Ranking the 8 Most Down-Bad Sports Cities Right Now
There isn't just one way to be down bad in a sports context.
If a team is terrible, that counts.
If a team was expected to be good and is falling apart, that really counts.
If a team got very close to winning a title but lost, that qualifies.
If a team blew a big lead in a playoff series, that feels especially appropriate.
Some cities have a combination of the above scenarios with their major sports teams. Here, we've highlighted the worst of the worst to determine which city is down worst of all right now.
To qualify, a city had to be in North America and have at least three major sports teams. We counted only the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB as major sports.
8. San Francisco/Bay Area
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The Giants and Warriors are carrying the down-bad torch for the Bay Area, but can we briefly talk about the 49ers' struggles in the draft?
Since their disastrous trade-up for Trey Lance in 2021, the Niners have hit big on just one pick: 2022 seventh-round selection Brock Purdy. Since 2021, they've used two third-round picks on running backs (Trey Sermon and Tyrion Davis-Price) who had 287 combined yards in their 49ers careers, another third-round pick on kicker Jake Moody, and three other third-round picks on players who have gotten almost no NFL playing time (Danny Gray, Cameron Latu, Nick Martin).
So when they took Kaelon Black in the third round—an RB whom many expected to fall to the sixth round—it's not surprising that general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan were put on blast for their draft track record.
At least the 49ers are coming off a 12-win season and have a chance to upend the Seahawks and Rams to win the NFC West. The Giants and Warriors don't have such hope.
Rafael Devers is ranked in the bottom four across MLB in fWAR as of Wednesday. He's in the third year of a 10-year, $313.5 million contract. The Giants have MLB's worst offense and major bullpen issues, too.
Stephen Curry's late prime is wasting away for the Warriors. Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody suffered major knee injuries that will keep them out for at least half of next season, and the front office has been unwilling to trade multiple first-round picks for a star player who gives this era one more realistic title shot.
The Sharks are a beacon of hope with 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini, but the Giants and Warriors are in just enough disarray for the Bay Area to make the list.
7. Pittsburgh
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All three of Pittsburgh's teams are respectable, but if you dig a bit deeper, you'll find this city is down bad.
The Penguins lost their series to the Flyers in heartbreaking fashion, falling 1-0 in overtime in Game 6. Sidney Crosby was kept off the scoresheet in three of the four losses. The 38-year-old doesn't have many playoff runs left.
The Pirates are showing more life than they've had in about a decade, but that comes with the reality that owner Bob Nutting won't spend enough to give them a realistic chance for a title.
And then we have the Steelers, who had the opportunity to make a bold head coach hire after Mike Tomlin stepped down. Instead, they chose Mike McCarthy. The 62-year-old won one playoff game in his previous seven seasons coaching Green Bay and Dallas.
Steelers fans are currently in the hellish state that is relying on 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers to make an offseason decision. And to top it off, the Steelers were so sure they were getting USC wide receiver Makai Lemon in the draft that they called him, only for the Eagles to jump one pick ahead of them and take him.
It hasn't been a dream offseason for a franchise that has lost its last six playoff games, with five of those defeats coming by double digits.
6. Dallas
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Dallas makes the cut fresh off the disappointment of another Stars season ending prematurely.
The Stars had the third-most points in the NHL and tallied at least 50 wins for the third straight season. But this time, they didn't even get out of the first round. They lost an extremely tight six-game series against the Minnesota Wild.
It would be a shame if the core of Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, Jason Robertson and others doesn't win a Stanley Cup in Dallas.
The Cowboys had their second straight losing season, allowing the most points in the NFL. That makes trading Micah Parsons look even worse.
The Mavericks are a mess after trading Luka Dončić, but at least they won the lottery and got Cooper Flagg. Their hire of Masai Ujiri as team president and alternate governor offers hope after the Nico Harrison disaster.
The Rangers are off to an average start after missing the playoffs each of the last two years.
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5. Toronto
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The Raptors kept Toronto from being in the top four of these rankings. They had a poor performance in Game 7 of their first-round series against the Cavaliers, but they weren't expected to win that series anyway. Overall, they're on a promising trajectory with Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles.
But the misery of Blue Jays and Maple Leafs fans warranted the fifth spot even with the Raptors on the rise.
The Leafs finished last in the Atlantic Division, missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 years. Their Stanley Cup drought is up to 59 years. Auston Matthews suffered a knee injury in mid-March that kept him out for the rest of the season. There are rumors that he won't play another game for Toronto.
Winning the 2026 draft lottery doesn't change the fact that the Leafs are not trending in the right direction.
But the most down-bad team in Toronto is the Blue Jays.
Blowing a ninth-inning Game 7 lead to the Dodgers was going to sting no matter how it happened. But the fact it was light-hitting afterthought Miguel Rojas who hit the game-tying home run is impossible to stomach.
The Blue Jays then lost Bo Bichette to the Mets this past offseason, which was heartbreaking after he had seven great seasons in Toronto. The Jays are currently toiling in mediocrity, wondering if they swung and missed at their one big chance for glory.
4. Houston
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The Rockets are doing the heavy lifting for Houston here.
After trading for Kevin Durant in the offseason, the Rockets were supposed to be immediate title contenders. Instead, they won the same number of regular-season games as they did last year and once again lost in the first round of the playoffs.
Now they have to deal with the fallout of the Durant burner account scandal. At the least, every Rockets fan has to be questioning whether acquiring Durant was the right move.
The Astros are off to a bad start this season, and it got even worse Wednesday with the news that Carlos Correa is expected to miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury. Their championship window appears to be over. They won two World Series along the way, but that doesn't change the fact they might be down for a while.
The Texans are mostly a bright spot, but one could argue they are down bad as well for missing a golden opportunity to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.
With the Chiefs missing the playoffs, the Bills losing to the Broncos and Broncos quarterback Bo Nix suffering an injury late in that game, the Texans likely would've made the Big Game had they beat the Patriots in the AFC Divisional Round. Instead, C.J. Stroud melted down and threw four interceptions.
Until Stroud gets over the hump, there will be questions about his ability to come through in the biggest moments.
3. Boston
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The bad news for Boston fans is they've had a brutal four-month stretch. The good news is the future looks bright for most of their four teams.
It all started in February when the Patriots got blasted by the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. It wasn't a shocking result, but any time a team gets to the championship round and loses, it's a gut punch.
Things got much worse over the last few weeks.
That the Bruins lost their first-round playoff series to the Sabres barely even registers. The Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini controversy continues to get messier, the Red Sox are a mess, and the Celtics blew a 3-1 series lead to the 76ers in the first round of the playoffs. That was a historic collapse, as Boston had never blown a 3-1 lead and Philadelphia had never come back from a 3-1 deficit.
To top it off, Jayson Tatum missed Game 7 with knee soreness, meaning Celtics fans had to watch their team get eliminated with Tatum on the sidelines for the second straight year.
The Patriots and Celtics should be title contenders for the next few years, so perhaps Boston won't be down bad for long. But the past few months have been brutal for Boston fans.
2. Miami
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The Miami-Fort Lauderdale area has four major sports teams, and all of them missed the playoffs. It is one of just two cities with at least three teams to have that distinction.
We can forgive the Florida Panthers, who went all-in to win the Stanley Cup two years in a row. No one else deserves a pass.
The Heat missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years after losing in the play-in tournament to the Hornets. Their pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline failed, and if they don't land him this offseason, there isn't a clear way for them to dramatically improve.
The Marlins are under .500 again. They haven't had a 90-plus-win season since 2003, which was the last time they won the World Series.
The Dolphins marked the end of a disappointing era by firing head coach Mike McDaniel, releasing quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and trading wide receiver Jaylen Waddle this offseason. They project to be one of the NFL's worst teams in 2026.
1. Washington
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Washington and Miami are in the same tier of down bad. They are the only cities with three-plus teams that had no playoff participants this past season.
But the fact that they haven't had a champion since 2019 gives them the No. 1 spot.
The Capitals came the closest making the postseason this past season, missing it by three points. We'll see if Alex Ovechkin has one more year in him, but even the thought that he could retire soon has to have some Caps fans in the dumps.
The Commanders were major disappointments after making a surprise run to the NFC Championship Game in 2024. There's still plenty of optimism regarding quarterback Jayden Daniels, but another lackluster, injury-riddled season could eat into that.
The Nationals and Wizards have been consistently bad for the last half-decade. There's a chance that trading for Anthony Davis and Trae Young will be a stroke of genius, but it's more likely that they produce middling results while making the Wizards' cap situation a mess.
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