by Bruce Bostwick

Created on: April 20, 2009

There are two different types of perfect seasons created in the league. There is one that not only gets a perfect regular season but also would come into winning the big game. The other side of the coin is the one that goes completely winless and the one nobody wants to earn being apart of that shame. For the NFL, it is so difficult to pull off that only one team has pulled off a pure perfect season being the 1972 Miami Dolphins. It is about as easy as pulling off bowling a perfect 300 game. It is just so hard to pull off.

What however is different is that there were not 16 games in the regular season and would have been interested if that team had two extra regular season games to see if it could have been pulled off. That team was special and nobody would dare say they were a weak team because it is no accident for anyone to pull it off.

There have been teams that have been close over the years. The 1985 Chicago Bears were 15-1 but would go on to win in the Super Bowl making the record 18-1 overall. With the two extra games involved, it would be like comparing an apple to an orange given that they were completely different Eras in the league.

The closest to pulling off the feat would be the 2007 New England Patriots. They would go 16-0 having a perfect regular season. They were close to pulling off the record and having its own name in history being the only one to pull it off under the 16 game schedule but would come up short at the Super Bowl against the Giants. Now, this was a ridiculous spread considering the fact that during the last game of the regular season was going to be a close game.

It is worth noting that it has happened before with the Chicago Bears having a perfect regular season but would fall in the NFL Championship. On two occasions in 1933 and 1942, the Bears would have incredible seasons but could not pull off the championship going for perfection. That was before the Super Bowl came into existence. It really shows a sign of how difficult it truly is to have the ultimate perfect season. You can have a perfect regular season but come post-season time, you have to be perfect or else it is over.

Another rather historical moment would be from the old AAFC where the Cleveland Browns came from before coming into the NFL in 1950 where they would have a perfect season but would be very successful in becoming the AAFC Champion and the only ones in history that have ever done it.

In order to achieve an incredible feat of perfection, it would have to involve winning every single game you play from the beginning all the way to the bitter end. The odds are against it because of how difficult it is to pull off.

On the flip side of the coin, there is the wrong type of perfection where a team goes winless in a single season. Only two teams have done it but with different schedules. The one was done with a 14 game schedule and the other by losing extra games.

The 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers would finish a season 0-14 never winning a game in the first place. Do keep in mind, they were a fairly early franchise but it is just mind boggling how a team can do that. That is one honor that nobody would ever want in the first place. A hypothetical would be if they had two extra games and played the full 16 like it is done today, would the Buccaneers have actually won a couple games or just one.

Just last season with the Detroit Lions pulling off the season by going 0-16. The best way to describe it would be that anything that went wrong in those games did and it showed. Perhaps it was a sign of trying to get the coach fired or just a case of just poor execution all around.

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