any further than the 1980s.

The choices are:

1988 -- Washington goes 7-9 and misses the playoffs the year after winning the Super Bowl.

1993 -- Washington goes 4-12 in Richie Petitbone's first and only season as head coach.

1994 -- Washington goes 3-13 in Norv Turner's first season as head coach.

1998 -- Washington starts 0-7 and finishes 6-10 and Norv does not get fired.

2000 -- Washington goes 8-8 despite winning the division the year before and an offseason spending spree that led many fans and media to predict a Super Bowl appearance for the Redskins.

2003 -- Washington goes 5-11 and is often uncompetitive during Steve Spurrier's final season as head coach.

2004 -- The return of Joe Gibbs doesn't help much, as Washington goes 6-10.

2006 -- Another offseason spending spree following a playoff appearance ends in embarrassment, as the Redskins fall to a miserable 5-11.

2007 -- Washington goes 9-7 to make the playoffs as the final wild card, but the season is marred by a series of coaching gaffes that embarrass Joe Gibbs and, worst of all, the death of star Sean Taylor.

Please vote and explain!

[Fathead]

Last year doesn't count in my book.



So it's 94 or 06. 94 pissed me off more.

[CNYSkinFan]

2006's 5-11. At least after 2000 we were in contention up till the second to last week, and Norv did get run so there was a slining of csilcver to our disappointment.

To drop so much with so much promise in 2005, It was hear breaking

[Keino]

The year we went 7-1 and then went 1-7 is right up there for me.

Last year, and maybe because it is still so fresh, was the most devastating season I have ever experienced as a fan of this team and I think winning the Superbowl would have been the only thing that could have redeemed it for me. Last year was the year I had to come to grips with the fact that Joe Gibbs was not cut out for this version of the NFL and we lost Sean Taylor, easily our most promising draftee since Darrell Green. He would have been a great one.

That is my vote, and it really has little to do with results or record.

[whitskins]

Sean Taylor's death trumps any kind of loss or disappointment on the field. That was the most brutal season of my life as a fan and I don't expect to feel that low ever again, no matter how badly the team plays.

Even the late season wins and playoff appearance can't outweigh the pain of Sean's loss. That was the worst hands down for me.

[Spence]

Last year was the year I had to come to grips with the fact that Joe Gibbs was not cut out for this version of the NFL and we lost Sean Taylor, easily our most promising draftee since Darrell Green. He would have been a great one.

That is my vote, and it really has little to do with results or record.Very solid reasoning.

[fent]

The year we went 7-1 and then went 1-7 is right up there for me.

Last year, and maybe because it is still so fresh, was the most devastating season I have ever experienced as a fan of this team and I think winning the Superbowl would have been the only thing that could have redeemed it for me. Last year was the year I had to come to grips with the fact that Joe Gibbs was not cut out for this version of the NFL and we lost Sean Taylor, easily our most promising draftee since Darrell Green. He would have been a great one.

That is my vote, and it really has little to do with results or record.

Sean Taylor's death trumps any kind of loss or disappointment on the field. That was the most brutal season of my life as a fan and I don't expect to feel that low ever again, no matter how badly the team plays.

Even the late season wins and playoff appearance can't outweigh the pain of Sean's loss. That was the worst hands down for me.


that's where i went as well and for the same reasons. i really can't imagine a worse season than what the organization and fans just went through. maybe it's because it is so fresh, maybe it's because i was actually at the buffalo game that felt more like a memorial service than a game. i guess it just comes down to the fact that i finally realized that football (and any other sport for that matter) is just a game and that in the grand scheme of things an 0-16 season doesn't mean a thing...when you realize that, nothing else on this list compares to the loss of life the team felt this year. if it was "most disappointing season" maybe i'd vote another way...but for worst season i can't really go anywhere else.

[CNYSkinFan]

I will throw this out there. I was as devastated as anyone over ST and I still can't get it in my heart to change my avatar.

HOWEVER

Last season there were some rotten lows, but some pretty great highs. The 4 game run for ST to get into the playoffs and watching portis do the st flip into the endzone to seal the deal was wonderful.

So I prefer to remember a team that triumphed over adversity and so I can't call it the worst season...I just can't

That is why I voted for the 2006 season and a team that did give up on the season with very little adversity and alot of promise on it's side.

[dj_stouty]

From a football standpoint, 2006 was pretty bad for me. We came off a great 2005 with Gibbs 2.0...and we actually won a playoff game. The team that showed up for the 2006 campaign was pitiful...as was the coaching decisions that season.

[ChiefPowhatan17]

1994 was really painful for me. I remember distinctly, that we sucked really bad. We had all the cowgirl throwaway's that came with Norv. That was horrible.

[Meatsnack]

There a lot of stinkers to choose from on that list but Sean's death trumps even my white-hot burning hatred of Norv and all things Norv-associated.

I would also add to the list the 1974 season in which Clint &$%!* Longley QB-ed us out of the Playoffs and the 1983 season which crapped the bed in the SB after a history-making season. Both pissed me off as little else has.

[native skin]

For me, it was Norv's first season. I understand when a new head coach comes in, it takes time to build a team. But with that inaugural season, I could see what was to come and I was horrified. That guy couldn't inspire suicidal teenagers to jump.

I kind of expected Pettibon to struggle the first year. I actually think he was not given a chance in the world to succeed.

And last year was pretty awful with Taylor's death (my favorite player in the league) but the team stuck together and showed alot of heart. It made me proud to be a skins fan and see them grow together. Last season, even though tragic, was very inspirational in many ways.

I would have to give it, hands down, to the Norv.

[skinfanjon]

First off, the Taylor tragedy was as hard on me as anyone else. I was there for the Buffalo game (as I am for every game) and shed plenty of tears that day. He'll always be in our hearts and will never be forgotten, but I'm at peace with it. Perhaps if the season had not ended in the fashion in which it did, I would feel differently, but when I think of the loss of Sean I automatically remember how the fans, the organization, and the team came together in the wake of tragedy and made us all proud.

*I'm getting goosebumps writing this*

While the feelings we all have toward Sean are impossible to completely articulate, I am proud of how we banded together as a family, and I cannot help but feel a sense of comfort when remembering that time. It doesn't make me sad anymore, in fact, I even feel myself smiling when I think of him and those precious moments at the stadium. The greatest TD I'll probably ever see was when Portis did a summersault into my end zone, not 30 feet away from me, and lifted his shirt with his ST colage for all to see. The butterfly gesture was the icing on the cake.

So, despite the heartbreaking loss of Sean and the fall of our legendary coach, I remember last season as a good one. A difficult and cruel test of wills, but one that we ultimately passed, which I am immensly proud of.

For me, it HAS to be the last year of Spurrier. I've never felt less hope for this organization than I did at the end of that year. Sitting in the sleet/snow/rain losing 27-0 and hearing "Let's Go Cowboys" resinate from our own stadium, well, it doesn't get any worse than that for me. There was nothing on the horizon, no hope to cling to for the following year, just an overwhelmed, lazy, bum of a coach who still didn't know half of his team on a first name basis. That game was the only time I've ever left early, because hearing that chant just crushed me.

No, not last year.......last year was a good year.

[native skin]

That game with Spurrier that you described was an extremely close second. I was actually debating over the Norv and Spurrier. Spurrier, literally, was way out of his element. That must have been the most embarrassing season in Skins history, without a doubt.

[Wild Bore]

The worst season for me was probably 1979. That game. It still haunts me. It was so bad it lasted all through the 1980 season as well.

Second is the 1970 season. God had descended upon Washington the previous year in the form of Lombardi and gave us the first winning season in decades. We were filled with so much hope going into the 1970 season only to have our hope die a few weeks before the season began. The season was a disaster under Austin. It would have been under anyone.

[JoeJacksonTaylor28]

That's it for me as well. Couldn't have said it better whit, 2007 is the season to forget for me personally

[Ibleedburgundy]

When I clicked on this thread I thought I would be getting another Redskins history lesson cause I thought some of these seasons would pre-date my fandom. To my surprise, I can remember every one of these seasons.

To me, the 2006 season was a huge let down. The team had been making big strides from what I could tell. Joe Gibbs was going to return us to greatness. Then he turned the offense over to Saunders and moved into a Bobby Bowden-like CEO position. The defense couldn't stop anyone. Several of the games felt like they were given away. I was livid after a few of them. And with that came the horribly depressing realization that perhaps many of the commentators were right, Joe Gibbs was not the Joe Gibbs of old.

[colkurtz]

Spurrier's last season was the worst. He's lost control of the team totally (if he ever had it), no one believed in his offensive system, players were participating only enough just not to get hurt; everyone sensed that Steve Spurrier's heart and mind were not in the game; he was being continually out-coached at every level; the team was getting beat by larger and larger margins as the season progressed.

Only the end of the season stopped this rapidly accelerating downhill spiral. His system didn't work in the NFL and he had no Plan B. He couldn't relate to pro players, nor motivate them properly. The team was getting worse every game and there was no bottom.

His players didn't believe in him, or his system, and simply gave up. If he had stayed another season (as Snyder offered) we would have been one of the worst, if not THE worst teams in the NFL.

Spurrier at least knew his limitations and quit from the golf course over his cell phone.

Unlike Pettibon's season, this was his second year of SS reign. The only reason he lasted that long was because Marvin Lewis's defense played well the first season.

[colkurtz]

I still feel the horrible tragedy of losing Sean Taylor, just don't understand that translates into the worst season ever when we went to the playoffs, largely playing for his memory.

Just asking the question; but are some saying that if we'd won the SB last year, you'd still vote it as the worst season ever because of the ST tragedy?

[JoeJacksonTaylor28]

I still feel the horrible tragedy of losing Sean Taylor, just don't understand that translates into the worst season ever when we went to the playoffs, largely playing for his memory.

Just asking the question; but are some saying that if we'd won the SB last year, you'd still vote it as the worst season ever because of the ST tragedy?
For me, yes. IMO a part of the Redskins died with Sean Taylor, and we will never have that back, no matter the SB wins that may come. For that I will always remember the 2007 season as a horrible season, and for personal reasons, 2007 as a horrible year.

[colkurtz]

For me, yes. IMO a part of the Redskins died with Sean Taylor, and we will never have that back, no matter the SB wins that may come. For that I will always remember the 2007 season as a horrible season, and for personal reasons, 2007 as a horrible year.

Yes I see where you are coming from. I thought that about when Vince Lombardi died -"What could have been".

[skins111111]

when spurrier just coasted and picked up his HUGE cheque

[garedskin]

The 1980 season was for me the worst.
I really thought we would get to the playoffs from the way the team played in 79.
Then came the hold out that destroyed the season.
I remember every week hoping like hell that Riggins would sign and come save the season.
I remember thinking that they where going to finish 3-13 but pulled off a season ending 3 game winning streak to screw up at least a top 3 pick.
Then at the time thinking it was only going to get worse in 81 when they fired Jack Pardee at the end of the season.
That season was a disaster :Peace:

[Keino]

I still feel the horrible tragedy of losing Sean Taylor, just don't understand that translates into the worst season ever when we went to the playoffs, largely playing for his memory.

Just asking the question; but are some saying that if we'd won the SB last year, you'd still vote it as the worst season ever because of the ST tragedy?

Speaking as someone who voted last season, I specifically wrote that the only thing that could occur on the football field that would somewhat mitigate the loss of Sean Taylor would have been to win the Superbowl for him.

I've been watching this team since 1978 and last season was by far the worst season for me. Not only because of Taylor, but also because it was the season I realized that Gibbs was not going to get it done.

I've never felt lower as a fan than I did last season. When it was over, all I felt was just numb emptiness...

[NamVet4]

2006 was the worst for me as a fan! So much promise and so little performance. As for the other seasons listed . . .Spurrier was an evil omen for me from the begining...No way he would contribute to the glory...The tragic loss of Sean Taylor and Coach Gibbs and the Teams response softened the season for me, only somewhat. Once again, time for a new beginning . . .

[FunBunch5]

To me last year was the hardest as a Redskin fan because of of Sean Taylors death. However, from a pure football standpoint I would have to say the 2000 season. Expectations were so high from the previous year and then on top of it we bring in
Mark Carrier Deion Sanders Bruce Smith Jeff George






Everyone thought the defense was going to be incredible, to go with the great offense the previous year. Then when they got on the field you could just see Norv's ineptitude and the teams age taking its toll.....

Then the incredible happened....My wife delivers my first child after 3 hours of pushing (she always reminds me of that). It is a home delivery at 5:25 PM on Monday night. I take my newborn son into my arms and at 7 PM Mountain Standard time we sit in my rocker to watch the Skins man handle the Greatest Show on Turf.

This is what we expected the season was turned around they were 7-4 and they just beat the SB champs. The problem was that was their SB and they revert back to a classic heartless Norv teams of the past and they proceeds to lose 4 of the next 5. I am sooooo glad the Norv Turner years are done.

[Gravy]

For me it was 1993...I became a fan at 5 in 1982 when my family lived in Richmond and began bleeding Burgandy and Gold...I became hardcore and then when we moved to south florida in 1991, in which I came to school everday showing my colors, life was good then came highschool in which I was the only Redskin fan and I got heat everyday during a 4-12 year, but I still wore my colors of burgendy and gold in the midst of a losing and horrible year...

[Bengal224ord]

1994 was really painful for me. I remember distinctly, that we sucked really bad. We had all the cowgirl throwaway's that came with Norv. That was horrible.

I really hate when we get the Cowgirl rejects, it always seems that they suck really bad when they put on the B & G. I don't count last year, as the boys did a great job handling a tough situation.

I may be going back too far for most, however I remember us going 6-0 only to not even make the playoffs. My stomach still aches from that year. Jack Pardee was the coach of the team.

Next is the Norv Turner years. Notice I said years...I hate N Turner. We did worse than the year before, Pettibon received an OLD team, who was decimated by injury and went 4-12. Ownership blamed him for our problems, and N Turner was the hot name...Wow...Turner Sucks and now he has the Charger job.:sfight:

My vote is the 1978 year.

Bengal224ord

[colkurtz]

Speaking as someone who voted last season, I specifically wrote that the only thing that could occur on the football field that would somewhat mitigate the loss of Sean Taylor would have been to win the Superbowl for him.

I've been watching this team since 1978 and last season was by far the worst season for me. Not only because of Taylor, but also because it was the season I realized that Gibbs was not going to get it done.

I've never felt lower as a fan than I did last season. When it was over, all I felt was just numb emptiness...

i hear what you are saying - almost from the start of his second tenure it just seemed that the NFL had passed Joe Gibbs by. At first i thought it was the rust of being away from the league for so long, but I never real felt that his Gibbs II offense was anything more than average. He often was out-coached and his ubber-conservative playing 'not to lose' style cost us games . Frankly, if we didn't have such good defenses for three the four seasons, we would have been a very bad team. Still, the team would rise up for him. He had very good coaches. Again, we got to the playoffs.

Spurrier was just like falling into a sink hole with no bottom. He had lost faith is his system, had an amateur coaching staff, and he players realized his system won't work and/or it would get them hurt. Total and complete collapse of a team. He even made Norv look good. They would have never won another game if the season had gone on for 3 more months.

[brettsky991]

I voted for S2's last year. The dude didn't even care :smash:. Last year was a tough year, not because of the record, heh, they made the playoffs. The whole ST thing was just, I don't know, unbelievable.

We lived in DC for 34 years and moved to St. Louis awhile ago. Still skins fans ( thank goodness for NFL sunday ticket ). I was driving to work that Monday and heard about the shooting and thought, what was he doing now. Then the word of his improvement. Sorta took a load off the ol' sholders, then the news. Then after I found out what happened, I felt guilty for thinking he was doing something he shouldn't have been. He was alone with his GF and daughter. I still feel badly to this day about my judgement. Never again.

The most memorable "of the top of mind" moments of that week are -

LA at the funeral
CP's touchdown

But probably most of all, and I don't know why, was watching Ray Lewis ( either Sunday night or Monday night, can't remember ) was just .....really upset. That made me realize that we all lost something that day.

[smoak]

The year we went 7-1 and then went 1-7 is right up there for me.

That would have gotten my vote. Also I would have gone with Norv's first year (I never ever liked him), but it was also the year of my first game so...

I went with Deion and Bruce. Complete losers in true fashion.

[colkurtz]

After the 2003 season with Spurrier, there was a feeling that it wasn't going to get any better the next season.

1. His offensive scheme was a total flop in the NFL and teams were exploiting it to murder our QB. No backup plan.

2. SS had brought in a bunch of crony college coaches as his assistants and they were all totally out-classed in the NFL. Everyone of these coaches was on the same low [non-NFL caliber] level. Really embarrassing.

3. The players had lost faith in the HBC and his system. They were just going through the motions to finish a dismal season. This situation was not going to get better.

4. Snyder was going to give him one more year to turn it around. To his credit Spurrier realized that he was way over his head and bowed out.

[redskin_rich]

Purely in a football sense, the latter half of the '03 season was as low as I have ever felt as a Skins fan. Thats the only time I have seen such an inadequate job of coaching and a team that was totally lost.

[colkurtz]

Purely in a football sense, the latter half of the '03 season was as low as I have ever felt as a Skins fan. Thats the only time I have seen such an inadequate job of coaching and a team that was totally lost.

Yeah, it's totally embarrassing to see highly paid professional athletes just totally give up on a coach and his system. Just 'going through the motions' to finish out the season. SS knew it, the coaches knew it and the players knew it. That's why Spurrier quit via cellphone on a golf course.

I guess another option was just to leave a "post-it" on Snyder's door - "I quit"

[Skins-fo-life]

WOW! sad that there is so many years to choose from. I chose 1998. I always thought with the additions of Big Daddy and Dana Stubblefield we would be great. It was dreadful to watch week in and week out.

[firehawk157]

06 or 07. I don't want to vote because, from a football perspective, 06 was the toughest. Having such high hopes for Lloyd and Arch to the bitter crash of reality that not only they sucked, but Brunell and Griffin lost it as well, was about as bad as it has gotten for me as a Skins fan. The fact that I knew we had so much talent on the field and so much knowledge in the coaching staff, I just couldn't understand it. What made 06 so bad is you just wished it would finally all click together and all our preseason expectation would come true. You knew they could, but it just never did!

03 was bad in a different way. That utterly hopeless feeling you get watching the skins get tromped each game, by more and more. The upside is I was expecting it. You knew it was hopeless.

07 was worse for reasons already stated. So all in all, I'm going with 06.

[Jeremybozz]

At least in 1993 the Skins beat the World Champion Cowboys in the opener.
1994 was the worst Skins team in my memory and it is not close.

[GWBlitzST]

Without question it's the year that I had to watch Darrell Green sit on the bench so that Dieon #&#%@*$# Sanders could wear a Redskins jersey. I stopped watching after game 6 or so, it was the only season I haven't cared about the Redskins because they made me so mad.

[BandWagon]

For me...1993. The retirement of Gibbs...the complete faltering of heir apparent and subsequent firing...and the beginning of nearly two decades of mediocrity. That was not a good year.

[28Zcomeback]

There a lot of stinkers to choose from on that list but Sean's death trumps even my white-hot burning hatred of Norv and all things Norv-associated.

I would also add to the list the 1974 season in which Clint &$%!* Longley QB-ed us out of the Playoffs and the 1983 season which crapped the bed in the SB after a history-making season. Both pissed me off as little else has.

Except for that one game, plus maybe the Bengals game, 1974 was a fine season.

The Skins beat the Broncos, Dolphins, Cowboys (handily in game one), Rams Giants twice, Eagles twice, and unfortunately succombed to the Cards.

Most impressive was the week three win against the Broncos, with Jim Tyrer subbing for injured Hermeling. Tyrer had been with the team for ten days.

Also impressive was the game against the Dolphins, at a time when the Fins were playing with their impressive defense.

Also, beating the Rams on the road, on Monday night was huge.

1974 was a great year. You can't judge a whole season because of one lousy game seen by a lot of people.

[28Zcomeback]

I really hate when we get the Cowgirl rejects, it always seems that they suck really bad when they put on the B & G. I don't count last year, as the boys did a great job handling a tough situation.

I may be going back too far for most, however I remember us going 6-0 only to not even make the playoffs. My stomach still aches from that year. Jack Pardee was the coach of the team.

Next is the Norv Turner years. Notice I said years...I hate N Turner. We did worse than the year before, Pettibon received an OLD team, who was decimated by injury and went 4-12. Ownership blamed him for our problems, and N Turner was the hot name...Wow...Turner Sucks and now he has the Charger job.:sfight:

My vote is the 1978 year.

Bengal224ord

I agree--the Skins went 6-0 including a big win against the Cowboys on MNF. Then Starke got hurt, Nugent got hurt, and the next 8 weeks were horrible. I remember watching the Cardinals run all over them one December afternoon and wondered when the game was over. The defense was exposed as what it was: some older talented guys plus really mediocre young guys (sorry Karl Lorch, whereever you are, you were great on Teams but had a rough time against the big tackles); the worse was the Kilmer-theisman feud. I remember Kilmer standing as far away as possible from Theismann, wherever Theisman was on or off the field. I remember watching Kilmer talking on the sidelines, mostly by himself, occasionally talking to Mike Curtis or Hermeling. It was sad, just very, very sad.

[colkurtz]

The loss of Sean Taylor was a huge tragedy but we've got to admit that his loss fueled a late season and almost impossible reversal / comeback that got us into the playoffs. The players were playing inspired football despite the massive psychological burden of his passing, the funeral and continued media coverage of the arrests, etc.

2003 was a season that just got worse and worse. By mid-season the team and the coaches had just completely gave up on Spurrier's system, themselves and this franchise. Even the old HC himself was just going through the motions and was mentally whipped.

2006 was a tragedy which inspired a team to play above it's many injuries and with a lot of heart; a couple plays or breaks and we could have been a Cinderella story.

2003 was highly paid professional team that just quit from the top to the bottom. It was absolutely disgusting to watch in the end. We wouldn't have won another game if we'd played another 25 in the season. No comparison in my mind between these seasons.

[WinnpegSkinsFan]

As tough as last season was with Sean's passing, the 2003 season was the worst football wise. The team just gave up in the last few games.

[coffdogg]

The year we went 7-1 and then went 1-7 is right up there for me.

Last year, and maybe because it is still so fresh, was the most devastating season I have ever experienced as a fan of this team and I think winning the Superbowl would have been the only thing that could have redeemed it for me. Last year was the year I had to come to grips with the fact that Joe Gibbs was not cut out for this version of the NFL and we lost Sean Taylor, easily our most promising draftee since Darrell Green. He would have been a great one.

That is my vote, and it really has little to do with results or record.That is the #1 in my book. If you suck then you suck oh well. you come back next year. But for us to be 7-1 at the mid point and then completely fall apart is ridiculous. Heck 3 wins out of the 8 in the second half of the season would have made the playoffs and we got 1. What a joke of a year.

[coffdogg]

Without question it's the year that I had to watch Darrell Green sit on the bench so that Dieon #&#%@*$# Sanders could wear a Redskins jersey. I stopped watching after game 6 or so, it was the only season I haven't cared about the Redskins because they made me so mad.
Good point on that. As a devout hater of anything cowboy related it made me sick to see that punk a$$ wearing our colors and worse starting over DG. Also made me vomit everytime I saw a "fan" wearing a #21 Sanders jersey. Don't get me wrong I had to root for him to do good since he was on the field, However I have no tolerance for his cowboy lovin self. The only reason he came to us is to try for another ring and get a big payday. Mostly the payday

[IH Brave]

I voted for the 2007 season. It was a harsh reminder that football is only a game. I would gladly trade in all 9 wins and the Redskins' playoff appearance to have Sean Taylor back. I'll admit, when I watched the games I wanted the Redskins to win, but you know something? In the back of my mind I still tought to myself, too bad Sean Taylor couldn't be out there to enjoy the season.