Greatest Failures in NFL History

They had exceptional football careers — except in the biggest games.

Greatest Failures in NFL History

Jim Kelly — Buffalo Bills quarterback went 0-4 in Super Bowls.

Not everyone finds the ultimate success in football. For every Joe Montana and Bill Belichick whose NFL careers are bathed in Super Bowl glory, there’s a Jim Kelly or Bud Grant, figures whose Hall of Fame careers are forever marred by their inability to win the biggest game of all.

Whether it’s the misfortune of a single play that will live in postseason lore or years of playoff futility that defy the odds, there is no shortage of NFL coaching and playing greats who would just as soon forget what befell them in their quest for a Super Bowl title.

These are the unluckiest figures in NFL history.

30. Donovan McNabb

Career: 1999-2011 (13 seasons)

Team: Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings

Playoff games: 16

Playoff record: 9-7 (.563 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 59 percent of his passes for 24 TDs and 17 interceptions. Sacked 48 times for 308 yards.

30. Donovan McNabb

Bottom line: Donovan McNabb’s Eagles dominated the NFC for a good chunk of the 2000s, but they managed only one Super Bowl trip, which ended with a 24-21 loss to the New England Patriots in January 2005 (and by some accounts, with McNabb vomiting on the field).

Before getting over the hump in 2004, McNabb suffered three consecutive NFC championship game losses, including two on his home field.

He lost another NFC title game in 2008 against the Arizona Cardinals.

29. John Brodie

Career: 1957-73 (17 seasons)

Team: San Francisco 49ers

Playoff games: 5

Playoff record: 2-3 (.400 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 49.7 percent of his passes for 973 yards, 4 TDs and 7 interceptions. Sacked 5 times for 33 yards.

29. John Brodie

Bottom line: Before Joe Montana broke the hearts of the Dallas Cowboys with "The Catch" in 1981, John Brodie and his 49ers suffered plenty of playoff heartbreak at the hands of "America’s Team" in the early 1970s.

After losing the NFC championship game to Dallas in both 1970 and 1971, Brodie and the 49ers looked poised to exact revenge in the 1972 divisional round when they held a 28-13 lead in the fourth quarter. But Roger Staubach came off the bench to rally the Cowboys to 17 unanswered points and a 30-28 win — and earn the moniker "Captain Comeback."

It marked the end of Brodie’s playoff career.

28. Sid Gillman

Career: 1955-71, 1973-74 (18 seasons)

Teams: Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, Houston Oilers

Playoff games: 6

Playoff record: 1-5 (.143 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: His teams were outscored 115-40 in their five playoff losses.

28. Sid Gillman

Bottom line: The legendary coach who mentored such NFL luminaries as Al Davis and Chuck Noll was routinely frustrated in league championship games during his career.

The only exception was a 51-10 thumping of the Boston Patriots that gave the San Diego Chargers the 1963 AFL Championship.

Sid Gillman never returned to the postseason after his Chargers were shut out 23-0 by the Buffalo Bills in the 1965 AFL title game.

27. Philip Rivers

Career: 2004-present (16 seasons)

Teams: San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers

Playoff games: 11

Playoff record: 5-6 (.455 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 59.4 percent of his passes for 2,656 yards, 14 TDs and 10 interceptions. Sacked 23 times for 165 yards.

27. Philip Rivers

Bottom line: Philip Rivers has quarterbacked the Chargers to the playoffs six times during his career, but only once has he made it as far as the AFC championship game. That came in 2007, when he played valiantly with a torn ACL in a 21-12 loss to the undefeated and heavily favored New England Patriots.

Rivers’ best chance to take his team to a Super Bowl came a year earlier, when the Chargers entered the playoffs with a 14-2 record and the top seed, only to blow an eight-point fourth-quarter lead against the Patriots. He completed only 14 of 32 passes that day, without a touchdown.

26. Matt Hasselbeck

Career: 1999-2015 (17 seasons)

Teams: Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts

Playoff games: 11

Playoff record: 5-6 (.455 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 58.1 percent of his passes for 2,741 yards, 18 TDs and 9 interceptions. Sacked 19 times for 115 yards.

26. Matt Hasselbeck

Bottom line: Matt Hasselbeck may hold the distinction of most infamous beginning to a postseason career based on what he said and did during the 2003 NFC wild-card game against the Green Bay Packers.

With the scored tied 27-27 at the end of regulation, the Seahawks won the coin toss for overtime, at which point an overconfident Hasselbeck blurted, "We want the ball, and we’re gonna score!" After getting the ball, Hasselbeck proceeded to throw an interception that was returned 52 yards for the game-winning score.

Two years later, he enjoyed a bit of redemption in leading Seattle to its first Super Bowl appearance, but the Pittsburgh Steelers prevailed 21-10 despite Hasselbeck throwing for 273 yards and a touchdown.

He would lead the Seahawks to the playoffs three more times but never past the divisional round.

25. Bud Grant

Career: 1967-83, 1985 (17 seasons)

Team: Minnesota Vikings

Playoff games: 22

Playoff record: 10-12 (.455 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Took the Vikings to the playoffs in 12 of his 17 seasons as coach, including six consecutive years from 1973 to 1978. Went 4-1 in NFL/NFC championship games.

25. Bud Grant

Bottom line: Bud Grant had one of the greatest quarterbacks (Fran Tarkenton) for three of his Super Bowl trips and one of the greatest defenses (the "Purple People Eaters") in NFL history, but his Super Bowl teams were dominated in the big game.

Each of his Super Bowl losses came by at least 10 points, including a 23-7 upset at the hands of the Chiefs in 1969 when the Vikings (quarterbacked by Joe Kapp) entered the game as double-digit favorites.

24. Randall Cunningham

Career: 1985-1995, 1997-2001 (16 seasons)

Teams: Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens

Playoff games: 12

Playoff record: 5-7 (.417 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 52.6 percnet of his passes for 2,426 yards, 12 TDs and 9 interceptions. Sacked 28 times for 215 yards.

24. Randall Cunningham

Bottom line: Cunningham lost his first three playoff starts and never got beyond the divisional round in his first six trips to the postseason. But all that seemed destined to change in 1998, when he guided the Minnesota Vikings to a 15-1 regular-season record and a 41-21 first-round playoff win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Playing in the raucous Metrodome for the NFC championship, the Vikings jumped out to a 27-17 lead and looked destined for the Super Bowl, but the Falcons stunned them with a fourth-quarter comeback and 30-27 overtime victory.

It was the last playoff start of Cunningham’s career.

23. Merlin Olsen

Career: 1962-76 (15 seasons)

Team: Los Angeles Rams

Playoff games: 9

Playoff record: 3-6 (.333 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: 6 sacks, 1 fumble recovery

23. Merlin Olsen

Bottom line: A member of the Rams’ "Fearsome Foursome" defense, Merlin Olsen and his teammates seemed to strike little fear into playoff opponents during the 1960s and '70s.

After losing opening-round playoff games in 1967, 1969 and 1973, the Hall of Famer made it to three consecutive NFC championship games from 1974 to 1976, only to come up short each time.

With his Super Bowl hopes extinguished, Olsen moved on to a successful acting and broadcasting career, calling four Super Bowls from the booth.

22. Dan Reeves

Career: 1981-2003 (23 seasons)

Team: Denver Broncos, New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons

Playoff games: 20

Playoff record: 11-9 (.550 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Went 4-0 in conference championship games and 0-4 in Super Bowls.

22. Dan Reeves

Bottom line: Dan Reeves failed three times in Super Bowls with Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway at the helm, before losing to Elway and the Broncos in his fourth trip.

Of course, the postseason wasn’t all heartbreak for Reeves. He was on the winning side of some of the most memorable conference championship games in league history, the 1986 and 1987 thrillers against the Cleveland Browns and the 1998 overtime upset of the favored Minnesota Vikings.

21. Dan Marino

Career: 1983-99 (17 seasons)

Team: Miami Dolphins

Playoff games: 18

Playoff record: 8-10 (.444 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 56 percent of his passes for 4,510 yards, 32 TDs and 24 interceptions. Sacked 22 times for 141 yards.

21. Dan Marino

Bottom line: When Dan Marino led the Dolphins to the Super Bowl with what was then the most prolific passing season in NFL history in 1984, it seemed destined to be only the beginning of many trips to the big game for the second-year star. After all, it was already Miami’s fifth Super Bowl appearance under coach Don Shula.

But the Dolphins' Super Bowl XIX drubbing at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers would be Marino’s one and only shot at a Super Bowl ring, even as he crafted one of the greatest careers in the history of the game.

It wasn’t for lack of effort. Marino led the Dolphins to eight more playoff appearances over the next 15 years, losing AFC championship games in 1985 and 1992.

20. Dennis Green

Career: 1992-2001, 2004-06 (13 seasons)

Teams: Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals

Playoff games: 12

Playoff record: 4-8 (.333 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Lost his first four playoff appearances and went 0-2 in conference championship games.

20. Dennis Green

Bottom line: After going one and out in his first four trips to the postseason, Green finally notched a playoff win in 1997 and looked destined to go all the way the following season when his high-scoring Vikings cruised to a 15-1 regular-season record and looked unstoppable heading into the postseason.

But it was not to be as the Atlanta Falcons rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to prevail 30-27 in overtime.

Two years later, Green led the Vikings back to the NFC championship game. This time, it wasn’t even close as the New York Giants rolled 41-0.

19. Daryle Lamonica

Career: 1963-74 (12 seasons)

Teams: Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders

Playoff games: 13

Playoff record: 6-7 (.462 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 44.5 percent of his passes for 1,928 yards, 19 TDs and 10 interceptions. Sacked 14 times for 120 yards.

19. Daryle Lamonica

Bottom line: After quarterbacking the Raiders to a 33-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II, "The Mad Bomber" had a chance to return to the big game each of the next three seasons, but fate turned against him each time.

In the 1968 AFL Championship Game against Joe Namath and the New York Jets, Lamonica was leading the Raiders on a potential game-winning drive in the fourth quarter when his swing pass to Charlie Smith at the Jets’ 24-yard line was ruled a lateral and recovered by New York. The Jets held on for a 27-23 win and shocked the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

The next season, the Raiders were favored against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFL championship game after defeating them twice in the regular season, but an injury to Lamonica’s throwing hand in the third quarter proved pivotal in a 17-7 loss.

In 1970, Lamonica again was knocked out of the AFC championship game with an injury, and the Colts went on to a 27-17 win.

18. Bernie Kosar

Career: 1985-96 (12 seasons)

Teams: Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins

Playoff games: 10

Playoff record: 5-5 (.500 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 56.3 percent of his passes for 16 TDs and 10 interceptions. Sacked 15 times for 74 yards.

18. Bernie Kosar

Bottom line: After winning a national championship for the University of Miami in college in one of the greatest bowl games in history (the 1984 Orange Bowl), Bernie Kosar found himself on the wrong end of epic playoff games as a pro.

He led the Browns to three AFC championship games in four seasons but came up short against John Elway and the Denver Broncos each time, with "The Drive" and "The Fumble" games of 1986 and 1987 ranking among the most crushing playoff defeats in NFL history.

On the bright side, he did win a Super Bowl ring as a backup for the 1993 Dallas Cowboys.

17. Junior Seau

Career: 1990-2009 (20 seasons)

Team: San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots

Playoff games: 10

Playoff record: 5-5 (.500 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: 2 sacks, 1 interception

17. Junior Seau

Bottom line: Junior Seau ranks among the greatest players in the Super Bowl era not to win a ring, though he came very close in 2007 when the previously undefeated Patriots were stunned 17-14 by the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

His only other Super Bowl appearance came in 1994, when his San Diego Chargers were overwhelmed 49-26 by the San Francisco 49ers.

Of course, Seau’s playoff disappointments pale in comparison with his tragic death by suicide in 2012, an apparent victim of the brain disease CTE caused by the blows suffered during his NFL career.

16. Marv Levy

Career: 1978-81, 1986-97 (17 seasons)

Teams: Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills

Playoff games: 19

Playoff record: 11-8 (.579 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Won four of five AFC championship game appearances, including four in a row from 1990 to 1993.

16. Marv Levy

Bottom line: Marv Levy, Bud Grant and Dan Reeves are the only coaches in history to go 0-4 in Super Bowls.

After a crushing 20-19 loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXV, Levy’s Bills never came close to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in lopsided losses to the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys the following three seasons.

The Hall of Fame coach led the Bills back to the playoffs in 1995 and 1996 but never got another shot at Super Bowl redemption.

15. Barry Sanders

Career: 1989-98 (10 seasons)

Team: Detroit Lions

Playoff games: 6

Playoff record: 1-5 (.167 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Rushed for 386 yards and 1 TD, averaging 4.2 yards per carry

15. Barry Sanders

Bottom line: One of the greatest running backs in history, Barry Sanders had the misfortune of playing for one of the most snakebit franchises in history.

Lacking the supporting cast he needed to become a playoff legend, Sanders scored his only postseason touchdown in a 38-6 rout of the Cowboys in 1991, which was followed the next week by a 41-10 rout at the hands of the Washington Redskins in the NFC championship game.

While Emmitt Smith and the Cowboys went on to win three Super Bowls from 1992 to 1995, Sanders and the Lions floundered in the postseason, losing playoff games in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997.

14. Tony Gonzalez

Career: 1997-2013 (17 seasons)

Teams: Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Falcons

Playoff games: 7

Playoff record: 1-6 (.143 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Caught 30 passes for 286 yards and 4 TDs.

14. Tony Gonzalez

Bottom line: Sadly, the only playoff victory in this Hall of Famer’s career came in 2012, when he caught five passes for 76 yards and a score in the Falcons' thrilling 30-28 win over the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC divisional round.

His 10-yard touchdown reception the following week gave the Falcons a 24-14 lead over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game, but the Falcons couldn’t hold on as the 49ers rallied for a 28-24 win, ending Gonzalez’s last chance to play in a Super Bowl.

13. Dan Fouts

Career: 1973-87 (15 seasons)

Team: San Diego Chargers

Playoff games: 7

Playoff record: 3-4 (.433 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 55.6 percent of his passes for 2,125 yards, 12 TDs and 16 interceptions. Sacked 13 times for 95 yards.

13. Dan Fouts

Bottom line: A strong argument can be made for Dan Fouts as the greatest quarterback during the Super Bowl era never to make it to the big game.

Along with coach Don Coryell, he was as responsible as anyone for the advent of the high-powered passing game in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but "Air Coryell" was always grounded short of the Super Bowl.

Fouts led the Chargers to the AFC championship game in 1980 and 1981, and was a pivotal factor in one of the greatest playoff games in history (the Chargers' 41-38 overtime win over the Miami Dolphins in the 1981 divisional round).

But his final playoff performance was a disaster, as he threw five interceptions in a 34-13 loss to the Dolphins in the 1982 playoffs.

12. Chuck Knox

Career: 1973-94 (22 seasons)

Team: Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks

Playoff games: 18

Playoff record: 7-11 (.389 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Went 0-4 in conference championship games

12. Chuck Knox

Bottom line: Known for his "Ground Chuck" rushing attacks, Chuck Knox never seemed to have the quarterback he needed to get his playoff teams over the hump. He lost three consecutive NFC championship games from 1974 to 1976 to Fran Tarkenton- and Roger Staubach-led teams.

Knox had one more shot at a Super Bowl berth in 1983, when he led the Seahawks to the AFC championship game against the Los Angeles Raiders. After beating the Raiders twice during the regular season, Knox’s team was manhandled 30-14.

His teams failed to make the playoffs in the final six seasons of his coaching career.

11. Craig Morton

Career: 1965-82 (18 seasons)

Teams: Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Denver Broncos

Playoff games: 15

Playoff record: 7-8 (.467 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 40.1 percent of his passes for 1,235 yards, 9 TDs and 16 interceptions. Was sacked 20 times for 145 yards.

11. Craig Morton

Bottom line: Craig Morton could never escape the shadow of Roger Staubach, either in Dallas or Denver. After beating out Staubach for the starting quarterback job in 1969, Morton took the Cowboys to within a whisker of a Super Bowl title in 1970, when they lost to the Baltimore Colts.

The next year, Staubach assumed the reins and guided the team to its first Super Bowl title with Morton on the bench. Morton got a chance at redemption in 1972 when he led the team back to the NFC playoffs, but Staubach relieved him in the fourth quarter of a divisional round game against the San Francisco 49ers and engineered one of the greatest comebacks in history for a 30-28 win.

Morton found new life in Denver in 1977, but again it was Staubach who finished on top, leading the Cowboys to a 27-10 win over the Broncos in Super Bowl X while Morton was held to 39 yards passing and threw four interceptions.

10. George Allen

Career: 1966-77 (12 seasons)

Teams: Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins

Playoff games: 9

Playoff record: 2-7 (.222 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Won the only two playoff games of his career in 1972, outscoring the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys by a combined 42-6 in the NFC playoffs.

10. George Allen

Bottom line: George Allen’s career regular-season winning percentage of .712 ranks among the best of all time, but that success never translated to the postseason.

His only playoff success came in 1972, when the Redskins dominated the Packers and Cowboys before falling 14-7 to the undefeated Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VII.

Allen took the Rams or Redskins to the playoffs in six other seasons, but it was one and out each time.

9. Earl Campbell

Career: 1978-85 (8 seasons)

Teams: Houston Oilers, New Orleans Saints

Playoff games: 6

Playoff record: 3-3 (.500 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Rushed for 420 yards and 4 TDs, averaging 3.1 yards per carry

9. Earl Campbell

Bottom line: Earl Campbell was often an unstoppable force carrying the ball for the Oilers in the late 1970s, until he ran into the immovable object known as the "Steel Curtain" defense.

In AFC championship game losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1978 and 1979, Campbell was held to a combined 77 yards rushing on 39 carries (less than 2 yards per carry). The 1979 game was particularly putrid for "The Tyler Rose," as he was held to 15 yards rushing on 17 carries.

In his six playoff games, Campbell only topped the century mark in rushing once.

8. Fran Tarkenton

Career: 1961-68 (18 seasons)

Teams: Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants

Playoff games: 11

Playoff record: 6-5 (.545 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 51 percent of his passes for 1,803 yards, 11 TDs and 17 interceptions. Was sacked 20 times for 155 yards.

8. Fran Tarkenton

Bottom line: By many statistical measures, Fran Tarkenton was the top quarterback of the 1970s, but like his 1990s counterpart Jim Kelly, he will always be remembered for his Super Bowl failures. With Tarkenton at the helm, the Vikings lost three Super Bowls in four years.

His most crushing postseason moment, however, came in the 1975 NFC playoffs, when Roger Staubach’s "Hail Mary" in the final seconds cost Tarkenton and the Vikings a shot at a third consecutive Super Bowl appearance.

7. Thurman Thomas

Career: 1998-2000 (13 seasons)

Teams: Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins

Playoff games: 21

Playoff record: 11-10 (.524 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Rushed for 1,442 yards and 16 TDs, averaging 4.3 yards per carry.

7. Thurman Thomas

Bottom line: Just as Jim Kelly’s Hall of Fame quarterback career was overshadowed by the likes of Troy Aikman and Steve Young, Thurman Thomas’ Hall of Fame running back career was similarly eclipsed by Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders. And as with Kelly, a big reason was those four consecutive Super Bowl losses.

Thomas would have been a candidate for Super Bowl MVP in 1990 based on his 135-yard, one-touchdown rushing performance against the New York Giants, but the Bills came up one point short.

The 1991 NFL MVP, Thomas is remembered for the mishap at the start of that year’s Super Bowl when he couldn’t find his helmet and missed the Bills’ first two offensive plays. He finished the game with 10 rushes for an anemic 13 yards in the team’s 37-24 loss to the Washington Redskins.

6. Warren Moon

Career: 1984-2000 (17 seasons)

Teams: Houston Oilers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs

Playoff games: 10

Playoff record: 3-7 (.300 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 64.3 percent of his passes for 2,870 yards, 17 TDs and 14 interceptions. Sacked 24 times for 178 yards.

6. Warren Moon

Bottom line: Warren Moon was the quarterback on the wrong end of the greatest playoff comeback ever, when the Buffalo Bills rallied from a 35-3 deficit to win 41-38 in the 1992 AFC wild-card game.

Moon threw for 371 yards and four touchdowns that day, but Bills backup Frank Reich emerged as the hero.

Moon led the Oilers to the playoffs six other times during his career but never made it past the divisional round.

5. Danny White

Career: 1976-88 (13 seasons)

Team: Dallas Cowboys

Playoff games: 18

Playoff record: 10-8 (.556 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 57.2 percent of his passes for 2,284 yards, 15 TDs and 16 interceptions. Sacked 23 times for 202 yards.

5. Danny White

Bottom line: After taking over under center for beloved Hall of Famer Roger Staubach, Danny White weathered a string of playoff disappointments for "America’s Team," and is remembered as the Cowboys quarterback who couldn’t take his team all the way.

But he certainly came close, losing three consecutive NFC championship games from 1980 to 1982, including the 1981 heartbreaker to the San Francisco 49ers that became part of NFL lore with "The Catch" from Joe Montana to Dwight Clark.

Often forgotten is that White had the Cowboys on the march for the potential winning score in the final seconds before he fumbled away the ball on a sack (perhaps the most ill-fated sack and fumble in playoff history).

4. Jim Kelly

Career: 1986-96 (11 seasons)

Team: Buffalo Bills

Playoff games: 17

Playoff record: 9-8 (.529 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Completed 59 perccent of his passes for 3,863 yards, 21 touchdowns and 28 interceptions. Sacked 25 times for 168 yards.

4. Jim Kelly

Bottom line: Jim Kelly is the only quarterback in history to lose four consecutive Super Bowls (1990-93), which will always overshadow the fact he was also the only quarterback to win four consecutive conference championships.

The Hall of Famer’s Super Bowl performances were forgettable to put it mildly, as he threw only two touchdown passes (both in Super Bowl XXVI) while being picked off seven times.

3. Jackie Smith

Career: 1963-78 (16 seasons)

Teams: St. Louis Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys

Playoff games: 5

Playoff record: 2-3 (.400 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Caught five passes for 46 yards and 1 TD.

3. Jackie Smith

Bottom line: The tight end will always be remembered for the biggest drop in Super Bowl history. In the final game of his Hall of Fame career, Smith failed to hold on to a wide-open touchdown pass from Roger Staubach in the Cowboys' 35-31 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XIII.

No one knows if that one play would have changed the outcome, but Cowboys fans have never forgotten.

With the Cardinals earlier in his career, Smith managed only two catches for eight yards in playoff losses to the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams.

2. Marty Schottenheimer

Career: 1984-2006 (21 seasons)

Teams: Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers

Playoff games: 18

Playoff record: 5-13 (.278 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: Went 0-3 in conference championship games and lost final six playoff games he coached.

58. Marty Schottenheimer

Bottom line: Perhaps no coach in history suffered as many crushing playoff defeats with as many teams as Marty Schottenheimer, who never made it to a Super Bowl.

Topping the list of postseason heartbreaks were the losses to the Denver Broncos in 1986 ("The Drive" by John Elway) and 1987 ("The Fumble" by Earnest Byner) AFC championship games.

The final game of Schottenheimer’s coaching career, 20 years after "The Drive," also ended in heartbreak, when his top-seeded San Diego Chargers blew an eight-point fourth-quarter lead and were upset 24-21 by the New England Patriots in the 2006 divisional playoffs.

1. Marvin Lewis

Career: 2003-18 (16 seasons)

Team: Cincinnati Bengals

Playoff games: 7

Playoff record: 0-7 (.000 winning percentage)

Key playoff stats: His teams have been outscored 176-90 in seven playoff games.

1. Marvin Lewis

Bottom line: Marvin Lewis might as well be named Marvin Murphy with the luck he’s had in playoff games during his coaching career.

Starting with star quarterback Carson Palmer being knocked out with a knee injury on the first offensive series of Lewis’ first playoff game in 2005, pretty much everything that could go wrong for his Bengals in the postseason has.

Ten years and five more playoff losses later, Lewis’ Bengals fell again to the Steelers in the postseason, this time on a field goal with 14 seconds remaining to cap one of the uglier playoff games in memory, marred by personal fouls and vicious hits.

It’s one thing never to win the biggest of postseason games. It’s another never to win a playoff game at all.