When Super Bowl LIX kicks off in New Orleans on February 9, the two teams taking the field will be familiar — perhaps all too familiar.
The AFC-winning Kansas City Chiefs are making their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, fifth in the last six years, and the seventh in franchise history, seeking to become the first team in league history to win three consecutive Lombardi Trophies. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles, who romped their way to the big game with a 55-23 drubbing over the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game, are making their fifth Super Bowl appearance, which is their third in the past eight years.
Still, while 28 of the NFL’s 32 franchises have appeared at least once in the Super Bowl’s 59 iterations, there are four unlucky losers who have never gotten to play for the league’s most coveted trophy.
Let’s go through the four that haven’t, in descending order of their regular-season record in 2024:
Detroit Lions (15-2)
The Lions were Super Bowl favorites for much of the season behind brilliant individual campaigns from quarterback Jared Goff, running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, and wide receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams. Detroit earned the NFC’s sole first-round bye and appeared to have caught a break when the sixth-seeded Washington Commanders upset the third-seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But season-ending injuries to defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, defensive tackle Alim McNeill, and cornerback Carlton Davis III proved to much to overcome, and the Commanders put up 28 points in the second quarter on their way to a 45-31 victory.
Prior to the start of the Super Bowl era in 1966, the Lions had found immense success, winning NFL Championships in 1935, 1952, 1953, and 1957. However, Detroit started the Super Bowl era with three consecutive losing seasons and didn’t even make the playoffs until the 1970-71 season. In 2008, they suffered through one of just two 0-16 seasons in league history. The Lions have made two NFC Championship Games in their history, the first coming in 1991, when they lost to Washington, 41-10, and in 2023, when they suffered a heartbreaking 34-31 defeat to the San Francisco 49ers.
Houston Texans (10-7)
The Texans have been a pretty successful franchise since joining the NFL prior to the 2002 season as an expansion franchise, amassing a record of 162-209-1 and making seven playoff appearances. This season’s squad tied the franchise’s best finish, as Houston lost, 23-14, to Kansas City in the Divisional Round.
Since the Texans’ first playoff appearance in 2011, they have won eight division titles, earning a Wild Card Round victory in six of those seasons, although they have never made an AFC Championship Game appearance. The only Divisional Round game that has been decided by a single possession came in 2011, when Houston fell, 20-13, to the Baltimore Ravens. Although the Texans have never appeared in the league’s biggest game, the Houston Oilers (now known as the Tennessee Titans) won two consecutive AFL Championships in the 1960 and 1961 seasons.
Jacksonville Jaguars (4-13)
Jacksonville has just a 198-269 (.424) record since joining the league prior to the 1995 season, the third-worst record of any franchise, but it has come tantalizingly close to success several times. While this season was one to forget — as franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence went down with a season-ending injury in Week 13 and the Jaguars finished with the sixth-worst record in the league — Jacksonville has reached the AFC Championship fairly recently.
The Jaguars made the playoffs in just their second season as a franchise, pulling off a pair of road upsets to advance to the 1997 AFC Championship Game, which they lost to the New England Patriots, 20-6. Then, Jacksonville advanced to the conference title game again two years later, when it went 14-2 in the regular season before falling to the Titans, 33-14. Most recently, after a 17-year stretch that included just three winning seasons, the Jaguars blew a fourth-quarter lead to the Patriots in the 2018 iteration, falling 24-20.
Cleveland Browns (3-14)
Since the turn of the 21st Century, the Browns have been a symbol of futility, posting just four winning seasons since the franchise was reactivated in 1999 and going 1-31 across a two-season stretch from 2015 to 2016. This season was similarly disastrous, as they finished with the league’s second-worst record and started four different quarterbacks.
Prior to their move to Baltimore after the 1995 season, which left Cleveland without an NFL team for three seasons, the Browns were a fairly successful franchise, winning four consecutive AAFC Championships from 1946-49 and then made nine NFL Championship Games in 16 seasons, winning titles in 1950, 1954, 1955, and 1964. Since the start of the Super Bowl era, they have made five conference championship appearances, most recently in 1989, when they suffered a 37-21 defeat to the Denver Broncos.
