10 Recent Colossal Sports Failures

We rarely see the thrill of victory without also witnessing the agony of defeat. Some defeats come with more agony than others. 

Teams and athletes experience poor seasons and bad years. It happens. Not all of these disappointments can be considered colossal failures, particularly when it was known ahead of time that the team in question was not going to contend for a championship. As bad as things may be for your favorite North American sports team, consider this: At least that team won't be relegated in 2016. 

The same probably cannot be said for Premier League side Aston Villa. Barring what would be one of the greatest escapes in the history of the England top flight, Villa will learn of their relegation at some point in April. The fall of this proud club is one that has been coming for some time, and more than a few observers and Villa supporters have put the blame for the club's woes on its owner.

While NFL fans may not have to worry about promotion and relegation, having to deal with their favorite teams dwelling in mediocrity season after season is no reason to plan for parades. One could not blame any follower of the Cleveland Browns for throwing in the towel after the many failures of the team's last regime. The New York Jets may have squandered the team's best hopes of winning a Super Bowl at any point in the near future. 

The worst part about colossal failures in sports is that they often set teams back for years. No reasonable person can believe the Browns or Jets are one stellar offseason away from winning a Super Bowl. Only time will tell when, or even if, we will see Villa back in the Premier League.  

It is, of course, the fans who suffer the most with these failures. That is what stings most of all. 

New York Knicks

The New York Knicks never should have given Carmelo Anthony a five-year contract worth $124 million in August 2014. 

Never. 

Doing so didn't put the Knicks any closer to winning a championship. In fact, the Knicks haven't posted a winning season in three years. Anthony was shut down after playing in 40 regular-season games in 2014-15, and the team's top star was rested on multiple occasions during the final couple of weeks of the 2015-16 season, even though the Knicks had no chance of playing in the postseason. 

As Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post recently wrote, the time has come for the Knicks and Anthony to part ways. 

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Now they must move on, and so must Melo. Kristaps Porzingis is the franchise’s face and its foundation now. He is the one around whom tomorrow must be built. The Knicks aren’t one player away from maximizing tomorrow, nor are they two players away, or three. They need so much: a real coach and multiple additions.

Melo? Bless him, he wanted New York, he craved New York, and he’s been terrific in New York. He’s never been anything other than professional. If you can debate his on-court production, you can never question how badly he wanted to win and how professionally he conducted himself. He deserved better here. And so did the Knicks.

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Anthony has a no-trade clause in his contract. 

Anthony's status with the Knicks is but part of the problem. Current team president and basketball legend Phil Jackson deserves praise for landing Porzingis in the 2015 NBA draft. What else has Jackson done in his two years as czar of the Knicks? Jackson hired and fired Derek Fisher as New York head coach, and Jackson may now already be looking for an exit from the Knicks, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca:

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One is that Jackson badly wants out of New York, preferring to return back to Los Angeles to be near his fiancée, Lakers scion Jeanie Buss. Jackson is believed to have an out in his Knicks deal that could free him up to do just that at the end of next season unless things between him and Dolan become untenable before that. It’s believed that as soon as Jeanie’s brother Jim Buss — blamed for the Lakers current free fall — is somehow removed from the scene, Jackson will be back as soon as he can engineer it.

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The Knicks are no closer to turning things around than they were the day before they gave Anthony his latest NBA contract.

What a mess.  

Philadelphia Eagles

2015 could and maybe even should have been the year when the Philadelphia Eagles took that next step toward a championship. Chip Kelly had taken the Eagles to back-to-back 10-win seasons. The New York Giants had several holes on offense and defense. Quarterback Tony Romo suffering an injury in September, ironically during a game against the Eagles, sunk the Dallas Cowboys at the start of fall. The Washington Redskins put their faith in unproven QB Kirk Cousins before the start of the campaign. 

Everything was coming up Philadelphia. 

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely," teaches part of the famous saying. Kelly was handed control of football operations for the Eagles in 2015, and he responded by making multiple questionable transactions that were either going to prove his expertise or show that he was in over his head. 

It was the latter. Chris Burke of SI.com wrote about just that in December: 

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Rather than maintain the status quo under which he had led the Eagles to back-to-back 10–6 seasons, though, Kelly went all-in on revamping the roster as he saw fit. His most high-profile moves included trading LeSean McCoy to the Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso, signing DeMarco Murray as McCoy's main replacement, trading for QB Sam Bradford and handing CB Byron Maxwell a $63 million contract.

All backfired, to varying degrees.

As a result the Eagles slumped to their current record of 6–9, and they were eliminated from playoff contention in a 38–24 home loss to Washington last week.

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The Eagles did not even let Kelly finish off his first losing season with the club before he was fired. 

Less than two years after Kelly seemed close to transforming the Eagles into the division's top side, Philadelphia is now facing serious questions, particularly regarding the most-important position on the roster. Will new head coach Doug Pederson go all-in on Bradford, who hasn't started 16 games in a single season since 2012? When, if at all, will the Eagles select a QB in the upcoming NFL draft? 

Will Kelly be remembered for doing more harm than good for the Eagles when all is said and done? 

Michigan State Basketball

It has become accepted that the month of March belongs to Michigan State basketball and to MSU head coach Tom Izzo. The month, as Chris Solari of the Lansing State Journal pointed out in February 2015, is jokingly referred to as "Izzo" by those who cheer on the Spartans. 

Online stores even offer shirts that are dedicated to the phenomenon. 

Jokes and sarcastic comments aside, Michigan State was a heavy favorite among amateur analysts to make a decent run in the 2016 NCAA tournament. Of the users who played the ESPN.com Tournament Challenge, over 97 percent picked MSU to advance to the second round, 68.1 percent into the Elite Eight and 38.6 percent into the Final Four. 

Nobody told Middle Tennessee—who were massive underdogs before the game, according to OddsShark.com—that they were supposed to give Michigan State a bye in the first round. 

The Blue Raiders did not notch an upset victory over Michigan State via a buzzer-beater heave or a lucky bouncer. Middle Tennessee State was the better team from start to finish. 

The underdogs jumped out to advantages of 15-2 and 17-4 early on in the game. MTSU survived a trio of first-half runs made by the Spartans en route to taking a 41-35 lead into halftime. The second half played out much like the first, as the Spartans were unable to fully close the gap. 

Middle Tennessee won 90-81. 

It was, per Mackenzie Kramer and Rob Nelson of ESPN.com, the fourth-biggest upset in tournament history, and arguably the biggest letdown Izzo has suffered during his Michigan State career. 

Jose Aldo

2015 could have been the year when Jose Aldo cemented himself as one of the biggest stars in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. 

Aldo, the reigning UFC featherweight champion since the introduction of that title in November 2010, learned in the spring of 2015 that he was ranked as the top pound-for-pound fighter in all of MMA after Jon Jones had been stripped of his light heavyweight crown following his arrest on hit-and-run charges, per MMAMania.com. Aldo's next chance to defend his title and his ranking was to be at UFC 189 last July against the outspoken Conor McGregor. 

Aldo pulled out of the initial fight because of a rib injury, though, and McGregor defeated Chad Mendes to win the interim featherweight championship. 

Aldo and McGregor were booked for a unification bout scheduled to take place at UFC 194 in December. McGregor hit out at Aldo in multiple interviews in the months and weeks leading up to the fight, and the two had to be separated at the official weigh-in. Aldo, per Damon Martin of FoxSports.com, planned to shut McGregor up inside of the cage:

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After nearly a year of hearing McGregor talk trash, Aldo looks ready to finally let his fists provide a few responses on Saturday night.

"I don't care what he has to say," Aldo said. "The thing is I'm coming in tomorrow night and I'm going to be the champion."

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Whoops. 

Aldo approached McGregor roughly 10 seconds into the fight, and McGregor connected with a left hook to the chin of Aldo. Aldo was essentially out cold before he hit the mat, and the fight was stopped after just 13 seconds. It remains the fastest finish to a fight in UFC history.

Los Angeles Lakers

How did the Los Angeles Lakers get this bad? How did a team known for having superstar talent and for being one of the best sides in the NBA become a laughingstock of the Western Conference incapable of posting a winning record in three consecutive seasons? 

It happened easier than one may think. 

The story begins with the downfall of Kobe Bryant. Bryant went from being a veteran capable of contributing for a contender in 2012-13 to a shell of his former self seemingly in the blink of an eye. After playing in 78 games the previous campaign, Bryant appeared in six contests in 2013-14. Bryant made 35 starts last season, and he finished the final year of his career with 66 starts. 

Don't assume that Bryant has done the Lakers many favors this season. Bryant's field-goal and three-point percentages were both well beneath his career averages. 

It also hasn't helped that the Lakers have recently whiffed in free agency. Granted, Los Angeles was never landing LeBron James in the summer of 2014. The likes of Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, Pau Gasol, DeAndre Jordan and others all went elsewhere (h/t LATimes.com). 

But wait. There's more. 

Rookie D'Angelo Russell, a bright spot during a down year for the Lakers, recently sparked controversy over the recording and posting of a video that featured teammate Nick Young "discussing his various sexual exploits outside of the context of his relationship with Iggy Azalea," per Matt Moore of CBSSports.com. 

Moore's story also contained a video in which former NBA player and current CBS analyst Raja Bell said he would trade Russell if he was general manager of the Lakers:

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"You're a family, man, you're a brotherhood," Bell said of the relationship between teammates. "You spend so much time with those guys. You would never want to put a teammate or a buddy in a position like that. The things that are said between teammates, in locker rooms, are supposed to be private. It's a safe haven. I'm not advocating for anything that was done wrong, obviously, but as brothers, you don't put your other brothers on blast. I'm trading him.

"You have to go," Bell continued. "I say that emotionally right now. Give it some time maybe I change my mind. As Raja Bell, NBA player for 13 years, being a general manager, one of my youngins does that, you gotta go. Give me something else."

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The Lakers are "Showtime" once again, but this time in a very different way. 

New York Jets

Think back to the evening of Jan. 17, 2011. Quarterback Mark Sanchez had just outplayed Tom Brady in a playoff game that occurred at Gillette Stadium, the New York Jets had eliminated rivals the New England Patriots from the NFL playoffs and head coach Rex Ryan was on the cusp of leading the Jets to a second-straight AFC title game. 

Gang Green was the toast of New York football, for all of 12 months.

The beginning of the end of Ryan's hunt for a Super Bowl championship while with the Jets could be traced back to February 2012, when the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. Roughly a month after Big Blue held a victory ceremony at the stadium the Giants and Jets share, the Jets acquired Tim Tebow from the Denver Broncos in a move blasted by local media members such as New York radio icon Mike Francesa, who saw the trade as a ploy for the Jets to take headlines back from the Giants. 

Jets general manager John Idzik, hired by the club in 2013, continued the undermining of Sanchez and also of Ryan. Idzik made it crystal clear that he, not Ryan, was in charge when the club drafted QB Geno Smith in the 2013 draft's second round to serve as competition for Sanchez. 

The rest, as they say, is history. Sanchez suffered a season-ending injury during a preseason game against the Giants in August 2013, and he never again played for the Jets. New York went 8-8 in 2013, but the Jets fell to 4-12 for what would be Ryan's last season as the team's coach. 

Even Ryan's departure from the club did not eliminate the drama from the New York locker room. Smith was reportedly punched by then-teammate IK Enemkpali during an altercation that occurred in August 2015. That blow resulted in Smith losing his job to Ryan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick had a career year with the Jets in 2015, but he and the Jets have not yet come to terms on a deal that would keep him with the club for the upcoming season. 

Never change, Jets. 

Washington Nationals

It is not fair to blame only the Washington Nationals for what occurred in the National East standings last year. After all, the New York Mets did make a trade for slugger Yoenis Cespedes, and the Mets also began a run on July 25 that saw them win 21 of 29 games (h/t FiveThirtyEight.com). Last but not least, the Mets swept the Nationals in early September to put the division race to bed. 

Still, the Mets finished the regular season with only 92 wins. As Rob Arthur of FiveThirtyEight.com pointed out, the Nationals were March favorites to notch 95 regular-season victories. Literally every ESPN.com analyst polled about the subject in April predicted the Nationals would win the NL East title. Jonah Keri of Grantland.com agreed with that prediction. 

What happened? 

As with most colossal sports failures, there is no one answer to explain all that went wrong with the Nationals during the second half of the 2015 season. Perhaps the beginning of the team's collapse can be linked with the trade for closer Jonathan Papelbon in late July. That move, per Chris Johnson of MASNSports.com, upset then-Washington closer Drew Storen and messed with the team's chemistry:

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“Really, all I’m gonna say is that obviously I’m aware of the move,” Storen said. “I’ve talked to (Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo) about it. I’ve talked to my agent. We’ve had some ongoing discussions. Until those have progressed, I’m just gonna leave it at that and no comment for now. But as the situation goes, I’ll keep you guys posted.”

Storen’s frustrations are understandable and justified. The 27-year-old has saved 29 of 31 opportunities this season with a 1.73 ERA.

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Papelbon's most-noteworthy contribution to date as a member of the Nationals involved the closer getting into a fight with to-be-named National League Most Valuable Player and teammate Bryce Harper near the end of the season. 

The previously-mentioned Arthur, meanwhile, blamed batters not named Harper for Washington's breakdown:

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Blame the hitters instead. The Nationals’ position players have accrued 19.0 WAR, placing them 15th in MLB, sandwiched between the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays. Of this total, more than half has been provided by likely-MVP Harper alone. Arguably the most disappointing years belong to second baseman Anthony Rendon (0.9 WAR), shortstop Ian Desmond (1.5), and outfielder Jayson Werth (0). The trio was predicted to produce almost one Bryce Harper’s worth of value (9.5 WAR) but have thus far combined for only 2.4 wins. Close the deficit between their projections and actual production, and it would be like adding another MVP candidate to the team. 

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Philadelphia 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers have been an absolute disgrace of the NBA for far too long. The last time the 76ers finished a campaign with a winning record was 2011-12, when the team played only 66 regular-season games following a labor dispute. Other than that blip on the radar, Philadelphia has managed to post .500 records only twice over the past decade. 

This piece is about recent colossal sports failures, though, and so this section will be dedicated to former Philadelphia general manager and team president Sam Hinkie. 

Much has already been written about Hinkie's tenure with the 76ers that began in May 2013. Perhaps the best summary about Hinkie's stint in Philadelphia could come from the tales of two players: Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor. 

Hinkie selected Embiid in the first round of the 2014 NBA draft. Embiid, a 7-foot center, has not yet played a second of meaningful NBA basketball because of multiple injury issues. Perhaps to cover for the Embiid selection, Hinkie then grabbed Okafor, also a center, in the first round of the 2015 NBA draft. Okafor had a solid rookie campaign, but his season ended in late February after he suffered a torn meniscus. 

It has since been speculated by analysts such as Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer that the 76ers could look to trade Okafor this coming summer. Why would the club trade such a promising young prospect? Because Embiid may (finally) be ready to play next fall. 

What ultimately doomed Hinkie in Philadelphia was the perception that he was more interested in acquiring high draft picks and looking ahead than he was in turning the 76ers into a product worth watching and worth the money spent by customers as quickly as possible. 

David Rudin of KillScreen.com explained:

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Sports leagues, it turns out, have a limited tolerance for deliberate losing as a strategy. In soccer, the Premier League has previously fined teams for fielding supposedly noncompetitive squads. In the NBA, the Stepien Rule prevents teams from trading first round picks in consecutive years. It is named for former Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien, a man who by almost all accounts needed to be saved from himself. The rule, however, is a signal that not all strategies are actually on the table when it comes to sports leagues. Indeed, NBA commissioner Adam Silver tried (and failed) to pass reforms last year that would have ruled out many of Hinkie’s shenanigans.

Hinkie did not, however, escape the long arm of the league. Longtime NBA executive Jerry Colangelo was appointed as his superior in December. “Multiple sources said the league office helped bring the pairing of [Sixers owner Josh] Harris and Colangelo together in Philadelphia,”The Washington Post reported at the time. The story continued: “If there was any possibility that this long-term experiment of tanking for picks could continue past this season, those thoughts ended Monday.”

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Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns were 7-4 on the night of Nov. 23, 2014. Check Pro-Football-Reference.com if you don't believe it or have put the memory of that Browns team out of your minds.

Cleveland not only failed to capitalize on that success, but suffered an epic and memorable collapse. 

Cleveland lost the final five games of the 2014 campaign. After beginning the 2015 season with a 2-3 record that easily could have been at least 3-2 had the Browns closed the San Diego Chargers out in Week 4, Cleveland dropped its last 10 of 11 to finish the season at 3-13. Head coach Mike Pettine and the team's front office were shown the door in January, and the Browns (again) pressed the figurative reset button. 

This colossal failure did not begin with starting quarterback Brian Hoyer going from Cinderella story to a pumpkin in the fall of 2014. The Johnny Manziel saga that earned local and national headlines throughout 2015 was only part of the problem for the Browns. 

Things started to go wrong for those Browns on the night of May 8, 2014, and the opening round of the 2014 NFL draft. 

It was on that night when the Browns traded down in the first round rather than select linebacker Khalil Mack with the fourth overall pick. Mack has become a mainstay for the rejuvenated Oakland Raiders. Cleveland then selected cornerback Justin Gilbert when wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was still on the board. That pick was made one day before it was made public that Cleveland WR Josh Gordon could be facing up to a year-long suspension. 

Beckham has become one of the best young receivers in the NFL. Gilbert, meanwhile, may have been a bigger mess that Manziel during their first two seasons in the NFL (h/t CleveScene.com). 

Last but not least, the Browns drafted Manziel when both Teddy Bridgewater and Derek Carr were available. 

The best pick made by the previous Cleveland regime was probably offensive tackle Joel Bitonio, who was selected in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft. That says plenty about why Pettine, former general manager Ray Farmer and others were fired following the 2015 season. 

Aston Villa

Those familiar with the saying "hope springs eternal" may cite Aston Villa for why they believe such an adage is rubbish.

It was learned back in the fall of 2006 that American businessman and then-owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns Randy Lerner would be taking Villa over. Despite the fact that Villa have made several significant runs in cup tournaments over the past decade, it would not be a stretch to suggest that Lerner's tenure as Villa owner has been a total disaster. 

Villa reported "a loss of £53.9 million" for the 2010-11 financial year (h/t BBC.com). The club flirted with relegation in each of the past several seasons, including finishing only three points clear of the drop zone in May 2015. Villa will head into the third Saturday of April 15 points from safety, with only five matches to play. 

Their relegation is all but guaranteed. 

Herbert Crowther of 7500 to Holte mentioned when he referred to as "the curse of Randy Lerner" when pointing out the plights of both Villa and the Browns:

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In the NFL, (Lerner) almost never strayed from his consistently unsuccessful strategy of hiring conservative coordinators with little imagination or energy. Until the appointment of Remi Garde, his perpetually failing mold for Villa was a Premier League veteran and entity. Garde, of course, was not - he was soft spoken, intelligent, and seemingly calm under any circumstance. I thought his Roosevelt-like "talk soft, carry a big stick" mentality, combined with his naiveté and continental attitudes, would be such a drastic departure from what the players were used to under (Tim) Sherwood and (Paul) Lambert that positive change would be inevitable. Hiring Garde seemed so bold, so unpredictable, so un-Randy Lerner that surely he would be the man to survive Lerner's poisonous impact.

But even a departure this severe wasn't safe from Lerner's grasp. Just as we saw the youth, vigor, and energy drained from Tim Sherwood in a matter of weeks this fall, so we saw Garde's black hair turn gray and his contained optimism disintegrate into unmistakable defeat.

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Worst of all for Villa, as pointed out by Mat Kendrick of the Birmingham Mail, is that Villa's climb back to the Premier League will not be easy:

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The bad news is that more than a third of the teams to have been relegated from the Premier League in its first 22 seasons have yet to win promotion back into the top flight.

There have been a total of 67 relegations from the division between its formation in the 1992-93 season and the end of the 2013-14 campaign, with some teams being included in that figure more than once.

As many as 24 of the relegated clubs are still in the lower leagues of English football, with 11 of them having been down there for five or more seasons.

Some big names are included amongst those clubs such as Derby, Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday.

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