San Diego Chargers, Steve Young, San Francisco 49ers. (Photo by JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images)
Not every team that ends up winning its conference is a great NFL team. Here are the five worst teams to ever play in a Super Bowl.
Championship banners mean different things to different teams. For some, they only hang league championships, as they’ve won too much over the years to another lesser accomplishments like conference championships or division titles. And there are those who have very little team success historically, so they’ll honor things as trivial as first-round exits after forgettable Wild Card berths.
But even if a team doesn’t end up winning it all, its run to the finals can have a massive impact on the generation who grew up watching it. To put it simply, they have a fan for life because of that. I am one of those people who saw my hometown team in the 1998 Atlanta Falcons make it to Super Bowl XXXIII when I was in third grade. I’ve been chasing a championship ever since.
Though this team struggled in Miami vs. the Denver Broncos in what was John Elway‘s final game, the original Dirty Birds went 14-2 and beat the 15-1 Minnesota Vikings in overtime to even get to a Super Bowl. The 1998 Falcons unfairly get knocked as one of the worst teams to ever play in a Super Bowl. People are so wrong about that teams, it’s quite comical really. You wanna see bad?
Here are the five worst teams to ever play in a Super Bowl.
5
1994 San Diego Chargers
(11-5) Super Bowl XXIX
When we look back at the 60 teams to make it to a Super Bowl in the last 30 years, you’ll often find a squad that perplexes you on how they even got there. Of all the teams to make it to a Super Bowl in the 1990s, the strangest has to be the 1994 San Diego Chargers. How were they the team to end the Buffalo Bills’ streak of four straight AFC Championships? Let’s find out now.
From a construct standpoint, they had a few things going for them. It was Bobby Beathard’s second team he built from the ground up. He did great work with the 1980s Washington Redskins. Their head coach was college football standout Bobby Ross, who dominated the ACC with the Maryland Terrapins, winning a national championship with the 1990 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
Of course, the Chargers had several great players, most notably linebacker Junior Seau. They had four Pro Bowlers that year in Seau, running back Natrone Means, defensive end Leslie O’Neal and kicker John Carney. The Bolts went 11-5 in 1994, winning the AFC West and earning the No. 2 seed in the conference. Beating the top-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers twice proved they belonged.
But when the Chargers got to Super Bowl XXIX in Miami, they had no shot against the San Francisco 49ers. Chargers quarterback Stan Humphries was outclassed by 49ers quarterback Steve Young, who put together the greatest performance out of a signal-caller in Super Bowl history. The Bolts were blown out 49-26 in Miami and haven’t been back to Super Bowl since.